Elephant filming in Queen Elizabeth national park
Elephant filming in Queen Elizabeth national park: There has been an increase in the population of African elephants within Queen Elizabeth national park making it the best area for filming. The population of elephants in Queen Elizabeth national park increased from 2913 in 2015 to 3,953 in 2018 according to a survey done by Uganda wildlife authority. As of 2022, we don’t know the population yet but we guess it increased due to increased birth rates.
Queen Elizabeth national park is one of the few national parks in western Uganda that offer the best elephant filming activities. Queen Elizabeth is a savannah national park that gives tourists an opportunity to produce good quality filming and elephant documentaries. Filming in Queen Elizabeth national park is done in all park sectors which are Mweya, Kasenyi and Ishasha sector.
The best filming area for elephants in Queen Elizabeth national park would be the areas of Kazinga channel during the dry season. These areas tend to have good vegetation cover from the rest of the park areas and plenty of water for animals so elephants tend to concentrate here looking for green pasture and water.
What does it take to do elephant filming in Queen Elizabeth national park?
For anybody to film the African elephants in Queen Elizabeth national park, they must have a filming permit from Uganda Wildlife Authority. The Uganda wildlife authority is a government body that governs and controls all park activities therefore they are supposed to give you a ticket to allow you film the African elephants. Another thing needed to film elephants in Queen Elizabeth national park is the media card. This is got from the Uganda media council allowing you to film the elephants.
The elephant filming exercise in Queen Elizabeth national park
Elephants in Queen Elizabeth national park can be seen at any time of the day as they keep roaming around the park. For the elephant filming activity, the best time is the morning when they have woken up to start looking for what to eat. There you will see as many elephants as they can compared to afternoon hours when they are resting after eating.
Land cruises and super customers 4-wheel drive are the best safari vehicles to use during the elephant filming exercise because they give the best views. The elephant filming starts with a game drive through different areas of the park where tourists look for where these largest territorial animals could be. Elephants are seen everywhere in the park but those that want to film will look for where the largest groups could be.
When the elephants are found, tourists pull out their filming equipment and start to record them for a period of time. Elephant filming is really interesting because the filming crew gets to learn different things about the elephants at the same time recording. Tourists will watch them do daily activities like searching for food, feeding, playing, coupling, and resting among others.
Encounter Elephant herds in Queen Elizabeth National Park
Queen Elizabeth national park is home to 95 mammal species among which include the big 4 mammals. The protected area is also home to 10 primate species including the chimpanzees of Kyambura and is home to 612 bird species. With all these species of wildlife, there is a lot to film within the park apart from elephants. Tourists can film the lions, leopards, banded mongooses, hippos, and birds for example the rare shoebill stork to mention but a few.
Best time to film elephants in Queen Elizabeth national park?
Tourists can film elephants in Queen Elizabeth national park at any time of the year however some months are better than the rest. The dry months from June to September and December to February are the best time to film elephants and this is because there is little or no rainfall in the park to spoil the filming equipment, vegetation I short and thin with good views of the elephants, and the game tracks are dry making accessing to the park areas easy.
Tourists can still film elephants during the rainy season from March to May and October to November however this favors budget travelers as the lodges are at a discount. The benefit of filming elephants in Queen Elizabeth national park during the rainy season is that the background is very good as the vegetation is so green. The rainy season isn’t a good time because of the plenty of rainfall, thick vegetation cover, and muddy game tracks.
Accommodation in Queen Elizabeth national park
Queen Elizabeth national park has a variety of accommodation facilities which range from budget to mid-range to luxury options where tourists on elephant filming safari can stay for a night or more. Accommodation in Queen Elizabeth park include Ishasha Wilderness Camp, Mweya Safari Lodge, Kyambura Gorge, Katara Lodge, Kikoringo Safari Lodge, Engiri Game Lodge, Enjovu Lodge, Enjojo Lodge, Park View Safari Lodge, and Buffalo Lodge among others.
Accessing Queen Elizabeth national park for elephant filming
Queen Elizabeth national park can be accessed for elephant filming at any time of the year using road transport and air transport.
Accessing Queen Elizabeth national park by road transport, tourists can access Queen Elizabeth national park for elephant filming using two routes. There is a route from Kampala/Entebbe via Masaka, Mbarara, Bushenyi, and Rubirizi to the southern section of the park. The second route is from Kampala via Mubende, Fort Portal, and Kasese to the park.
Accessing Queen Elizabeth national park by air transport, tourists that are visiting Queen Elizabeth national park for filming can use chattered flights by Aerolink Uganda and Bar Aviation Uganda. These airline companies have daily flights to Queen Elizabeth national park from Kajjansi airstrip and Entebbe international airport to Mweya airstrip with in the park or Kasese airstrip.
