Female Gorilla dies in Bwindi

Within Bwindi national park, one of the old female mountain gorillas named Bwiruka died barely three months after the oldest male, Ruhondeza passed on. Bwiruka was known to be cheeky, playful and friendly. She died at the age of 30 years and has been one of the senior female gorillas in Bwindi. She has been a dominant female in Nshongi group which comprised of 34 members. However, as trekkers went to see the group, they found her dead and this has been reported by the officials of the Uganda Wildlife Authority.

Currently a necropsy (postmortem for non-humans) is being performed to determine the cause of her death. However, the Uganda Wildlife Authority say that Bwiruka had recently grown fail and was sighted trailing the rest of the group with difficulty. Her name is in a local language rukiga and means “one who knows how to run”. Her difficulty in feeding and walking was a clear sign that she has not been feeling well.

30 years of age is a very old age for females since giving birth makes them weaker than the males. Her death has affected the number of the group members in Nshongi and as of now there are only 33 members in the group. 

Male mountain gorillas can live up to 50 years of age in the habituation whereas their average lifespan is 35 years. During her days, Bwiruka was the male Gorillas’ favourite lady and most of the times could be spotted with the top males secretly like Bweza and Mishaya.

We will all miss her and may her soul rest in peace.

Minister says: No elephant poaching in Uganda

The New Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities Maria Mutagamba refuted recent media reports about an escalation in poaching in most of Uganda’s protected areas which created the impression that Uganda’s wildlife is on the verge of extinction. As she was speaking to the Media, she noted that the impression made by media reports that the country’s wildlife is at the verge of extinction and that Uganda Wildlife Authority is not doing much to control  the vice is an exaggeration of the problem. She also noted that Poaching of elephants was increasing all over the African continent and not only in Uganda.

She added that despite isolated incidents of poaching, the mammal census by the Uganda Wildlife Authority last carried out revealed that the elephant numbers for Queen Elizabeth National Park had increased from 400 in 1988 to 2,959 in 2010. The population of buffaloes also rose from 5,000 to 14,858 in the same period and hippos from 2,200 to 5,024. Law enforcement capacity of UWA has been growing, with the introduction of the Uganda Tourism Police and the additional support from the Uganda National Army.

According to the acting Director of tourism and business Mr. Stephen Masaba, poaching affects all of Uganda’s national parks including Lake Mburo National Park, Murchison Falls National Park, and Queen ElizabethNational Park. These protected areas are all closer to settler communities with increasing pressure on land for Agriculture and to grow food crops. He also noted that recruitment process has began for more than 300 rangers to improve the intelligence force which is about to get on board. According to him, poaching was partly on the increase all across the region because it has grown into big business with the perpetrators increasingly employing sophisticated weapons and vehicles. However UWA with the help of the Government, police and other travel agencies have been decisive in handling matters of poaching with poachers being arrested, prosecuted and ivory confiscated in accordance with the law. Three pieces of ivory have recently been recovered together with an automatic rifle which was used in the brutal killing of the two elephants in QENP. The suspects were arraigned before the second Division Court Martial in Mbarara where they were charged.