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The Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo covers an area of 790,000 hectares of land. It is a park in Africa with the largest diversity of habitats including mountains,steppes, savannas, lowland, swamps, forests, lava plains and volcanoes. The rare giant herbs and snowfields of Rwenzori which are more than 5,000m high can be seen in the park.
The Virunga National Park was founded in the year 1929 as an extension of the Albert National Park, which was the first national park in Africa established in 1925. The Park was included in the list of The World Heritage in Danger in 1994 after civil war in Rwanda. 1.5 - 2 million refugees entered the Kivu province which adversely affected the ecological balance of the area due to massive poaching and deforestation.
Some of the animals found in the Virunga National Park are elephant, Hippopotamus , Buffalo etc. The Virunga National Park is very rich in avifauna including weavers, herons, ibisis, egrets, shoebills, ospreys, bitterns, duck, geese, darters, cormorants, skimmers, openbills, gulls, francolins and warblers. Huge number of pelicans can be found on the lower Rutshuru river. The Lake Rutanzige in Virunga National Park is not very deep but it has many fish fauna, cichlid species, and invertebrates. Recently in the upper Semliki river crocodiles were spotted. Python, Green Mamba, blacknecked cobra are very common in the region.
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