Lochinvar is a park of exceptional beauty with outstanding birding opportunities with over 420 recorded species in it’s 260 square miles (428 km). The IUCN and WWF have designated the Kafue Flats a wetland of international importance. A sponsored management project for the area attempts to give local people an interest in conservation through both redistribution of tourist revenue and controlled harvesting of resources. The fishermen you may come across in the park are very much a part of this unique ecosystem and in many ways the humans and wildlife here are interdependent.
There are no dangerous animals in the park, apart from buffalo and visitors are encouraged to walk about. Lochinvar is well renowned as a superb bird sanctuary featuring many different waterfowl, raptors, woodland species and migrants. 428 species have been recorded. Hundreds of wattled cranes can be seen feeding on vegetable matter dug from the soft mud and the large marabou stork scavenging for stranded fish. Around Chunga Lagoon you’ll find the greater and lesser flamingo, the pink backed and white pelicans, African skimmer, Caspian tern, Baillon’s crake and the red knobbed coot. Many species of duck are abundant in this environment; the black duck, fulvous duck, whistling duck, pintail, garganey, southern pochard, pygmy goose, yellow billed duck and the Cape and European shovellers. Waders include avocet, the Mongolian, Caspian and Pacific golden plovers, whimbrel, turnstone, sanderling, little stint, spotted redshank, black tailed and bar tailed godwits and six species of sandpiper. Over 50 raptors occur including the black sparrowhawk, osprey, secretary bird, African cuckoo hawk and the peregrine falcon to name a few.
The park can be visited any time of year. Peak floods are reached in May at the end of the rainy season, while the water is at its lowest in October and November at the end of the dry season. The profusion of birds is extensive during the wet season when migrants arrive from the north. The animals are easier to spot in the dry season.
Country: Zambia
Park Size: 260 square miles – 428 sq. kilometers
Ecosystems: floodplains, woodlands, and termitaria
Wildlife: Kafue lechwe, blue wildebeest, kudu, oribi and buffalo. 428 bird species
When to go: Good all year round
Highlights: Game drives in open 4×4, night game drives, walking safaris, mokoro, canoeing, fishing, village visits