Big 5 Animals in Akagera National Park

Akagera National park, is the only savanna park in Rwanda that hosts the big five animals namely Lion, Elephant, Buffalo, Rhinoceros and leopards. Apart from the Big 5 Animals in Akagera National Park, there are other animals like zebra, antelopes, and a big number of bird species. Akagera National Park is one of the largest protected wetlands and the last remaining protected area for savannah adapted species in Rwanda. The Akagera National park is rich in a biodiversity made of a protected fauna and flora as well as number of birds species in the East of the Country of a thousand hills as Rwanda is known of on the border with Tanzania.

The park is well known to attract visitors from all the corners of the world who mainly are searching for the big five animals. Though the big five animals in Akagera National Park are not the only attractions to attract tourists as there other destinations that are visited including the famous mountain gorillas in the Volcanoes National Park, chimpanzee and colobus monkeys in Nyungwe Natural forest, museums, art crafts centres and other protected areas, but Akagera offers a life time experience while exploring park and meeting wild animals in their wild accommodation. Visiting the big five animals in Akagera National park will reward you with an opportunity of seeing animals, testifying their behavior and their coexistence within the jungle.

Initially, Akagera national park did not have all the big 5 animals mainly due to the liberation of the country struggle that started in the same part of the park and the 1994 genocide against Tutsi. The big part of the park was distributed to the population as plots for cultivation and cattle keeping. This caused some animals to escape from the park to the neighboring country of Tanzania and others were victims of poaching activities. Recently the country has started a program of protecting the park and remaining animals and also brought back some other animals that were extinguished. These include lions brought from South Africa. The republic of Czech also supplied the Park with rhinoceros.

For the tourists interested in visiting the Big 5 Animals in Akagera National Park will have an opportunity of engaging him/herself in various activities within the park and out of the park within the community around the park. The principal activity in the Akagera National Park is the game drive. The game drive means driving inside the park in different corners meeting different animals from the southern part up to the northern part of the park. The game drive can be done during the day from 6:00 AM at the opening of the park until 6:00 PM at the closure of the park. It can also be performed during the night to spot mainly the nocturnal animals and night hunters like lions, leopard and hyena. This activity is only allowed to be performed by visitors who are sleeping in accommodations within the park. Three lodges exist within the Park within the range of mid-range accommodation namely Akagera Game Lodge and luxury accommodations namely Ruzizi tented lodge and Magashi tented lodge.

A boat trip in Lake Ihema is another activity performed in addition to spotting big five animals in Akagera National Park. It rewards you with a spot of early risers swallowing water on the bank of the lake. There are scheduled boat trips within the day starting with an early trip at 7:30AM, 09:00 AM, 3:00 PM and 4:30PM. Private boat trips are also organized at 4:00 PM. To spice up with the 5 big animals visit in Akagera National park, cultural activities as well as a walk the line around the park fence are organized. The cultural experiences are organized within the community around the park whereby visitors are able to gain insight into Rwandan culture and how Rwandans earn their lives. It gives visitors an engagement in activities such as cow milking, honey making, ironing, beer making and cooking. Walk the line is an activity by which visitors walk a distance of 7 kilometers around the park on the fence to see.

To sum up with a visit to see the Big 5 Animals in Akagera National Park, a hot air balloon safari. The recent introduced Balloon safaris in Akagera National Park give visitors an exciting new perspective of Akagera’s beautiful and unique landscapes by viewing the park and its surroundings, animals in the park and being able to move to places from all corners of the park that was not unreachable by safaris cars that were mainly following limited routes. A game drive to spot big five animals in Akagera National park is performed throughout the year and every day. To arrange your tour in Akagera National Park, you will need a tour operator to cater for all logistical details starting from designing an itinerary, booking park entrance and activities, arranging transportation as well as accommodation booking. Tour consultants at Unique Rwanda Vacation Experts are available to take into consideration every single detail to make sure that your visit to Akagera national Park in search of the big five animals is a memorable one.