Semuliki Forest National Park
Semuliki Forest National Park is one of Uganda's most important safari destination for bird watching and chimpanzee tracking tours. The 220km Semuliki National Park lies in the isolated Bundibugyo district, beyond the Rwenzori mountain on the floor of the Semliki section of the Albertine Rift Valley. This largely forested park represents the eastern most limit of the great Ituri Forest of the Congo Basin and contains numerous species associated with central rather than eastern Africa. Thatch huts are shaded by West African oil palms, the Semliki River (which forms the international boundary) is a miniature version of the Congo River, while the local population includes a Batwa (Pygmy) community that originated from the Ituri. As a result, a visit to Semuliki provides a taste of Central Africa just a couple of hours from the comforts of Fort Portal. .
Semuliki is one of Africa's most biodiverse forests and is particularly noted for its varied bird population. This biodiversity is enhanced by its great age, for it is one of Africa's most ancient forests. During the dry conditions of the last ice age, 12-18,000 years ago, most of Africa's forests shrank and disappeared. Only a few patches like Semuliki and Bwindi survived, protecting forest species during the arid apocalypse until they could eventually emerge to recolonise a better, wetter world. Today the Semuliki valley is a hothouse for vegetation growth, with temperatures rising to a humid 30°C doused by an annual 1250mm of rain, mostly between March-May and September-December.
While Semuliki's species have been evolving for over 25,000 years, the park contains evidence of even older processes.
Hot springs bubble up from the depths beneath Sempaya to demonstrate the powerful subterranean forces that have been shaping the rift valley during the last 14 million years.
The low lying park lies on the rift's sinking floor, most of it just 670m above sea level. Large areas may flood during the wet seasons; brief reminders of the time when the entire valley lay at the bottom of a lake for 7 million years.
The Semuliki Forest Reserve was created in 1932 when forest villages were evacuated as a measure to control sleeping sickness and yellow fever. The reserve was upgraded to national park status in 1993.
Flora and fauna
Classified as Moist Semi-Deciduous forest, Semuliki is the only tract of true lowland tropical forest in East Africa. The centre of the forest is dominated by Cynometra (Ironwood) but the edges are attractively varied, with riverine swamp forest along the Semliki River and beautiful mixed forest around Sempaya.
A spillover from the Ituri of the Congo basin, Semuliki contains 336 tree species. It also supports an exceptional variety of mammals, birds and butterflies. This is attributed to the forest's great age, its transitional location between central and eastern Africa, and to a variety of habitats, notably forest, swamp, and savannah woodland.
Birdlife is especially spectacular with 441 recorded species that represent 40% of Uganda's total of 1007. 216 of these are forest species - 66% of the country's forest birdlist - while the list is expanded by the riverine habitat and a fringe of grassland in the east of the park. There are numerous rarities.
46 Guinea-Congo biome species are found nowhere else in East Africa while another 35 can be seen in only 2-3 other places in Uganda. Five species are endemic to the Albertine Rift ecosystem.
The forest is home to 53 mammals, of which 27 are large mammals; duiker-sized and above, several are Central African species found nowhere else in East Africa. Forest elephant and forest buffalo are smaller versions of their savanna relatives. Hippos and crocodiles are found in the Semliki river while the forest is remarkably rich in primates.
Chimpanzee, black and white colobus, central African red colobus, blue monkey, red-tailed monkey, de Brazza's monkey, vervet monkey, grey-cheeked mangabey, baboon, and Dent's mona monkey are present. Nocturnal primates include potto and bush baby.
Local people
There are four ethnic groups living around the pari Bamba and Bakonjo are found in the valley and mo slopes respectively and are agriculturalists who pn cash crops such as coffee and cocoa while subsisti food crops that include bananas, rice and potatoes.
of the park, the rift valley plains are occupied by E pastoralists. The smallest group in the valley is a comr of Batwa (Pygmies). Traditionally, these were forest dv hunter gatherers originating from the Ituri. Their life s now changing due to interaction with other local comml and the impact of tourism, and the Batwa have migra the forest edge at Ntandi. They now support them by small scale cultivation and contributions from v tourists.
Sempaya Hot Springs
The Hot Springs at Sempaya are Semuliki's most fc attraction. Two main springs are set in a lush S\l\ clearing close to the south-eastern corner of the fore~ outer spring is just a few minutes walk from the Ser park office. This is dominated by a boiling geyser (1 which spurts up to 2m-high from a white, iced cake-likE of precipitated mineral. Water also bubbles in small p< which eggs can be cooked. The more distant inner spring is reached by a 30 minu that leads through beautiful palm forest before crossil swamp on a boardwalk. This spring is a broad, ste pool about 10m across.
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