Travel Guide Rubondo Island National Park

Created in 1977, 240 km2 of dry land on 450 km2, 45,000 ha, in the south of Lake Victoria, altitude 1,150 m. This national park consists of a main island 30 km long and 2 to 10 km wide, surrounded by several islets. The park's vegetation consists mainly of fairly dense forest, thanks to heavy rainfall during the rainy season, but also savannah, sparse woodland and swamps with a few reeds. The archipelago is rich in botanical species such as orchids. The park's main interest lies in the presence of a wide variety of animal species, in particular chimpanzees (there are thought to be around 40 on the island), but also sitatungas, an extraordinary antelope with webbed hooves, which lives in the swamps and is found nowhere else in Tanzania, apart from a few specimens sometimes seen in South Selous. Terrestrial species were transported to the island over many years: giraffes, elephants, rhinoceroses, colobus monkeys, porcupines, guibs, hippotragues... For this reason, it's nicknamed the floating zoo. Reintroductions have been more or less successful, as many were poached for lack of surveillance. Other indigenous species include hippopotamus, crocodile, vervet, mongoose, pythons (which can swallow a small antelope), mamba snakes, cobras, vipers, butterflies, and some 225 species of birds (many of them migratory): fish eagle, martial eagle, goliath heron, sacred ibis, kingfisher... There are no wildfowl on the island. The island is best visited on foot, escorted by an armed ranger. The rainy season (October to November and March to May) is the best time to admire the flora, but the dry season (June to September) is the most pleasant.