Gambella National Park

One of Ethiopia’s least developed parks and few visitors, Gambella National Park is located on the Akobo River system. It was originally created for the protection of extensive swamp habitat and the wildlife there.
The park is 5060 square kilometers in area, and its altitude ranges between 400 and 768 meters. Rainfall is 1500 mm a year, falling between April and October. Temperatures are high. The vegetation here is mainly grassland and Terminalia. Combretum wooded grassland, with extensive areas of swamp.
The Park contains forty-one species, many representative of neighbouring Sudan and not found else where in Ethiopia, such as Nile lechwe and the white-eared kob, the latter migrating in the large numbers: Roan antelope, topi, elephant, buffalo, lelwel, heartebeest, lion, and giraffe are also present. The most important of the 154 bird species present here is the whale-headed stork, an unusual large-billed, tall bird seen standing in the swamps.