Travel Guide Murchison Falls National Park
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At 3,840 km², Murchison Falls National Park is the largest in the country. In the first half of the 1860s, the area was explored by a handful of Europeans, including Samuel Baker and his future wife, Florence, who were the first white people to discover the mighty falls, which they named Murchison Falls after the geologist and President of the Royal Geographical Society, Sir Roderick Murchison. Severely affected by trypanosomiasis at the beginning of the last century, the area was gradually emptied of its inhabitants. It was declared a game reserve in 1926 and elevated to the status of a national park in 1952. Bathed by the waters of the Victoria Nile flowing towards the ocean, it is traversed by large herds of antelopes, elephants and giraffes enjoying the roast forests, inhabited by hippos and crocodiles roaming in the riparian zone and frequented by primates in the forest part of the park. Now a totally secure area around Paraa, from which cruises to Murchison Falls and most game drives depart, the park has suffered almost uninterrupted torment from the mid-1960s to the mid-2000s: monstrous poaching, particularly of elephants, from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, and incursions by LRA rebels from the late 1980s to the mid-2000s. After these dark hours, life is thriving again in the park (seventy-six species of mammals and four hundred and fifty-one species of birds have been recorded) and tourism is flourishing. In addition to the image hunters - who will be stalking leopards, giraffes and some 2,700 elephants, 140 lions and 3,500 hippos - the park is attracting birdwatchers armed with binoculars looking for the rare river plovers, red-winged warblers and white-rumped serins, or the much sought-after African scissor-bill and haloed warbler. However, the issue of environmental protection remains, especially in the north-western part of the park, famous for its abundant wildlife, where oil permits have been issued by the government. The macadamization of the main trail and the proposed hydroelectric dam within the park are similarly raising serious concerns among conservationists and tourism stakeholders.
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