Uganda Wildlife Authority Launches Night Game Drives in National Parks

Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has launched night drives in a bid to boost tourism in the country. The drive launched last week is aimed at attracting more tourists to boost the economy. This comes after the authority embarked on massive promotion of tourism in the country.

Dr. Andrew Seguya, the executive director of Uganda Wildlife Authority, says the launch of the night drives at the parks is a big achievement for Uganda. He says many animals; particularly the carnivorous ones are active at night hunting for prey. He says this launch will give tourists better opportunities to view the animals hunting. He says the authority has already purchased open roof vehicles for the night drives.

Dr. Seguya says Uganda is expected to reap millions in foreign exchange after the launch.

He has appealed to the Ugandans to take this opportunity to view the wildlife of the country. Seguya says it is a rich experience to drive through the park at night while viewing the beautiful animals in the country.

Simplicious Gessa, the Public Relations Officer at Uganda Wildlife Authority, says the authority is set to introduce more packages for Ugandans.

Gesa says with time if the facilities are in place and the situation stabilizes, the authority may offer one day free visits for the locals to the parks. He says the authority is looking forward to the day when the locals will embrace wildlife as part of them and are ready to protect the animals.

He has appealed to the Ugandans to appreciate what nature has given them and be ready to protect it. Gessa says the authority will do everything to protect the wildlife and ensure that Uganda takes the lead in promoting tourism in the world.

 

Safaris where you can do night game drives

 

3 Days Lake Mburo National Park:
Uganda’s smallest savannah national parks and it is home to 350 bird species as well as zebra, impala, eland, buffalo, Oribi, Defassa waterbuck, leopard, hippo, hyena, topi and reedbuck.

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3 Days Murchison Falls Safari:
Murchison Falls National Park lies at the northern end of the Albertine Rift Valley. The park is bisected by the Victoria Nile, which plunges 45m over the remnant rift valley wall ....

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3 Days Queen Elizabeth Tour:
We take you for a magical wildlife experience to Uganda’s most popular tourist destination. Set against the backdrop of the jagged Rwenzori Mountains

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5 Days Gorilla Trekking And Queen Elizabeth:
In just 5 days, we are good enough to combine your interests of visiting the Gorillas in Bwindi with the best of Wildlife in Queen Elizabeth National Park.

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6 Days Total Wildlife Safari:
Uganda’s most recommended wildlife safari, for wild animal lovers, it is the biggest chance ever to see all the Big Five starting with Rhino down to the Lions.

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10 Days Incredible Tour:
Discover Uganda’s most beautiful parks, from the visitors that have booked our 10 days incredible, they testify as the best Uganda tourist circuit enabling them encounter the rarest of the rare in the Africa

World Wild Fund (WWF) Boosts Conservation of Rwenzori Mountains National Park

The World Wild Fund (WWF), under its Rwenzori Mountains Conservation and Environment Management Project, has devised several approaches to minimise degradation of the park.

Mr David Duli, the country director WWF, an international conservation NGO, said the park is of great importance to the world because of its botany and beauty and therefore requires expertise to strengthen its conservation.

“We came up with the project in order to strengthen the conservation of the Rwenzori Mountains ecosystem and maintain its biodiversity and water catchment values in harmony with sustainable utilisation of resources for the benefit of Uganda and the international community” Mr Duli said. He noted that conservation efforts are helping the park to regenerate. The park covers the Rwenzori Mountain catchment area which, among others, includes Mubuku, Nyamwamba, Mpanga, Semliki rivers that flow from the mountain.

Rwenzori Mountains National Park is located in southwestern Uganda on the east side of the  Albertine rift valley. It is along the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), just above the equator. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is situated in the Bundibugyo, Kabarole, and Kasese districts, 25 km from the small town of Kasese. The park has area of 996 km2, 70% of which is above 2,500 m.

The park comprises most of the centre and eastern half of the Rwenzori Mountains. The ice-capped Rwenzori Mountains are even higher than the Alps. Margherita Peak, one of Mount Stanley's twin summits is Africa's third highest peak at 5,109 m. Africa's fourth and fifth highest peaks (Mount Speke and Mount Baker) are also located in the park. The park has glaciers, snowfields, waterfalls, and lakes and is one of Africa's most beautiful mountain region.

Biodiversity is extraordinarily high with 17 regionally endemic birds and 12 regionally endemic mammals. The elephant, common chimpanzee and l'hoests monkey are globally threatened species (IUCN 1994b). The park is noted for its remarkable plants, which has been described as some of the most beautiful in the world (Riley, Laura; William Riley (2005). Nature's Strongholds: The World's Great Wildlife Reserves).

The broken montane forest dominated by Sybmphonia globulifera, Prunus, Yoshania alpina, Albizia spp. and Dombeya spp. occurs at about 2400 m. 199 tree species (18% of the country's total) have so far been recorded in this zone . Next is the bamboo (Arundinaria alpina) forest up to an altitude of 3000 m, a heather zone dominated by giant heathers such as Phillpia trimera and small trees such as Hagenia and Rapanea, frequently over 10 m in height up to 3800 m, and afro-alpine moorland that ends at the snowline at 4400 m.
There are five distinct vegetation zones in the park, which change with altitude. Most significant are the giant heathers, groundsels, ericas and lobelias of the tree heath and alpine zones.

The park has 241 species of birds (27% of the country's total), 78 species of butterfly, and four primate species.

 

The Kasese District natural resource officer, Mr Joseph Kitswera, said there has been a reduction in soil erosion and landslides. “Bare hills were restored which has reduced soil erosion, landslides and siltation in our rivers,” Mr Kitswera said.

He said conservation of the park will improve tourism in the Rwenzori region. More than a million trees have been planted on degraded hills in the Park covering more than 1,000 hectares of the protected area.

The Minister of Tourism, Ms Maria Mutagamba, who visited the park recently, said degradation in the parks is reducing.

“Much as the culture still remains, the problem has come down compared to the past when it was very rampant,” she said.

One hundred and two mammals species were recorded in the park. The Rwenzori duiker Cephalophus rubidus is found nowhere in the world and the Rwenzori otter shrew Micropotamogale rwenzorii is only known from here and Nyungwe National Park in Rwanda. The park has elephant, giant forest hog, sitatunga in small numbers and buffaloes, which had once disappeared, have re-appeared. Hyrax and leopard also occur in  the park as well as four species of diurnal primate: the common chimpanzee (curently estimated 500 indiviuals, Plumptre et al 2003a) found in the lower altitude forest areas, a sub-speceis of Agolan colobus (colobus angolensis ruwenzorii), the Rwenzori colobus, restricted to this park, L'Hoests monkey and the blue monkey 

Because of its physical and biological values, the park was recognized as a World Heritage Site in 1994. Among rare reptiles, the strange-nosed chameleon Bradypodion xenorhinum is endemic to the Rwenzoris.

UWA rescues 42 poisonous snakes and 147 chameleons bound for Czech Republic.

The reptiles were rescued just a few minutes away from being flown out to Czech Republic through Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport. They were found stuffed in one box with markings indicating that they are from a Kampala- based company, SME Breeders – and destined to Frischolz Import and Export company in the Czech Republic. UWA Publicist Lillian Nsubuga revealed that they had been on the lookout for the consignment at Entebbe International airport.

A concerned citizen tipped UWA about some suspicious consignment which they suspected to be drugs. But at the airport when they checked [one of the small bags within the box], they found they were snakes,” Nsubuga narrated.

Surprisingly, the snakes, which had been each separately packed in a white neatly made bag, were lying above 147 chameleons, 55 of which had already died –letting off a foul smell.

“This is a very coordinated crime. The way the box was packed with chameleons down and snakes up shows the level of sophistication and it is unlikely that it was done by a Ugandan,” Nsubuga said.

James Musinguzi, the acting Executive Director of the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC), where the reptiles are now being kept, says there were eight types of poisonous snakes in the consignment. However, the UWEC chief indicated that they were conversant with only one type – the Jameson Mamba, of which only three snakes were in the consignment.

Musinguzi says the rest of the seven types do not naturally occur in Uganda. The chameleons included the three-horned type, a rare species mainly found on Mt Rwenzori due to their love for cold conditions.

The Uganda Wildlife Act allows individual companies to breed and export wildlife but with clearance from conservation bodies such as UWA and CITES, but SME Breeders have never been cleared for this purpose. Musinguzi said the impounded reptiles will be kept at UWEC for some time to enable the conservation bodies to bring in specialists who will ascertain whether these reptiles are suitable to be released into the wild.

“We will do an assessment to ascertain their lifestyle and types because some of them are exotic and don’t occur here,” Musinguzi said, adding: “We don’t want to introduce species in the parks that will disorganize the ecology.”

The impounding follows another swoop in which UWA captured 13 pieces of ivory in a restaurant in Zana, a suburb along Entebbe road. Yet another 62kg of ivory were also impounded on Monday morning at the airport.

Leopard sighted in Uganda's Lake Mburo National Park

Not Happy!!!

You go on a few days well earned leave and all hell brakes loose back at the lodge. 

Thankfully the guests at the lodge couldn't have been happier.

More leopard sightings than you can shake a stick at!!!! 

Two separate groups managed to see a mother and her three cubs feasting on a kill and two nights ago a lucky couple managed to see a leopard take down a young impala only a few metres from their vehicle. More sightings of a mother and cub in daylight. And hyena sightings and single leopard sightings............

Currently there is a great guy at the lodge called Damian, there for training experience, and in the three weeks he has been there, and the four times he has driven in the park he has seen five leopards.

Happy leopard hunting guys,

Chris