Uganda Lion Population And Estimates
The Uganda Lion Population And Estimates – Africa!
Places for Lions in Uganda
TABLE 1: CENSUS STATISTICS AND ESTIMATED NUMBER OF LIONS IN QUEEN ELIZABETH NATIONAL PARK, MURCHISON FALLS NATIONAL PARK AND KIDEPO VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, UGANDA
| Protected area |
Year (s) |
Area covered |
Number of |
Total park |
Census |
Est. in |
Estimated |
|
Murchison Falls |
2000/02* |
371.5kmL |
45 |
3,860 kmL |
|
|
|
|
North |
|
|
|
|
64 |
130 |
181-467 |
|
Murchison Falls |
2000/02* |
568.9 kmL |
19 |
3,860 kmL |
|
|
|
|
South |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Murchison Falls |
2003/04* |
<350 km2 |
32 |
3,860 km2 |
32 |
? |
347? |
|
North |
|
|
|
|
|
|
At most |
|
Queen |
1997/99* |
745 kmL |
71 |
1,987 km2 |
|
|
|
|
Elizabeth North |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Queen |
1997/99* |
<157 km2 |
6 |
1,978 km2 |
116 |
155 |
160-210 |
|
Elizabeth South |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(Kyambura) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ishasha sector |
1999* |
-128 kmL |
29 |
1,987 km2 |
|
|
|
|
Queen |
2000/02* |
1,987 kmL? |
49 |
1,987 km2 |
|
|
|
|
Elizabeth North |
|
|
|
|
80 |
105 |
105? |
|
Queen |
2000/02* |
<157 km2? |
9 |
1,987 km2 |
|
|
|
|
Elizabeth South |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(Kyambura) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ishasha sector |
2000/02* |
<128 kmL |
23 |
1,987 km2 |
|
|
|
|
Queen |
1978** |
125 kmL |
36 |
1,987 km2 |
36 |
? |
|
|
Elizabeth North |
|
|
|
|
|
|
300-500? |
|
Ishasha sector |
1977*** |
-80 kmL |
34 |
1,987 km2 |
34 |
|
|
|
Ishasha sector |
1978*** |
-80 km2 |
30 |
1,987 km2 |
30 |
? |
|
|
Ishasha sector |
1979*** |
-80 km2 |
39 |
1,987 km2 |
39 |
|
|
|
Kidepo valley |
2000/02* |
<100 km2 |
24 |
1442 km2 |
24 |
35 |
58? |
|
Toro Semuliki |
2000/02a |
– |
– |
518 km2 |
– |
– |
10 |
Sources of Information
- * Lion project
- ** Din (1978)
- ** van Orsdol (1981)
- a Uganda Wildlife Authority
- Very crude projection derived from census figures from the respective authors
For Information, Background, Places for Lions in Uganda page, Click here >> To explore Uganda wildlfe parks of Queen Elizabeth, Murchison, Kidepo, Bwindi gorilla park and many more go here >>
Over all, the populations of lions in Uganda of 214 known lions, and even the crude projection of 354-745 for the whole country are low. Prey availability playa big role in predator population sizes as increased food availability leads to increased cub survival (Bothma, 1997), affects foraging behaviour, population density and composition, social dynamics, reproduction, spatial and social organization (Mills and Hofer, 1998). Since Uganda has experienced drastic declines in prey populations during the wars due to poaching, the lion population could not have been an exception, but because the lions are looked at as enemies to man and his livestock because of livestock raiding and man eating habits, they have an added disadvantage and recovery of their population requires a lot more conservation effort. Stochastic processes have a particular impact on small populations (Lacy, 1993 and Gotelli, 1995), because small isolated populations are vulnerable to additional forces, intrinsic to the dynamics of small populations, which may drive the population to extinction (Clark and Seebeck 1990; Shaffer, 1981 and Soule 1987). Although the factors causing a male biased sex ratio in the young age group in the Murchison population have not been identified, it is possible that sex biased mortality and other demographic stochastic processes could be playing a role.
Killing of lions by the local community for biomedical and cultural values is widely spread in Uganda, and elsewhere in Africa and some of the indiscriminate poisoning is in an attempt by the local community to avert the livestock losses caused by the lions (Nowel and Jackson, 1996 and Olivier, 1990; Mills et aI., 1978; and Frank, 1998; Stander, 1990). Road kills of lions by speeding vehicles have also claimed lions in Queen Elizabeth national park.
Queen Elizabeth national park, in 1994 experienced lion die offs and sero-surveillance in 1998/99 revealed evidence of canine distemper in the population (Driciru, et al., 2004), but such evidence was not found in the Murchison Falls national park population in 2000/2002. Canine distemper is a newly emerging disease in wild felids, and it has decimated populations of lions in other parts of the world, (Kadoi et al., 1997; Hofmann, et aI., 1996 and Roelke-Parkeret aI., 1997).
The sensitivity analysis implies that the small populations of lions are very fragile to risk factors like abnormal sex ratios, increased community kills and disease epidemics with high impact, but at certain critical levels, these risk factors have less effect on the population. This therefore calls for rigorous management actions to be undertaken to keep the factors at their lowest levels.
Because of this, Uganda Wildlife Authority has entered into partnership with various stakeholders and management interventions have been put in place. Collaborations have been formed with academic institutions like Makerere University through the Lions Project, conservation NGOs like CARE, external donor agencies like the Federation of Dutch Zoos’s help that has funded the lion project activities between 1997 and 2004; the African Lion Working Group through sharing of information. The plan for these collaborative management interventions is to improve the survival rates of lions, so that an increase in the populations can be achieved. This has so far been done and will still be through research, community involvement in lion conservation, and donor support is a critical factor in this. Above all, the Uganda Wildlife Authority would like to emulate the experiences of the neighboring countries in the Southern and Eastern Africa, where lion populations are economically self-sustaining.
Information, Background, Places for Lions in Uganda, Click here >>
