The park was proclaimed in 1950, making it Zambia’s oldest national park and one of the world’s most important natural heritage sites. As an essential water source for the region, Kafue is also one of the last vast expanses of the iconic Zambezian ecoregion – and home to elephant, large predators, the highest diversity of antelope species in Africa, and 515 bird species.
Kafue national park like any other national park in Zambia is well endowed with wildlife species with very common sightings of antelope to mention lechwe, pukus small herds of the common zebras, another great sightings are those of the blue wildebeests that show around the busanga plains in the month of June annually.During the dry season, when temperatures begin going up, the northern part of kafue national park usually experiences influx of kudus, bushbucks, elands, reedbucks, duikers, greyboks and defassa water bucks. The lions are also another sought after inhabitants in kafue national park usaully found close to the herds of he pukus and lechwes which serve as their meals. There several prides much as larger males are not common in the national park. The rivers at the Kafue national park also serve as homes to large schools of hippopotamus , crocodiles among others. Kafue rivers also acts as host for several herds of elephants, leopards are also common in the forest areas which serve as their hiding points. cheetahs are also seen in Kafue national park but seen in the northern part of the park, cape wild dogs and hyenas are also common in the park and frequently seen in the park.