Kibale Forest Butterfly Watching Safari
Kibale Forest National Park is one of the most recommended butterfly-watching destinations in Uganda. This is partly because several publications have been done on butterfly watching in Kibale Forest. Butterfly watching is one of the few activities in Uganda that is not very popular, given the amount of research and knowledge required to pull off such a trip. But with the right guide, Kibale Forest National Park offers one of the unique opportunities of encountering some of the rare yet unique butterfly species.
Currently, there are 214 documented butterfly species in Kibale forest but the easiest to find are fruit feeders, flower feeders, sap and animal dropping feeders. Therefore, the easiest way to go about butterfly watching in Kibale forest national park is focusing on the feeding patterns of the butterflies. Though this places huge restrictions given the fact that some butterfly feeding patterns are not well documented, you will have success when you go after this order. Butterflies’ feeding patterns vary based on their state. The caterpillars often have different feeding patterns from those of the fully formed butterflies.
Here are some of the butterflies to expect seeing in Kibale Forest National Park
Fruit Feeders
- Charaxes brutus
- Charaxes pollux
- Charaxes bipunctatus
- Charaxes castor
- Charaxes tiridates
- Charaxes numenes
- Charaxes smaragdalis
- Charaxes etesipe
- Charaxes zelica
- Charaxes paphianus
- Charaxes porthos
- Charaxes pleione
- Charaxes cynthia
Charaxes eudoxus
- Charaxes eudoxus
- Charaxes anticlea
- Charaxes protoclea
- Charaxes eupale
- Charaxes zoolina
- Charaxes kahldeni
- Charaxes candiope
- Charaxes fulvescens
- Charaxes varanes
- Charaxes achaemenes
- Bicyclus safitza
- Bicyclus anynana
- Bicyclus vulgaris
- Bicyclus sambulos
- Salamis cacta
Flower Feeders
- Eurema brigitta
- Catopsilia florella
- Acraea acerata
- Acraea epaea
- Junonia sophia
- Junonia oenone
- Hypolimnas misippus
- Eronia leda
- Danaus chrysippus
- Phalanta phalantha
- Precis octavia
- Graphium angolanus
- Papilio demodocus
Other Things To Do In Kibale Forest Besides Butterfly Tracking
Kibale forest is Uganda’s leading chimpanzee tracking destination. It is mainly a forested national park which means it does not offer game drives. There is a road that goes through the park but it is not for game drives. On this road, you will mainly encounter olive baboons. For the other wildlife species, you might have to pay for a forest walk. Unfortunately given the wild nature, there is no guarantee that you will see your desired animals.
Besides chimpanzee tracking and butterfly watching, birding watching is also a popular activity in Kibale. All these activities are more of a forest nature walk but with an opportunity to go off track. When someone pays for a nature walk in Kibale forest, they are taken on a forest in an already established trail. But when you are going for chimpanzee tracking, butterfly watching or birding; you will have to go off the beaten trails.
What is Need To Do Butterfly Watching In Kibale Forest
You need to get a pair of binoculars, and book in advance. As earlier stated, the butterfly tour guides are very limited in number. If you do not book in advance, there is a likelihood that you will not get the services of a butterfly tour guide, rather you will simply have a ranger walk with you in the forest.
It is possible to do a self drive butterfly safari to Kibale. 4x4uganda has a couple of clients who have done butterfly tours in Kibale by themselves. They booked in advance, arranged the tour guide before hand and by the time they reached the park, things were already prepared. The only challenge there is the tour guide being sick on the day you intend to go butterfly watching, in this case, they will offer you one of the juniors to go with you.
In conclusion, a self drive butterfly safari is doable in Kibale Forest national park. Whether you are a novice or an expert in butterfly watching, Kibale forest is highly recommended.
Previous Post