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This small national park is privately managed by The Kasanka Trust with profits going to the local community. It comprises a mosaic of forests, lakes, rivers and swamps, and has a very rich birdlife, including a number of Zambian ‘specials’.
Kasanka has achieved worldwide fame because of the extraordinary spectacle that happens in November and December, when up to 12 million straw-coloured fruit bats arrive to roost here. This is the world’s largest mammalian migration. At dusk, these large fruit bats pour out of a tiny patch of forest, swirling upwards and outwards as they head off to feed … before returning again at dawn. Visitors observe this incredible spectacle from scaffolding platforms. Kasanka is also probably the best place in the world to see the very shy swamp-loving sitatunga antelope – again observable from a special platform.
You can camp or stay at the simple and rustic Wasa Lodge.
Home of the world’s biggest mammal migration
The birdlife is more impressive, with more than 400 species found in the park. And it’s a pretty and tranquil park too, punctuated by swamplands, lagoons, rivers and dense forests. There are just 2 lodges in the park, and 3 basic but picturesque campsites, so you certainly won’t see a lot of traffic about the place.
But Kasanka’s primary draw card is the astonishing annual fruit bat migration that occurs roughly between late October and December. Somewhere between 5 and 10 million bats visit occupy a tiny 10 hectare area of the park and at sunrise and
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sunset you can watch them covering the skyline from one of the park’s tree hides. This is a truly strange and wonderful experience.I visited the park in peak bat season and even then we shared the tree hide with just one other couple and had the campsite entirely to ourselves.
Off the beaten track park famous for sitatunga and the astonishing bat migration
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us up a rickety step ladder to a hide in the tree canopy, from where it was a marvellous sight watching these chirping creatures sweeping from the branches and across the vast orange sky at sunset.Millions of bats in Kasanka National Park
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visited a hide overlooking a swampy area frequented by sitatunga. These shy creatures with splayed hooves live deep in wetland areas and they are notoriously hard to see. Not here – we saw about ten of them coming out in the open in the space of half an hour. Other wildlife regularly spotted includes crocodiles, hippos, pukus and baboons. This makes a visit to Kasanka a lovely bush experience, even outside bat season.Bats galore and a laidback atmosphere
If I could rate this park for uniqueness, I’d give it top marks. Kasanka is not a classic safari destination – you rarely see elephants, lions or other large, charismatic animals here. But every year, in November and December, one small patch of forest within the park hosts a fascinating natural phenomenon: the temporary residence of an enormous gathering of straw-colored fruit bats, numbering several million.
Watching clouds of bats leave the colony to feed at sunset is pretty impressive, but that’s nothing compared to the thrill of climbing into a treetop hide at dawn to see them return. To do this, you have to set off from your rudimentary accommodation while it’s still dark and trudge along muddy paths, but I think it’s well worth the trouble.
Visit Kasanka at other times of the year and there will be antelopes and birds to watch, but if you have any interest in small mammals you’ll find yourself wishing you’d come during the bat season.
Wilderness Without the Crowds
Kasanka is famous for its swampland, and in particular for the situtanga, a shy, semi-aquatic antelope. Gliding down the forest-shrouded Luwombwa River in a canoe, you’ll see crocodile, hippo, otters and rare blue monkeys. If you’re lucky, you may spot one of the small number of elephant.
Birders love it here. There are more than 400 species, including a diverse and visible range of water birds, and in November and December five million fruit bats visit the area, blanketing the skies. It’s the largest such gathering anywhere in the world.
When I last went to Kasanka we were the only visitors in
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the park and had the rustic Pontoon campsite, overlooking hippo and crocodile filled lake, completely to ourselves. A highlight was getting up early in the morning to visit Fibwe Hide. A 20 metre climb up a ladder took me to a wooden platform at the top of an old mahogany tree from where I watched the endless swamps spread out below me come slowly to life with the dawn.A Blizzard of Bats
Kasanka is a tiny park in northern Zambia that few people have heard about and even fewer visit. It has some lush river scenery, reasonable general game and a few elephants, as well as excellent birding, but it’s real claim to fame is bats! I also rolled my eyes when I heard this for the first time, but having been to Kasanka during late October and November when around 8 million straw-coloured fruit bats frequent the park, I can honestly say that this is a wildlife spectacle to rival the Mara-Serengeti wildebeest migration. As their numbers swell, the bats pack themselves into a tiny patch of just 10ha of swamp forest, occupying every branch on every tree. And, each dawn and dusk for six weeks, the sky is obscured by millions of bats on the wing, heading off or returning from a night of feeding on the regions prolific fruiting trees. It is an experience that cannot easily be reduced into words, but if you’ve seen the Big Five and want a wildlife experience that will quite literally blow you away, then Kasanka during bat season is the answer.
The world’s biggest mammal migration
The migration of up to 12 million straw-colored fruit bats to a small patch of forest in Kasanka is a seasonal affair dictated by local rainfall patterns. The first wave of arrivals usually takes place in early October, with numbers peaking over November, before the bats dissipate elsewhere towards the end of December.
We timed our visit for late October, by which time it was estimated that around 5 million bats were already in the park. We visited three of the different aerial-viewing platforms that have been erected close to the bat forest, and were privileged to watch countless thousands of these hefty flying mammals (wingspan 75cm) stream out of the canopy at dusk, then return again at dawn. It’s a truly mesmerizing and mind-boggling
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experience, one punctuated by occasional bouts of raptorial action as various eagles swoop down to catch a bat in flight.Kasanka is the only place in southern Africa where you can be almost certain of seeing the sitatunga, a semi-aquatic antelope associated with swamp interiors. From a strategically located viewing platform overlooking a swampy stretch of the Kasanka River, we saw at least a dozen sitatungas, including a couple of males, which resemble a larger, shaggier and longer-horned version of the widespread bushbuck.
When it comes to more conventional game viewing, Kasanka supports small populations of leopard, elephant, buffalo and sable antelope, but none of them are easily seen. By contrast, it's an exceptional bird-watching destination. Highlights included my only ever glimpse of the striking Anchieta’s tchagra in the swamp bordering the Kasanka River, as well as lesser jacana on the lake in front of the main lodge, and miombo woodland specials such as Arnot’s chat, pale-billed hornbill and racket-tailed roller.
Overall, Kasanka is a rather specialized park, one that's most likely to appeal to repeat safari-goers and bird-watchers looking for something different, except over mid-October to mid-December, when the phenomenal bat migration is present.