​Kafue National Park

Kafue National Park is Zambia's oldest and largest park and is the second largest in the whole of Africa. Named after the river that flows through it, the park stretches across three of Zambia's provinces, North Western, Central and Southern. 

The wildlife within Kafue National Park is varied. Large pod of hippo will be found within the river, along with some of the largest crocodiles in southern Africa. Elephants are common, especially near the waters of the river and Lake Itezhi-tezhi. The forested areas of the park host many leopards. Antelopes, zebra, and wildebeest can be found on the plains, and the bush environments host kudu, elands and waterbucks. In the north of the park cheetah are thriving.  The wide range of habitats also make the park fantastic for birdlife. 

Located in the centre of western Zambia, Kafue National Park is the oldest and largest of Zambia’s national parks. It covers a massive 22,400 km2. Despite its size and prominent location only two hours drive from Livingstone, it remains little-known and largely unexplored with vast areas of virgin bush still untouched.

First established as a National Park in the 1950’s by the legendary Norman Carr, Kafue is one of the largest national parks in the whole of Africa and holds a fantastic diversity of wildlife such as blue and yellow-backed duiker, sitatunga and lechwe in the swamp areas, roan, sable and hartebeest in the woodland. The Kafue is one of the few places that have a viable population of cheetah and African wild dog in Zambia together with huge numbers of hippo and some of the biggest crocodiles ever recorded. The list goes on and in fact stops only at 158 recorded species of mammal.

The Kafue is not about the sheer numbers of wildlife you see, it is about the diversity of wildlife you see. This is not to say the Kafue does not have healthy populations of many of the more charismatic species of animals, because it does, but if you are looking for the ‘Big 5 in 24 hours’ experience then you will miss the point of this special place. There are few parks in Africa in which sightings of more unusual species are possible: pangolin, bushpig, spring hare, monitor lizards, aardvark, numerous mongoose species to name but a few.