Murchison Falls National Park

Murchison Falls National Park (MFNP) is a national park in Uganda managed by the Ugandan Wildlife Authority. Located in north-western Uganda, it spreads inland from the shores of Lake Albert around the Victoria Nile up to the Karuma Falls.

The explorers John Speke and James Grant were the first Europeans to visit the present day MFCA in 1862. It was more thoroughly explored by Samuel and Florence Baker in 1863–4. Baker named the falls Murchison Falls after the geologist Roderick Murchison, then the president of the Royal Geographical Society.

Murchison Falls National Park is Uganda's largest national park with approximately 3,893 km2 (1,503 sq mi).[3] The park is bisected by the Victoria Nile from east to west for a distance of about 115 km (71 mi).

Since 2005, the protected area is considered a Lion Conservation Unit. In 2010, it was estimated that only 250 giraffes were in the park. A population of 37 Rothschild's giraffes was transferred from the north side of the Nile River to the south side in 2016 and 2017, when population was around 1,500. Murchison Falls National Park and the adjacent Bugondo Forest Reserve host 76 mammal species such as chimpanzees as well as Uganda's largest Nile crocodile population. There are 450 known bird species including the shoe-billed stork, dwarf kingfisher, Goliath heron, white-thighed hornbill and great blue turaco.