Dinder National Park

Dinder National Park
IUCN category II (national park)
Dinder National Park boundaries.
Coordinates	12°17′N 35°29′E / 12.29°N 35.48°E / 12.29; 35.48Coordinates: 12°17′N 35°29′E / 12.29°N 35.48°E / 12.29; 35.48
Area	10,000 km2 (3,900 sq mi)
Established	1935

Dinder National Park is a national park and biosphere reserve in eastern Sudan, on the Sudanese border with Ethiopia.

Dinder lies approximately 400 kilometers southeast of Khartoum, on either side of the Dinder River bounded to the north by the Rahad River.

The town of Dinder (100 kilometres (62 mi) northwest) acts as a gateway for tourists wishing to enter the Park.

The area of Dinder was heavily populated when it was first visited by Europeans in 1861. In the 1880s, at the time of the Mahdist War and a famine, the human population vanished. Alfred Harrison found only traces of human habitation in 1925. Dinder was established as a park in 1935 following the London Convention of 1933 and designated in 1979 as a member of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. In 1983 the park was extended 2,630 km² (1,020 sq mi) towards the west.

Dinder National Park is ecologically significant because it falls on the ecotone between the Sahel and Ethiopian Highlands ecoregions. It contains three distinct ecosystems:

The park is home to 27 species of large mammals such as Masai lions, African leopards, Sudan cheetahs, over 160 species of birds, 32 species of fish, and small mammals, bats, reptiles, and amphibians. It is in a major flyway used by birds migrating between Eurasia and Africa. There are many North African ostriches residing in the national park as well. In 2016, a population of lions, possibly ranging from about 73-146, were discovered in Dinder National Park by a team led by Oxford University's Hans Bauer.