Lake Mburo National Park is a
national park located in
Nyabushozi County
Nyabushozi County is the south constituency of western Region, Ugandas district of Kiruhura. This is where Lake Mburo National Park is found. It borders with Isingiro in the south and Mbarara to the south-west The Area is commonly known for bein ...
,
Kiruhura District
Kiruhura District is a district in the Western Region of Uganda. The town of Rushere is the site of the district headquarters.
Location
Kiruhura District is bordered by Kamwenge District and Kyegegwa District to the north, Sembabule District to ...
near
Mbarara
Mbarara City is a city in the Western Region of Uganda and the second largest city in Uganda after Kampala. The city is divided into 6 boroughs of Kakoba Division, Kamukuzi Division, Nyamitanga Division, Biharwe Division, Kakiika Division, ...
in
Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...
.
Location
Lake Mburo National Park is located in
Kiruhura District
Kiruhura District is a district in the Western Region of Uganda. The town of Rushere is the site of the district headquarters.
Location
Kiruhura District is bordered by Kamwenge District and Kyegegwa District to the north, Sembabule District to ...
in the
Western Region of Uganda, about east of
Mbarara
Mbarara City is a city in the Western Region of Uganda and the second largest city in Uganda after Kampala. The city is divided into 6 boroughs of Kakoba Division, Kamukuzi Division, Nyamitanga Division, Biharwe Division, Kakiika Division, ...
and about by road west of
Kampala
Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...
.
History
Lake Mburo was originally gazetted in 1933 as a controlled hunting area and upgraded to a game reserve in 1963.
The region was settled by
Banyankole
Ankole ( Runyankore: ''Nkore''), was a traditional Bantu kingdom in Uganda and lasted from the 15th century until 1967. The kingdom was located in south-western Uganda, east of Lake Edward.
History
Ankole Kingdom is located in the South-Weste ...
Bahima
pastoralists who traditionally herd
Ankole cattle
The Ankole is a breed or group of breeds of African cattle, belonging to the broad Sanga cattle grouping of African breeds. It was probably introduced to Uganda between five and seven hundred years ago by nomadic pastoralists from more north ...
, and still do.
The residents continued to graze their cattle in the reserve, a situation decried by western conservationists, who termed them "invaders" in 1981, but were expelled from their lands after it was upgraded to national park status in 1983, as hoped for by some in the West.[ The Obote government's upgrade decision was intended, in part, to weaken the Banyankole, who supported anti-Obote rebels. It came at the time of the ]Operation Bonanza
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...
massacre of 300,000 people during the Ugandan Bush War
The Ugandan Bush War, also known as the Luwero War, the Ugandan Civil War or the Resistance War, was a civil war fought in Uganda by the official Ugandan government and its armed wing, the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA), against a number ...
. As the evicted pastoralists were not compensated for lost grazing land or assisted with resettling, many remained hostile to the upgrade. The rangeland outside the park was subsequently subdivided into small ranges and subsistence farming plots.[
In 1985, the second Obote regime fell and the previous residents of Lake Mburo re-occupied the park's land, expelling park staff, destroying infrastructure, and killing wildlife. Less than half of the park's original land area was eventually re-gazetted by the ]National Resistance Movement
The National Resistance Movement ( sw, Harakati za Upinzani za Kitaifa; abbr. NRM) has been the ruling party in Uganda since 1986.
History
The National Resistance Movement (NRM) was founded as a liberation movement that waged a guerrilla ...
government in 1986.[
Within the park there are still culturally significant locations, such as Rubanga, where sacrifices were once made to the gods, Ruroko is where the semi-mythical ]Bachwezi
The Kingdom of the Banyakitara, also known as Union of Kitara (Union of Chwezi) or Chwezi Union, and better known as the Kitara Empire, was an empire in East Africa. It existed in the region from around the early bronze age to about 500 C.E. ...
lived, and Kigarama was where the pages (servants) of the king used to stay.[
]
Wildlife
The park hosts zebra
Zebras (, ) (subgenus ''Hippotigris'') are African equines with distinctive black-and-white striped coats. There are three living species: the Grévy's zebra (''Equus grevyi''), plains zebra (''E. quagga''), and the mountain zebra (''E. zebr ...
, hippopotamus
The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extan ...
, impala, warthog
''Phacochoerus'' is a genus in the family Suidae, commonly known as warthogs (pronounced ''wart-hog''). They are pigs who live in open and semi-open habitats, even in quite arid regions, in sub-Saharan Africa. The two species were formerly co ...
, common eland
The common eland (''Taurotragus oryx''), also known as the southern eland or eland antelope, is a savannah and plains antelope found in East and Southern Africa. It is a species of the family Bovidae and genus '' Taurotragus''. An adult male is ...
, African buffalo and over 300 bird species. Predators may include the lion, leopards, hyenas, genets, civet
A civet () is a small, lean, mostly nocturnal mammal native to tropical Asia and Africa, especially the tropical forests. The term civet applies to over a dozen different species, mostly from the family Viverridae. Most of the species diversit ...
s, jackal
Jackals are medium-sized canids native to Africa and Eurasia. While the word "jackal" has historically been used for many canines of the subtribe canina, in modern use it most commonly refers to three species: the closely related black-backed ...
s and serval
The serval (''Leptailurus serval'') is a wild cat native to Africa. It is widespread in sub-Saharan countries, except rainforest regions. Across its range, it occurs in protected areas, and hunting it is either prohibited or regulated in ran ...
cats, and since 2015 there is a population of Rothschild giraffes.[
The protected area was considered a 'lion conservation unit' by the IUCN in 2005, despite lions no longer occurring here. Lions were eliminated by the indigenous people in the 1980s, but there were reports in early 2015 of a single lion roaming the areas of Miriti, Kashara, Warukiri and Rwonyo. Because this was considered problematic by the local residents, a solution offered was to translocate the lion to the zoo. At the same time, park management floated the idea of reintroducing lions to the park.][ The lion roaming the area eventually attacked and injured three people, causing a large crowd of the enraged community to hound the animal with stones and sticks. The ]Uganda Wildlife Authority
The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) is a semi-autonomous Ugandan government agency that aims to conserve, manage and regulate Uganda’s wildlife. "UWA is mandated to ensure sustainable management of wildlife resources and supervise wildlife a ...
made the decision to kill the animal, as the community was angry and the situation had become dangerous. It is thought to have migrated from Kagera Game Reserve in Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...
.
A problem facing grazers in the park are the changes in habitat
In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...
occurring over time. Most areas which were formerly grassland in the park have changed into bushveld
The Bushveld (from af, bosveld, af, bos 'bush' and af, veld) is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, sub-tropical woodland ecoregion of Southern Africa. It encompasses most of Limpopo Province and a small part of ...
or forest as the invasive native shrubby tree species '' Acacia hockii'' has colonised these areas. The acacia in turn is protecting other bush and tree species, which are growing faster and thicker. This afforestation is forcing animals into the surrounding ranches and private land, causing them to be resented as pests. Uganda has tried to organise these areas into controlled hunting areas for sport
Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...
, but land owners complain the money this generates is being spent on community projects such as schools, health centres and roads rather than addressing individual challenges resulting from problem animals. The procurement of an excavator for habitat management, different wildfire
A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...
regimes, fencing, translocating excess animals, wildlife ranching for the hunting industry, community tourism, licensing more sport hunting companies and increasing quotas may alleviate this; the local community is permitted to uproot acacia for firewood, but this has proved ineffective. Hyenas and bushbuck
The Cape bushbuck (''Tragelaphus sylvaticus'') is a common and a widespread species of antelope in sub-Saharan Africa.Wronski T, Moodley Y. (2009)Bushbuck, harnessed antelope or both? ''Gnusletter'', 28(1):18-19. Bushbuck are found in a wide ra ...
in particular are considered problem animals.[
]
See also
* Mbarara District
References
External links
Giraffes will be translocated to Lake Mburo National Park
Official government site
Lake Mburo Official Travel Guide
Lake Mburo Information Portal
Lake Mburo National Park Official Website
{{authority control
Important Bird Areas of Uganda
Mbarara District
National parks of Uganda
Ramsar sites in Uganda
Victoria Basin forest–savanna mosaic