2009-09-10 - Kampala, Uganda
EACH week, the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has to rescue an elephant or lion from a wire snare.The snares, set up by poachers, are fixed on fences or trees to trap the animals. According to Sam Mwandha, UWAs director of conservation, poaching is common in Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls national parks. "We have been called every week to remove snares from animals in the two parks," he said.
2009-09-07 - Mulago, Uganda
MUSTAFA Batanyenda, the Rukungiri man who was seriously wounded by a marauding elephant, has been transferred to Mulago Hospital where he is expected to undergo a major operation this week. Mulago Hospital spokesperson Erifazi Ssekabira said on Thursday the patients wounds were being treated in preparation for the operation. He noted that Batanyenda sustained broken jaws.
2009-09-02 - Nyakibale, Uganda
NYAKIBALE Hospital in Rukungiri district is stranded with a man, whose jaws were shattered in an attack by an elephant on Augusts 27 as he tended his garden at Kihihi village in Kanungu district. Mustapha Batanyenda, 48, is said to have been hurled by an elephant onto a tree, injuring him severely. He now needs extensive facial recontructive surgery, according to Dr. Ronald Kasyaba. For him to regain near normalcy, this surgical reconstruction has to be done, that is if he has not died by the ti...
2008-11-25 - Kampala, Uganda
It may not be quite as bad as the Three Bears returning home to find Goldilocks sleeping in one of their beds, but Ugandan villagers returning to the villages they abandoned during the East African nations civil war are being met with a rather large surprise. "Elephants are moving into the villages," says Sam Mwandha, operations director for the state-owned Uganda Wildlife Authority. Much of Ugandas northern region lies in the so-called elephant corridor, a vast tropical flat terrain that adjoin...
2008-10-24 - Amuru, Uganda
Marauding elephants in northern Uganda have added to the challenges faced by civilians trying to rebuild their lives in the wake of 20 years of civil war, destroying their crops and prompting some to return to displaced peoples (IDP) camps they had only recently left. "The villagers are scared of the elephants; some of them have sought refuge in huts they had left in the [IDP] camps," John Bosco Okullo, a local leader in Amuru District told IRIN.
2008-10-09 - Kampala, Uganda
Most rare and precious African fauna and flora species are on the verge of extinction, today more than in the past years following increased illegal trade in the past decade as global demand for these increases on daily basis. Data from the Lusaka Agreement reveals that over 20.000 elephants are killed in Africa annually and the ivory worth over $20m is exported to China, USA and Japan where it has a lucrative ready market. There is also a ready market for rhino horns, hippo teeth, primates like...
2008-07-28 - Kampala, Uganda
The Police and army have launched a joint operation to drive back 35 stary elephants from Amuru District to Murchison Falls National Park. "We have embarked on an operation to drive elephants straying in Kochgoma and Alero sub-counties in Amuru district back to their conservation area in Murchison Falls National Park," UPDF northern region spokesperson Capt Ronald Kakurungu said last Tuesday in a statement. The elephants recently crossed over into the new district. Capt. Kakurungu said they are ...
2008-05-13 - Kampala, Uganda
We investigated population genetic structure and regional differentiation among African savannah elephants in Kenya using mitochondrial and microsatellite markers. We observed mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) nucleotide diversity of 1.68% and microsatellite variation in terms of average number of alleles, expected and observed heterozygosities in the total study population of 10.20, 0.75, and 0.69, respectively. Hierarchical analysis of molecular variance of mtDNA variation revealed significant differe...
2008-04-07 - Kampala, Uganda
A French tourist visitor had a near fatal run in with an elephant at Murchisons Falls National Park last week. Ignoring guidance habitually given to visitors, to take a ranger with them for their game drive, the group approached some elephants to within very close range before switching their car engine off. Little did they know that a female elephant with a small cub was taking this intrusion into her space as a potential threat to her newly born and promptly went on the attack.
2008-03-27 - Murchison Falls , Uganda
A French tourist sustained serious injuries when he was attacked by an elephant, which was protecting its calf at Murchison Falls National Park. According to the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), a group of tourists visited the park on March 22 and went for a game drive. ´We offered to guide and protect them but they declined,´ said Sam Mwandha, the UWA director of field operations. ´They went too close to the elephant and turned off the engine of their vehicle instead of leavin...
