Animal conservationists have actually revealed issue over the decreasing lion population in Uganda, alerting that if absolutely nothing is done to reverse the pattern, the huge cats might be headed for termination.
Speaking throughout events to mark World Lion’s Day last Thursday, the conservationists advised African federal governments to put an end to practices such as captive breeding, petting, sell lion parts and poaching.
“Four to five years ago, 5 percent of our lions were killed. So if we have so many lions in Queen Elizabeth National Park, they should be around 70 or 80. If you go to Murchison Falls, the numbers have also gone down; that’s where we have the biggest number actually, but overall in the country, they are less than 400 lions,” Ms Edith Kabesiime, the wildlife campaign supervisor at World Animal Protection, said throughout the events in Kampala.
“So you can imagine, the entire Uganda with all these national parks, excluding Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga, which are forest parks and may be, Mount Elgon, and Rwenzori; all these savannahs and game parks are empty. Then, lions used to roam in Kampala, in our villages, but even now in national parks, they are almost done,” she included.
The African lions (Panthera leo), are the biggest of all huge cats in Africa and majorly reside in big Savannah parks.
Further, Ms Kabesiime said some African nations wish to adopt captive lion farming as South Africa presently does, something, she said, is a danger to the huge cats’ presence.
She revealed that in South Africa, there have to do with 12,000 lions kept in captivity.
“This abuse of lions needs to be halted before it takes root,” she said.
She stressed the requirement to secure lions from hazardous human activities such as poaching.
When called, Mr Bashir Hangi, the Uganda Wildlife Authority representative, said the overall quote of the lion population in Uganda is 416, acknowledging a decrease in their numbers.
A study by Lion Project and Uganda Wildlife Authority approximated that Uganda had 600 lions in 2000. Of these, Queen Elizabeth National Park had 206, Murchison Falls National Park had 324, Kidepo National Park 58, Toro Semuliki 10 and Lake Mburo National Park 2.
Nine years later on, the Uganda Wildlife Authority in its 2009 study suggested that the population of lions had actually decreased, with Murchison Falls National Park experiencing the greatest decrease from 324 to 132, Queen Elizabeth National Park had 144, Kidepo National Park 132, and Semuliki National Park 5.
The study suggests human risks such as poisoning, increasing human population and poaching as significant limitations to the preservation of the lions.
“I agree that there is a decline in the population of our lions because of factors such as the high mortality rate in the newly born cubs which are vulnerable to disease and threat from other predators,” Mr Hangi said.
