In spite of the fact that some of the national park’s inhabitant species were poached into extinction in the years prior to, government’s action of gazetting Lake Mburo in 1983 as a national park has remained nothing but the right call. Animals, for example, the lion that had been feared wiped out from the national park have been spotted patrolling the savanna plains again.
But the national park’s future is even made brighter by Uganda Wildlife Authority when they reintroduced giraffes, which had gone extinct from the park over 50 years prior.
Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), with backing from Kenya Wildlife Society, translocated 15 Rothschild’s giraffes from the frequented Murchison Falls National Park in the north western part of Uganda, to Kampala’s nearest national park, Lake Mburo National park located in Kiruhura District in Western Uganda only 240km from Kampala. The giraffes successfully arrived in the park toward the end of last month and are now ready for viewing.
According to the director Uganda Wildlife Authority Dr. Andrew Seguya, the aim of trans-locating these endangered specie of animals is to ensure their survival given that there are just few hundred of them left in the world. Relocating some of them to another park will guarantee a small number that is easy to watch over, and where their movements, wellbeing and general welfare will be monitored.
The relocation activity is also a drive towards achieving ecological balance in Murchison Falls National Park. By reducing the number of giraffes in the park (which has over 900 giraffes), the struggle for resources among the giraffes, particularly nourishment is going to reduce. Less stress on the park’s vegetation will enable faster recovery of flora on which the giraffes feeds.
Since the giraffes feeds mainly on the acacia forest vegetation, later on some of the national park’s picturesque areas and different biomes that have for long been hidden behind the acacia will be unwrapped for tourists to the park. Thusly, with a clearer Mburo, many of the national park’s grazers, which have for long preferred the neighboring farmlands, will come back to the national park. The grazers, particularly the zebras, favor a finely flat area, which has short vegetation cover that allows them to spot their opponent carnivores from a distance and therefore craftily plan an escape.
For those who have ever toured Lake Mburo National Park, this appears the right time to arrange a return safari because with the introduction of the Rothschild’s giraffes, “the whispers of the wild” which defines this national park are surely going to get louder.
>h2>The Rothschild’s giraffe
Named after the Tring Museum’s founder, Walter Rothschild, the Rothschild’s giraffe has additionally come to be known as the Ugandan giraffe in light of the fact that, of the not more than 1,600 Rothschild’s giraffes left in the world, only 800 are in the wild and the over half of the total population of these is actually in Uganda.
The most special feature on the Rothschild’s giraffe is the ossicones on its head. This is the only subspecies to be born with five ossicones!
Furthermore, that is not all. In the matter of height, which is the one feature giraffes can deservedly boost about, the Rothschild’s giraffe practically blows every other giraffe subspecies out of the ‘skies’. It measures up to six meters (around 20ft).
