The Zika Forest is a tropical forest in Entebbe. Ziika means “overgrown” in the Luganda language. As the property of the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) of Entebbe, it is protected and restricted to scientific research.
The forest covers an area of about 25 hectares (62 acres) next to the swamps of Waiya Bay, an inlet of Lake Victoria. Easily accessible and combining several ecosystems, the Zika Forest is well suited to the study of mosquitoes. According to the UVRI, the size of the research area of the forest is about 30 acres. The forest has a rich biodiversity in plants and moths, and is home to about 40 types of mosquitoes.
The UVRI also maintains an insectarium.
The forest is also accessible to visitors for bird watching. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter once visited the forest for that purpose.
The Zika virus as well as the moths Sidisca zika and Milocera zika are named after the forest.
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Mac, 2016-07-03 at 6:01 PM
I was at Zika in Oct, 2015 for a forest walk, very cool, quiet, saw quite a number of birds too, I highly recommend anyone to visit and see where the Zika virus got its name from.