Some of the best national parks in Africa are paradises for any traveler that likes to explore and who loves nature. There are an abundance of national parks in Africa. The following parks are popular among tourists for their natural beauty and their wildlife.
Serengeti National Park In Tanzania
This is the oldest national park in Tanzania and was first established back in 1951. This large park covers around 5,700 square miles. It features not only Savannah, but grasslands forests and woodlands as well. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and it receives close to 100,000 visitors every year.
Virunga National Park In The Democratic Republic Of Congo
This is the oldest national park in Africa and it was first established in 1925. It covers more than 3,000 square miles and was created in order to protect mountain gorillas. The park includes savannahs, forests and even active volcanoes. In 1979, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The park has deteriorated due a variety of reasons, such as poaching, but it is slowly starting to rebuild itself.
Maasai Mara National Reserve In Kenya
There are a variety of different animals to see here including rhinos and elephants. A popular event for tourists to take part in is the Great Migration that involves over 1 million wildebeest and thousands of other animals like zebras and gazelles, that migrate over from the Serengeti National Park July to October. It’s estimated that 150,000 people visit the national park each year just to see this migration.
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park In Uganda
This national park is home to a lot of endangered species as well as quite a few birds and over 160 different species of trees. Many tourists flock to the park to see the more than 300 wild gorilla that call the park home. About half of the world’s population of wild gorilla live here.
Kruger National Park In South Africa
This park was first established in 1898 as a game reserve. Today over 100 reptiles and 500 different types of birds live here. In additional to the diverse foliage found at the park, there are over 255 recorded archeological sites.
Etosha National Park, Namibia
At 5,000 km² pan, this is one of the world’s largest national parks. It’s located where an ancient inland sea used to be. A variety of animals call the park home as there are quite a few watering holes for them to enjoy. Animals include some of the tallest elephants in the world, black rhinos, lions, leopards and buffalo. The best times to see these animals is from April through October.
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