Carnivores poisoned in Uganda
26/07/2007 15:25 - (SA)


Kampala - Dozens of large carnivorous animals, including lions, leopards and hyenas, are dying due to poisoning by herdsmen occupying part of Uganda's second largest game park, say wildlife officials.

Thousands of Basongora tribesmen who were grazing cattle in an area of about 300 square kilometres in the Queen Elizabeth National Park in western Uganda were killing off the carnivores to protect their herds from attacks, officials confirmed.

Moses Mapesa, the head of the state-owned Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), said: "The Basongora are occupying parts of the park and the hyenas attack their cattle in the night.

"The pastoralists are acting in self-defence and are poisoning the hyenas and lions. The animals are dying.

Mapesa said: "We are worried but it is a question of urging the government to quickly implement the ministerial committee and relocate these herdsmen."

Govt relocates landless herdsmen

Ecologists earlier expressed worries that the estimated 10 000 tribesmen who moved into the park from the Democratic Republic of Congo with tens of thousands of cattle would help spread foot and mouth disease among the wild animals in the park.

The government in June appointed a ministerial committee to help relocate the landless herdsmen, but they had not yet been evacuated from the park, which was a destination for tourists? intent on seeing big game including elephants, buffaloes, hippos, water bucks and lions.

Mapesa said he didn't have figures for the number of animals poisoned, but according to a government newspaper, The New Vision, the number of lions, hyenas and leopards had gone down drastically since the Basongora herdsmen entered the park in March 2006.

The reports quoted a veterinarian at the state-owned Makerere University, Ludwig Siefert, as saying: "More than 80% of the hyenas have been killed and all leopards along the Nyamusagani river have been poisoned. We have lost at least 11 lions in the last 15 months."

The lion population in the park decreased from 94 in 1999 to 39 today and the damage done in the last 15 months would take 20 years to reverse, said the reports.

Last weekend, Siefert's team, which monitored 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 by furadan, an agro-chemical.

Sapa-dpa

News24