2020-03-01_Wanderlust

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wanderlust.co.uk March 2020 47

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is witnessing the return of giraff es
for the fi rst time since 1996.
Pian Upe is Uganda’s second
largest protected area covering
2,043 sq km. It was one of Africa’s
great game viewing reserves in the
1950s before several decades of
violent ethnic confl ict gripped the
Karamoja region, decimating its
wildlife for bushmeat. “No rangers
could work here as it was so
dangerous. The animals were left
unprotected,” explained senior
warden, Christopher Masaba.
A six-hour drive north from
Kampala, the fi nal 60km followed
a mud road that was so potholed
and fl ooded that the truck carrying
the fi rst batch of fi ve giraff e in late
October got stuck. “We needed to
hire a tractor to pull us out,” said
Dr Robert Aruho, a wildlife vet with
Uganda Wildlife Authority.
When the truck arrived, it got
stuck again and was unable to
deposit them in a temporary
holding pen, so they were allowed
to gallop off the back of the truck
and fl ee into the reserve.
In all, 15 giraff e (11 female and four
male) have been translocated with
the aim of re-establishing
a breeding giraff e population and

theyarebeingmonitoreddailyby

ananti-poachingteam.

It’shopedtheywillflourishlike

thepopulationatMurchisonFalls,

wherenumbershaverisenfrom

around 300 inthemid-90stosome

1,650today–over50%oftheworld’s

Nubiansubspecies.Butwhy

translocatethemiftheyaredoing

sowellatMurchison?

“Wecan’thavealloureggsinone

basket. It’s a unique opportunity for us

to act now and create viable satellite

populations to potentially reverse

extinction before it might happen,”

said Aruho. He explained how a

century ago at Lake Mburo an entire

giraff e population was wiped out by

the ungulate disease rinderpest and

now there is uncertainty in Murchison

as oil exploration is underway.

It’s hoped 25 more giraff e will be

translocated in 2020 and Aruho

believes Pian Upe will comfortably

support 700 giraff es in the future.

Fornow,the 15 havesettledwell.

Giraffetendtoformloose

a¢liationsandsatellite-tracking

devicesattachedtotheossiconeson

theirheads,showthesecondand

thirdbatcharrivalshavemixed.

Itrackedthemforseveraldays

onfootwiththeanti-poaching

rangers,butthetallgrasses

restrictedmetojustfleetingdistant

sightings.Weascendedawind-

burnished inselberg called Hyena

Hill scanning for them. But they

have blended well into an extensive

savannah, which is also home to

impala, roan, oribi, as well as

leopards and cheetah.

“This isn’t an experiment for the

giraff es,” smiled Masaba. “ President

Museveni once asked if we

[conservationists] could talk about

something else in Uganda other

than gorillas? So now we can talk

about our giraff es,” he added.

“They have returned home.”

huge decline

landscape,

le don’t realise

owthreatened they are

Movingday

(clockwisefromtopleft)

One of the gira es in

a temporary holding pen

at Murchison Falls NP;

sta and vets from the

Uganda Wildlife

Authority loading the

gira es at the national

park for translocation to

Pian Upe; on the move;

sedating the gira es