Gambella National Park, also spelled Gambela National Park, is a large national park in Ethiopia. It covers an area of 5,016 square kilometers (1,937 square miles) and is the country's largest national park. The park is located several hundred kilometers away from Addis Ababa. It was created in 1974. However, it has not been fully protected or properly managed for most of its history.
History
Gambella was set up between 1974 and 1975 to protect the home and animals of wildlife, especially two types of antelope called the Nile lechwe and white-eared kob, which were believed to be in danger of disappearing at the time. Animal numbers in the park have decreased because of farming, hunting, stealing animals for illegal trade, and the building of refugee camps. This decline happened especially after the famine in Ethiopia from 1983 to 1985 and because of Sudanese people who had to leave their homes.
In 2012, Bantayehu Wasyihun, who led the park's office, said work was being done to make Gambella more welcoming to visitors. The park management group African Parks and the Horn of Africa Research Centre at Addis Ababa University helped park officials create plans to make the park safer and better organized.
Fauna and flora
Gambella National Park has one of the highest numbers of wildlife in Ethiopia. Sixty-nine types of mammals live in the protected area, including the African elephant, African buffalo, bushpig, common warthog, Nubian giraffe, hippopotamus, Nile lechwe, tiang, waterbuck, cheetah, leopard, lion, mantled guereza, olive baboon, patas monkey, and spotted hyena.
The park also has herds of Bohor reedbuck, bushbuck, Lelwel hartebeest, oribi, reedbuck, roan antelope, and white-eared kob. The world’s largest annual animal migration, called the Great Nile Migration Landscape, happens when many antelope species, such as Bohor reedbuck, tiang, and white-eared kob, move between South Sudan’s Bandingilo National Park and Boma National Park into Gambella National Park. The white-eared kob migration is Africa’s largest movement of land animals.
In 2015, African Parks and the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority counted the park’s giraffe population for the first time. They estimated there were between 100 and 120 giraffes. The giraffes in Gambella belong to the Nubian subspecies. In 2005, the IUCN labeled the protected area as a "lion conservation unit."
Three hundred twenty-seven bird species, including seasonal migrants, have been recorded in the park. These include the African skimmer, black-faced firefinch, Carmine bee-eater, cisticolas, crowned cranes, Egyptian plover, exclamatory paradise whydah, African green bee-eater, pelicans, about 40 types of raptors, red-necked buzzard, red-throated bee-eater, storks, warblers, and vultures.
Plant species along the Akobo and Baro rivers include Acacia victoriae, Arundo donax, and temba (Pennisetum petiolare). Invasive plants such as Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth) and shenkorageda (Saccharum officinarum) have also been found in the area.