Rubondo Island National Park

Overview

Rubondo Island National Park is located on the southwestern corner of Lake Victoria in Geita region west of Mwanza. The park covers 456.8 km2 of which 236.8 km2 is dry land and 220 km2 is water comprising of 11 small islets of varying sizes hence protects fish breeding grounds. It is one of only two Tanzanian national parks located on an island in Lake Victoria, the world’s second-largest lake.
The park was officially gazetted as National Park in 1977 and 90% of the island is currently covered in forest because it is uninhabited. It is an important breeding ground for both migratory bird and fish species especially Tilapia and Nile perch as for a long time it stood to be the only area in the waters of Lake Victoria which was well protected and preserved.
Rubondo is covered by a dense forest thus providing a variety of habitats for native wildlife such as Sitatunga, bush bucks, hippos, velvet monkeys, genet cats, crocodiles and bush pigs to mention a few sharing the same ecological niche with the introduced species such as chimpanzees, elephants, giraffes, black and white colobus monkeys, suni and African grey parrots.

Things to see in Rubondo Island National Park

• Wild animals
• Variety of water birds, Eurasian migrants and introduced African grey parrots
• Lake Victoria and Beautiful beaches such as Fly catcher, Mchangani and Michicoco
• Forests
• Reptiles
• Cultural sacred sites such as “Ntungamirwe”, “Maji Matakatifu”, “Altare” and “Solo” which explain the life of natives who once stayed in the park
• “Birds Islands”, breeding sit for water birds
• Crocodile Island

Things to do in Rubondo Island National Park

• Bird watching
• Game drive
• Boating excursion
• Canoeing
• Walking safari
• Chimpanzee trek
• Sport Fishing