So important is the Uganda Kob to the nation that, along with the gray topped crane, it adorns Uganda’s National Emblem
Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has commenced the translocation of 200 Uganda Kobs from Murchison Falls Conservation Area to Kidepo Valley Conservation Area.
30 males and 170 females will probably be translocated from Kabwoya Wildlife Reserve in Murchison Falls Conservation Area and launched into Kidepo Valley National Park.
This is the second translocation of Kobs to Kidepo Valley National Park in six years, following the translocation of 110 Kobs to the park.
In 2017 UWA carried out an identical operation with the intention to diversify wildlife species in Kidepo Valley National Park which was replicated in Katonga Wildlife Reserve, Lake Mburo National Park and Pian Upe Game Reserve to incorporate the majestic giraffe species.
The Kob inhabitants within the park has since elevated from 4 people in 2017 and is estimated between 350-400 following the 2017 translocation and profitable pure breeding over the past 5 years.
This 12 months’s translocation operation will see the Kob populations within the park enhance to 6 hundred people.
The Executive Director of Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) Sam Mwandha stated that the translocation will see the variety of Kob inhabitants enhance and multiply sooner within the park which is able to guarantee their long-term survival.
“The current population of Kobs in Kidepo Valley National Park is not what we want, therefore we have to reinforce it by taking more Kobs there. Having Kobs in different parks will play a significant role in ensuring their long-term survival”, he stated.
The translocation operation was flagged of by the UWA Director for Conservation John Makombo in Kabwoya Wildlife Reserve. He stated that the translocation addresses one among UWA’s key strategic goal of species, inhabitants restoration in locations the place they initially ranged to make sure their survival particularly in gentle of the present land use adjustments and different developments of their present ranges.
“This exercise is key in the fulfilment of UWA’s mandate of protecting and conserving Uganda’s wildlife resources, we are expanding the species range mindful of the land use changes in the country”, he stated.
The translocation is geared toward re-enforcing the Kob inhabitants in Kidepo Valley National Park to reinforce breeding, genetic variety and ecosystem stability. It may even meet UWA’s strategic goal of restoring species of their former rangelands, improve biodiversity and ecosystem stability and utilization and enhance tourism within the park.
So important is the Uganda Kob to the nation that, along with the gray topped crane, it adorns Uganda‘s National Emblem, the ‘Coat of Arms’ representing the range of wildlife in its imposing presence on all authorities symbols together with the nationwide flag.
The Uganda Kob is analogous in look to the impala however it’s extra sturdily constructed. Only males have horns, that are lyre-shaped, strongly ridged and divergent. Males are barely bigger than females, being 90 to 100 cm on the shoulder, with a mean weight of 94 kg. whereas females are 82 to 92 cm on the shoulder and on common weigh about 63 kg. The white throat patch, muzzle, eye ring and internal ear and the golden to reddish-brown coat/pores and skin coloration differentiates it from different Kob subspecies.
Kobs are sometimes present in open or wooded savannah inside cheap distance from water and in grasslands close to rivers and lakes. About 98% of the current inhabitants are present in nationwide parks and different protected areas.
Uganda Kobs are herbivores and feed largely on grasses and reeds. The females and younger males type free teams of various dimension, which vary based on meals availability, typically transferring alongside watercourses and grazing in valley bottoms. They can journey 150 to 200 km in quest of water throughout the dry season. Females change into sexually mature of their second 12 months whereas males don’t begin breeding till they’re older. Calving takes place on the finish of the wet season; a single calf is born within the months of November or December, after a gestation interval of about 9 months.
