Uganda: Queen Elizabeth Park Lions, Hyenas Poisoned
New Vision (Kampala)
25 July 2007
Gerald Tenywa And John Thawite
Kampala
A carcass of a poisoned hyena discovered in Queen Elizabeth National Park last weekend
THE number of lions, leopards and hyenas has gone down drastically since the Basongora herdsmen entered Queen Elizabeth National Park in March 2006.
"Over 80% of the hyenas have been killed and all leopards along the Nyamusagani river have been poisoned," said Dr. Ludwig Siefert, a veterinarian and lecturer at Makerere University.
"We have also lost at least 11 lions in the last 15 months."
Experts reckon that the lion population decreased from 94 in 1999 to 39 today. The damage done in the last 15 months will take 20 years to reverse, they estimate.
Last weekend alone, Siefert's team, which monitors the wild animals in the park, found three carcasses of hyenas in the area taken over by the Basongora.
An autopsy established that they had been poisoned with furadan, an agro-chemical. The carcasses were bleeding through the nose and the mouth.
"The intention of the herdsmen is to eliminate the large predators because they eat their cattle," Siefert said.
"Other animal species also die of poisoning because they feed on the carcasses."
He said 20 cattle egrets and a marabou stork were among the latest casualties. Tom Okello, the chief warden of the park, confirmed the findings.
He told The New Vision that one carcass of a hyena was discovered on Sunday between Hamukungu and Kasenyi, another at Munyanyage near Katwe, and a third one near Katwe-Kabatoro, all within the vicinity of Mweya lodge.
Okello said there was reason to worry that the lions would become extinct, as happened in Mburo National Park a decade ago.
According to the Wildlife authority, the body parts of the lions and hyenas are used for traditional rituals and voodoo.
"All the body parts, including the claws, teeth and skin, are chopped off and taken away," said UWA director Moses Mapesa.
"That is one of the reasons why it is difficult to find carcasses."
Elizabeth is the most visited park in Uganda. But tourists increasingly complain that they don't see many wild animals.
"One has to count on luck to find animals in the park these days," said Amos Wekesa, the executive director of Great Lakes Safaris. "Even the Uganda kob can hardly be seen. Yet, most of these tourists save for many years to afford a wildlife safari in Uganda."
Another concern by conservationists is the spread of diseases as a result of the growing number of cattle in the park. Siefert's team sighted a limping buffalo, a sign of foot and mouth disease.
"The disease is going to be difficult to eliminate and is likely to keep on spreading in the years to come."
The Basongora were evicted from Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo in March last year. They were allowed to settle temporarily at the edge of the park until a more permanent solution was found.
However, the Basongora started penetrating deeper into the park. They are now covering an estimated 300 square kilometre area. At the same time, herdsmen from other parts of the country and even from Tanzania took advantage of the situation, making the number of cattle swell from 10,000 to an estimated 40,000.
The pastoralists also started building homes and using firewood, resulting in the felling of trees.
President Yoweri Museveni ordered for an interministerial committee, headed by agriculture minister Hilary Onek, to find a lasting solution to resettle the Basongora.
According to Onek, three of the five clusters of herdsmen have already moved to the designated 20,000ha area in Kasese. But UWA claimed more cattle was being ferried into the park.
"We have intercepted about 10 truckloads of cattle in the last week being ferried in. The Basongora should be resettled as fast as possible if we want to avoid a total disaster," said Mapesa.
