Two Elephants killed in Semliki wildlife reserve
Poachers who crossed to Toro-Semliki wildlife reserve in western Uganda from Congo killed two elephants.
Sources said one of the poachers was intercepted with elephant ivory and was being held by the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces. The sources added that the elephants were butchered on Wednesday and the carcasses were discovered the following day.
“It is unusual for poachers to cross over from the DR Congo and kill endangered species undetected,” the source said.
Contrary to the statement, the acting head of the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) John Makombo, in a separate interview said the poacher who is being held is a Ugandan from Ntoroko and not a Congolese.
“UWA is working with security operatives to identify the ownership of the gun recovered from the poacher,” he said. “It is possible that he was working for someone from Congo which has a porous border. Many poachers prefer working in Congo and use Uganda as a trafficking route.”
He also said UWA will share information with a watchdog called the Monitoring of the Illegal Killing of Elephants and the Lusaka Task Agreement Force, which polices wildlife crime. Uganda has 5,000 elephants and the number is increasing after the population had slumped in the 1970s due to political and civil unrest.
Poachers killed a lot of wildlife including elephants, which are key tourist attractions. The black and white rhinos were driven into extinction and few year back have been re introduced to Uganda at Ziiwa sanctuary.
Elephants are categorised as endangered species, according to the World Conservation Union, meaning that they are likely to disappear if nothing is done to protect them and their habitats. Locally, a kilo of ivory goes for sh120, 000. The value in the Far East is about $600.
Although last week’s incident is the first case of killing elephants in Semliki, elephants in Queen Elizabeth National Park cross over to Congo.
“This is an ecological system and that is why Uganda and the DR Congo collaborate in managing the animals,” said Okello Obongo, the chief park warden.
“Large mammals do not know boundaries and the most important thing is to protect them irrespective of where they are,” said Obongo.
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More Top Uganda Wildlife Authority Bosses Suspended
Three more top officials at the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) have been suspended to pave way for an audit report.
Eunice Mahoro, the director of tourism development, Joseph Tibaijuka, the acting executive director, and Olive Kyampaire, the partnership coordinator. This brings to five the number of UWA officials on suspension.
Moses Mapesa, the executive director, and Sam Mwandha, the director for conservation, were sent on forced leave earlier this week. Two others resigned last month.
Asked why he was sending Tibaijuka away days after naming him acting executive director, Dr. Boysier Ouma Muballe, the UWA chairperson, said: "Tibaijuka is the director of finance and it was not appropriate for him to be there acting as the executive director." "We had to send him away until investigations are over in the next three to four weeks. This could be followed by a commission of inquiry. The audit report will guide us on what steps to take," Muballe added.
He named Mark Kamanzi as the new acting executive director. Muballe vowed that no stone would be left unturned until what he described as chaos at UWA is sorted out.
He said he had camped at Uganda Wildlife Authority for the last two months to ensure that the organisation is run efficiently. Muballe noted that UWA had been hit by irregular creation of departments and mismanagement of funds, among other problems.
However, sources within UWA said confusion and tension had crept into the authority as staff at the headquarters fear that they might also be affected. The sources added that Muballe's intervention had created more problems than it was intended to solve. UWA was set up by the wildlife Act in 1996 and manages 10 national parks, 12 wildlife reserves and 14 wildlife sanctuaries, covering 10% of the country.
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Black back attack kills an Infant
The absentee of the dominant silverback Isabukuru in a gorilla group, gave a chance to black back Kubaha to attack the group members in which a seven-month-old infant Agatako was killed, while his mother Bukima, who was carrying him. Kubaha was aggressive all morning towards all the females in his group.
“Most of the time, Kubaha displayed with chest beats and plant smashing and was tight-lipped and strut-standing towards group members. He was obviously nervous and uptight,” said Joel Glick, the Karisoke Research Center’s interim Gorilla Program coordinator, who was collecting data in Isabukuru’s group at the time.
It is unclear whether Kubaha, who is 11 years old and has not yet reached sexual maturity, was nervous about having to lead the females, or whether he was trying to attract their attention by showing off his strength, or both.
With tension mounting and females occasionally responding to his aggressions with gestures of appeasement or aggression, Kubaha launched a fierce attack against Bukima, who was behind a thick bush on the edge of the mountain. Her loud screams alerted the other females, who ran towards Kubaha. It was then, at noon, that Agatako, who was clinging to his mother, lost his life. However, the view was obscured for observers, so they could not establish beyond any doubt whether Kubaha directly targeted him, or whether he died in the interaction between the aggressor and his mother. Neither Bukima nor the other females sustained any injuries.
By the time Glick reached the group at the bottom of the mountain, just four minutes after Kubaha’s attack, Bukima was carrying her dead infant away from the other gorillas. His tiny body was covered in blood. When she finally laid him on the ground, every individual in the group approached him with curiosity. Bukima paced nervously, as though trying to decide whether to look for Isabukuru’s trail or watch over her dead infant.
This would not, however, be the end of the drama for the day. Kubaha next approached the dead body and started to display with it, as some of the females screamed.
“It was absolutely horrible,” said Glick, visibly shaken. “Kubaha flung the body in the air several times, let it drop to the ground, and then dragged it all over the place. He even chest-beat while holding the body in one hand. There was blood everywhere.”
This lasted for 15 minutes, after which Kubaha finally set down Agatako’s body. It was later recovered by the veterinarians, whose preliminary report indicated “deep puncture wounds,” most likely from canine teeth. This would indicate that Kubaha indeed bit Agatako.
A short while afterward, silverback Isabukuru returned to the gorilla group, unaware of what had happened in his absence. He had spent the morning some 600 meters away, trailing another gorilla group in the vicinity, according to the trackers who followed him. He stared in the direction he had come from and displayed three times, and then all was quiet, with no further aggressions.
Isabukuru himself was responsible for the only other case of presumed intra-group infanticide ever recorded when he was still a black back in Pablo’s group, in December 2006. Soon after he killed one Infant there, he left together with a few females and started the new group that is named after him.
Agatako was born on January 26. He was healthy, and Bukima was taking good care of him. He received his name - which means “ornament” in the local Kinyarwandan language - during the Kwita Izina ceremony last month. He was Bukima’s third offspring. Her previous infants all died as well.
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Tourists and workers would need 1 visa for 5 East African countries
The Five East African nations want to collapse their borders so that foreigners will need only one visa to travel to any of the five nations.
The proposal is part of an effort to forge Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania into a single market and increase investment in the region said the Kenya Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang.
Negotiations are at an advanced stage, he added. The European Union's 25-nation zone of open frontiers is being used as a model, and negotiations will conclude soon.
Citizens of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda do not need visas to travel within their economic bloc, the East African Community, which on Thursday officially began operating as a single market with one set of regulations. Each country, however, still has to change a wide range of laws including labor, taxation and immigration to conform to the protocol.
On Friday, Kenya waived all work permit requirements for East Africans, who will only need to register with the immigration department as a formality, Kajwang said.
"We want to show by example that what we have agreed on we are implementing, and this will create a lot of goodwill," Kajwang said. He noted that Rwanda in late 2007 eliminated work permit requirements for all citizens of the community.
He cautioned, however, that there are still difficulties ahead in fully implementing the East African Community's Common Market Protocol, such as resistance from bureaucrats. It took five years to negotiate the protocol and at times talks stalled because of fears that individual countries would lose their sovereignty or that Kenya's better established businesses would dominate the region.
If all goes as planed, there will be easy movement of Tourists with in the East Africa Region, leading to the development of the Tourism Industry in the Region.
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Queen Elizabeth National Park Loses 5 Lions to Poison
About 5 lions and 16 vultures in the Queen Elizabeth National Park have died of suspected poisoning.
The carcasses of three lionesses and two males, formerly part of a pride of about 10, along the Kasenyi track, were discovered about a kilometers from Hamukungu fish landing site on Wednesday and one of the lionesses was pregnant, said Nelson Guma the acting Warden.
Guma expressed the fear that more lions and wild animals like hyenas, which feed on dead animals, could also be dead.
Usually local people complain of the wild animals eating their domestic animals, but Guma said there had been no such case in the recent past.
“It is unfortunate that people with bad hearts poison the lions and end up killing more animals than intended,” he said.
Reports said two people were arrested near the area where the lions were killed. The animals reportedly killed and ate six head of cattle two months ago and Guma would investigate the claims.
Rangers yesterday retrieved the carcasses of the lions from the wilderness for examination. They also recovered two dead head of cattle and two cow skins. A swarm of dead green flies littered the area, indicating possible poisoning.
The Uganda Wildlife Authority’s Veterinary doctor, Dr. Margaret Drachiru, who took samples for testing, said the animals could have died on Sunday and the two heads of cattle were not killed by the lions, but were slaughtered and placed there to trap the cats.
According to Guma, lions are the biggest tourist attraction in the Queen Elizabeth National Park.
The dead lions were the ones which tourists were sure to see at the park, which is said to hold about 105 lions. The park covers Kyambura and Ishasha sectors.
Experts, using scientific methods, found 214 cats between 1999 and 2004 in Uganda. But crude estimates put the number to about 745 across the country. It is believed that the Queen Elizabeth park and the DR Congo hold up to 905 African lions.
Perceived as a threat to livestock and humans, lions are also hunted for their skins and purported medicinal values. They are poisoned, shot, or speared by locals.
While lion populations in protected areas remain relatively healthy, conservationists say without urgent measures, they may disappear as their habitat is lost to deforestation and encroachers.
For example, in 2006, about 10 lions were killed in the park in areas which were temporarily occupied by the Basongora pastoralists who had been chased from the Virunga National Park in eastern Congo.
Uganda has 10 national parks. Lions are also found in the Murchison Falls , Kidepo Park and Some are said to be in the Semliki area in Toro.
In Lake Mburo National Park, however, the lions have become extinct.
The Uganda Wildlife Authority has put in place various interventions, including sensitising communities around the parks in an attempt to save the big cats.
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Rwanda loses three Mountain Gorillas
Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park, has lost three baby mountain gorillas and an adult possibly from a combination of extremely cold and rainy weather, said the wildlife authorities.
Around 680 mountain gorillas remain in the wild, making them one of the world's most endangered great apes, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said in a statement.
The cause of death is not yet known but there was no indication of foul play, the statement added.
"We are all shocked and saddened by the death of these baby gorillas as well as the adult female, and by the grave implications for the mountain gorilla population as a whole," Eugene Rutagarama, director of the International Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP), said in the statement.
Half of the populations of Endangered Mountain Gorillas live in Bwindi Impenetrable Park in Uganda and the rest live in the Virunga chain of volcanoes, which straddle the central African countries of Rwanda, Uganda (Mgahinga National park) and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The primates are under threat from poachers, the destruction of their habitat, the live ape trade, disease and fragmentation, the WWF said.
Rwanda's gorilla-viewing tourism industry is a leading source of foreign exchange.
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Mountain Gorillas suffer as Eco-tourists get closer to them
The Mountain Gorillas are being dangerously stressed by tourists whose attentions are disrupting the animals' feeding routines and making them aggressive.
Researchers who have just completed a year-long study of the great apes at Bai Hokou in the Central African Republic have discovered the important implications for the tourism industry.
Uganda’s Eco-tourism has become extremely popular, providing travelers with opportunities to get close to rare species, including chimpanzees and gorillas. Money raised in this way has helped to preserve endangered animals and bring employment to the local people in the countries.
In Uganda, gorilla tourism brings in an estimated £345,000 a month from the sale of permit fees alone.
But now scientists warn that greater care will be needed. Not only do tourists disturb the animals, but so do research teams studying the animals' behaviors and their interaction with tourists. It is recommended that the minimum distance between humans and gorillas be increased from seven to 18 meters.
"We got a lot of warning barks from the male silverback in a band of gorillas if we went too close," said Michelle Klailova of Stirling University. "And you ignore a male gorilla's barking at your peril, for there is a real danger that it will turn into something much worse, like a full-blown charge. They can kill very easily. They know exactly where to bite a person."
Great apes are known to be vulnerable to human diseases. A common cold has the potential to kill an entire family group. Research at the Tai chimpanzee project in Ivory Coast found that 15 young chimpanzees who died in three disease outbreaks there had been infected with viral strains that were very similar to those found in humans.
As numbers in a group increased, the gorillas spent less time feeding and instead behaved in a disturbed, unfocused manner. Klailova found that Makumba was more likely to stop feeding and start watching humans as observers moved closer.
Making a male gorilla angrier could lead to him attacking humans or female gorillas in his own band. Either way, the reaction reveals that animals that are now hovering at the edge of extinction are being further stressed.
Klailova admitted that a recommended gap of 18 meters "is not a realistic goal in dense forests, particularly for tourists who have spent valuable time and effort to see the gorillas". But in clearings and in open land, where there are good sight lines, it should definitely be adhered to.
The suggestion will find support from other scientists who have called for increased protection for great apes. Other proposals have included suggestions that all tourists be required to wear face masks to block any transmission of human diseases.
However, the prospect of wearing masks all the time while only being allowed distant glimpses of animals could have a detrimental impact on gorilla-watching holidays.
Eco-tourism has become an important source of income for remote African communities. Foreign visitors who come to enjoy the sights and sounds of natural parks have become a strong motivation for governments to invest in conservation, while the presence of researchers, tourists and tourism infrastructure can work as a strong deterrent to poachers.
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Friend a gorilla film wins award
One of Ugandan documentary on mountain gorillas used in the “Friend A Gorilla” Campaign last year, has won second place in the prestigious Tour Film International Tourism Film Festival in Brazil.
The Uganda’s film “Friends of the Gorilla”, is a short film starring Jason Biggs and Simon Curtis, that depicted a wildlife adventure in Uganda tracking mountain gorillas.
The film was directed and produced by Rachel McDonald, and shot during the launch of the www.friendagorilla.org campaign in 2009.
Out of the 780 mountain gorillas in the whole world, half of them are found in Uganda about 380 and the rest are found in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo
Tour Film Brazil is the Brazil International Tourism Film Festival, devoted exclusively to tourism films.
The Tour Film Brazil initiative is supported by the Brazilian Government and is part of the international circuit of the International Committee of Tourism Film Festivals (CIFFT), based in Vienna, Austria. The festival took place in Florianopolis in Brazil.
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Mount Rwenzori peak Margherita blocked
The remaining ice cap on Mountain Rwenzori covering the second highest peak in Africa, Margherita,, has split creating a crevasse of 6 meters, according to the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA).
Rwenzori has about six peaks but Margherita is its highest and most popular the world over. It provides a unique experience to mountain climbers.
The peak was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO and it was recently gazetted as a Ramsar site requiring protection.
Moses Mapesa the Uganda Wild life Authority boss said access to the peak has since been blocked due to global warming. It is caused by gases such as carbon-dioxide from industrial processes, which trap the heat escaping from the earth surface.
Mapesa urged people to minimize activities that affect the eco-system around the mountain, lest more disasters occur.
According to researchers, the ice cap covered six square kilometers 50 years ago. It is now less than a square kilometer.
John Hunwick, the director of Rwenzori Trekking Services, said the crevasse appeared in the glaciers between April 18 and 20.
He added that the glaciers have been melting rapidly during the last four years, saying the country is losing a tourism treasure because it is unique to have ice on the equator.
The senior warden in charge of Rwenzori Mountains National Park, Nelson Guma, said the crack has occurred 5,000 meters above sea level.
He described it as a phenomenon beyond human control.
“This has posed a management challenge to us, but we have to adapt to this challenge,” added Guma.
UWA has dispatched a team to the mountain to ascertain the extent of damage on the route to Margherita, according to Guma. He also said options of re-routing to the peak would be considered.
Guma disclosed that other cracks had been reported on the side of the mountain in Bundibugyo district, adding that there was a possibility of faulting taking place along the mountain ranges.
The Kasese district environment officer, Augustine Koli, attributed the cracks to physical withering of rocks and glaciers.
The melting of the glaciers has also increased water flow into River Semliki, the natural boundary between Uganda and the DR Congo.
The increased water volumes have enhanced the erosive power of River Semliki, causing shifting of the river towards the over degraded banks in Rwebisengo.
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