URA recovers lion skin, teeth, 20 buffalo horns

PACKWACH - A suspected trafficker on Sunday night abandoned wildlife trophies including a lion skin, a set of lion's jaws and teeth as well as 20 buffalo horns at Packwach Bridge.

Packwach Bridge is the gateway into West Nile which is also connected to nearby DR Congo and South Sudan. Packwach is also sitting at the western boundary of Uganda's largest park, Murchison Falls National Park which also houses prides of lions estimated at 215.

According to Vincent Seruma, the Spokesperson of the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), the incident took place on Sunday night at the checkpoint mounted by the URA's anti-smuggling unit at Pakwach.

After abandoning the trophies, the suspect escaped across the Albert Nile near the Pakwach Bridge. On checking the bag, which the suspect had left behind, the UPDF officers attached to the anti-smuggling unit landed on the trophies.

It is alleged that the suspect made suspicious movements earlier in the day which were detected by the intelligence of the soldiers. They dispatched intelligence that trailed the suspect and kept feeding the soldiers about his movements.

The plan was to apprehend the suspect at the barricade set up by URA anti-smuggling unit near Packwach Bridge. However, the suspect became elusive as he dodged the roadblock by moving ahead of it and the Bridge at about 1 am.

As the security at the checkpoint closed on him, the suspect abandoned the bag before he took to his heels before he plunged into the river to evade arrest.

The suspect disappeared and is still at large but efforts are being taken to apprehend him, according to Seruma.

"We are going to hand over the items to Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA)," said Seruma. "We would like the public to be vigilant about the poachers because this endangers wild animals which contribute to tourism."

However, Bashir Hangi, the public relations manager of the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), said the recovery of the trophies at Pakwach does not necessarily mean that the lion and buffaloes were poached from Murchison.

"We are going to do tests and analyse to establish whether the animals were poached from Uganda or not," he said, adding that URA has not yet made the trophies available to the top authority on wildlife in the country.

African lions are the largest and most imposing carnivore in Africa, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). They are the only true social cats and have special cultural significance in most countries on the continent.

Each lions worth sh50m

An assessment conducted by a US based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) recently indicated that each individual lion in Queen's Elizabeth National Park generated about $13,500 (sh50m) per year for the national economy in terms of revenue brought into the country.

Lion's trophies feed witchcraft schemes

The lions are hunted for witchcrafts, costumes (skins) for people who wield power like chiefs. The body parts of lions like the teeth are used by witchdoctors to give powers to spouses who will become as powerful as lions. The cubs are trafficked to feed the pet trade and private farms and animal parks.

Lions fight for supremacy

Males are thrown out of the group at the age of three to four years by the dominant male(s) and will try to take over a pride when they get to seven-10 years old. Males usually hole a pride for two-three years only before being ousted by another male or coalition of males, according to WCS. 

Females generally stay in the same area as their mothers, occasionally moving to an adjacent pride when sub-adult, and rear a litter of cubs every two years. The highest mortality of lions is in the cubs with often whole litters being killed by other predators or buffalos.

In Uganda lions are mainly found in the three largest savannah parks: Murchison Falls National Park (MFNP), Kidepo Valley National Park (KVNP) and Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP). In QENP, the Ishasha lions are known for their unique behaviour of climbing trees and have been branded the "Ishasha tree-climbing lions" by tourists. 

An influencing factor was that tourists are willing to stay longer just to see lions. Ecologically, lions play an important role in maintaining ecosystem health and balance by predating on herbivores, often targeting sick individuals and thereby keeping disease down, and disposing of carcasses. This makes lions important to Uganda's economy and ecology, according to WCS.