Lion Tracking in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda

Following collared lions by radio telemetry with carnivore researchers on the Kasenyi plains, the only lion tracking permit sold in Uganda.

0 Tours Available

Lion tracking runs in one Ugandan park. A small group joins a carnivore researcher in a vehicle on the Kasenyi plains at first light, following the radio signal from a collared lioness until the pride is found. The vehicle may leave the track, which an ordinary game drive may not. It is research work opened to paying visitors, and the population it monitors is falling.

A Guide to Lion Tracking in Uganda

Researched and written in house. No operator contributed to this guide or paid to appear in it.

Lion Tracking in Queen Elizabeth: What the Experience Is

Lion tracking in Uganda runs in one park only. It is an experiential tourism permit at Queen Elizabeth National Park that puts a small number of visitors in a vehicle with a carnivore researcher, who holds a radio aerial out of the window and follows the signal from a collared lioness across the Kasenyi plains until the pride is found.

It is a research drive opened to paying guests, not a premium game drive with a better guide. The difference shows in everything from the start time to where the vehicle may go.

How the Telemetry Tracking Safari Works at Dawn in Kasenyi

Sessions run twice a day, early morning and late afternoon, the morning one starting around first light. It happens at Kasenyi in the northern sector near Mweya: open grassland carrying a heavy population of Uganda kob, which is what holds the lions there.

Dominant lionesses in several prides wear collars fitted by the Uganda Carnivore Program, which runs the monitoring alongside park staff. A handheld VHF receiver picks up the collar pulse, and its strength and direction tell the researcher which way to drive. You will hear it: a flat electronic beep that quickens as you close in.

Finding the pride is the start, not the end. The team records who is present, the condition of each animal, whether cubs have survived since the last check. Visitors get a share of that, usually identifying individuals by whisker spot patterns and ear notches, which is harder than it sounds.

How a lion tracking session typically runs.

Meet before light. Morning sessions assemble at the park offices near Mweya in the dark, after a short briefing on rules, distance and the day's data.

Pick up the signal. The researcher works the aerial from the vehicle, turning it through the compass until the beep sharpens. This can take minutes or it can take an hour.

Drive off the track. Once a bearing is fixed the vehicle leaves the graded road, allowed for this activity and banned on an ordinary game drive.

Work the pride. Identification, body condition, cub counts and behaviour notes, usually from a stationary vehicle at a set distance with the engine off.

Finish mid morning. Two to three hours is normal. Some sessions run longer if a collar is silent and the team has to widen the search.

Why the Tracking Trip Is Not a Game Drive

Three things separate it from a standard game drive. The vehicle may leave the track. The people in it are working, not guiding. The target is one known animal, not whatever the morning offers.

That last point cuts both ways. Sighting rates are high, since you home in on a signal rather than searching, and a collared lioness usually has a pride around her. What you give up is variety. Nobody stops for a hundred elephant on a tracking session.

That off road permission is also why the activity draws criticism. Driving through grassland disturbs it, and an idling vehicle near a resting pride is not nothing. The counterargument is that the money funds the same monitoring that finds snares and records losses. Both are true at once.

The Lions You Are Tracking, and How Few Are Left

Here the activity stops being a wildlife outing and turns into something sharper. Uganda's lions are in serious decline, and Queen Elizabeth is the clearest case in the country.

The most recent national carnivore survey, a camera trap and identification exercise covering the main parks, put Queen Elizabeth at around 39 individual lions across roughly 2,400 square kilometres, a fall of more than forty percent against the previous count. The same survey found Murchison Falls holding by far the largest population, with figures around 240, and Kidepo Valley reduced to about a dozen.

Those numbers are not universally agreed. The Uganda Carnivore Program, whose researchers run the tracking, puts the northern population higher, around fifty to sixty five animals, with no more than twenty in Ishasha. Different methods, boundaries and fieldwork years. The honest summary: somewhere between about forty and sixty five in the north, and falling.

What the sources say, and where they disagree.

The national survey. Around 39 lions across about 2,400 square kilometres, more than forty percent down on the previous count, from camera traps and individual identification.

The research programme on the ground. Roughly fifty to sixty five in the northern sector alone, and under twenty in Ishasha, from continuous monitoring of known prides.

Where they agree. Both describe a long decline. Older figures ran into the hundreds and nobody disputes those animals are gone.

What kills them. Wire snares set for meat, and poisoning in reprisal after livestock losses at the park edge. Neither is about trophy hunting.

What is rising. Spotted hyena numbers appear to be holding or climbing in the same park, which is consistent with reduced competition from lions.

Ishasha, the Tree Climbing Lions and a Separate Problem

Most visitors arrive wanting the tree climbing lions of Ishasha, in the far south of the same park. The behaviour is real and genuinely unusual. It is also very nearly gone: reports from the sector describe the resident population reduced to a handful of animals, with as few as two adult females at one point.

Lion tracking does not run in Ishasha. The permit and the research vehicle work the north. Anyone offering tracking in a fig tree is selling a game drive with a hopeful name. Going anyway is still reasonable, as long as nobody builds your trip on the promise of a lion in a tree.

What the Lion Tracking Experience Asks of You

Physically, very little. You sit in a vehicle. It asks for an early alarm, tolerance of a bumpy hour off track, and patience when the signal goes quiet.

Otherwise it asks that you accept the terms. Numbers per session are capped, the researcher sets the distance, and nobody negotiates a closer position for a photograph. A long lens matters more here than on almost any other Ugandan activity.

Practical detail before you commit.

Prior booking is required. The park runs this on advance booking only and places are limited. It is not something to arrange at the gate on the morning.

You need a vehicle. The permit does not include one. Either the research vehicle takes you at an extra charge or your own safari vehicle is used, and your operator needs to confirm which.

Extra lines on the bill. A community fee and a vehicle fee sit outside the tracking fee, with park entrance separate again. Ask for the full total.

Best months. Drier stretches make the black cotton soil of Kasenyi passable and the grass shorter. Wet months make both harder.

Pair it with the north. Mweya, the Kazinga channel and the crater drive all sit near the same base, so a session fits a morning without reshaping the day.

Booking, Timing and Fitting the Tracking Trip Into a Route

Queen Elizabeth sits on the western circuit between Kibale and Bwindi, so almost every gorilla and chimpanzee trip passes through. One night at Mweya buys a morning session and an afternoon on the channel; two nights lets you retry if the first morning is rained off. A night game drive is the natural companion, being the other way to see predators here. Our guide to how many days you need sets out the circuit.

Frequently Asked Questions About Lion Tracking in Uganda

How much does lion tracking cost in Queen Elizabeth? The national conservation tariff puts lion predator tracking at USD 200 for a foreign non resident and USD 150 for a foreign resident, with UGX 200,000 for East Africans. That figure excludes a USD 10 community fee and a vehicle fee, and park entrance at Queen Elizabeth is a further USD 40 per person per day. It is the most expensive non primate activity in the Ugandan tariff, and the price funds conservation work alongside buying you a morning.

Am I guaranteed to see lions? No, and be wary of anyone who says otherwise. Collars lift the odds well above a normal game drive, but batteries die, animals move out of range and signals bounce. Most sessions find their pride. Not all.

Is it ethical to pay to track a collared animal? A fair question, and worth putting to your operator. In favour: the fee funds the monitoring programme that collars the animals, finds snares and works with communities on livestock losses. Against: vehicles driving off track towards a known pride add disturbance to a pressured population. Decide with both in view.

Can children join a lion tracking session? Policies vary and the research team caps numbers per vehicle, so ask early. The session is long, quiet and early, which suits older children and rarely young ones.

Where else in Uganda can I track lions? Nowhere. Queen Elizabeth is the only park running it. Murchison Falls holds far more lions but sells no tracking permit, and Kidepo's tiny population is not set up for it. Both remain good parks for lions on an ordinary game drive.

Morning or afternoon session? Morning, if only one. Lions are more active at dawn, the light is better, and the heat has not yet pushed prides into thick cover.

Lion tracking permits and the wider Queen Elizabeth route are handled by independent Ugandan tour operators, who book the session, sort the vehicle and confirm the fees around it. Send your dates through the enquiry form and an operator will quote directly. We take no booking and charge you nothing.