Witchdoctors, poachers wipe out Crested Crane
MORE than 100 Crested Cranes have been captured and exported illegally, according to a report released on Monday. Commercial poaching, according to the report, is likely to deprive Uganda of its treasured national bird.
By Gerald Tenywa
MORE than 100 Crested Cranes have been captured and exported illegally, according to a report released on Monday. Commercial poaching, according to the report, is likely to deprive Uganda of its treasured national bird.
The Crested Crane is increasingly being removed from the wild and this is unsustainable, said Achilles Byaruhanga, the executive head of Nature Uganda, one of the organisations which issued the report.
“Mitigation measures are needed to minimise this threat to the Grey Crowned Crane,’’ he added.
Massive encroachment on wetlands, the breeding grounds for the Crane, has also been blamed for the disappearing bird, according to the report.
It said the population of the Grey Crowned Cranes in Uganda has been declining.
“Evidence from past studies carried out between 1980 and 2000 in major habitats of the species revealed that the national population had declined from 50,000 to 20,000 birds,’’ stated the report.
Sources said the cranes are smuggled by Tanzanian wildlife traders who export them to Europe, where they are kept as pets.
The Crane chicks are sold for sh40,000, while the adults fetch sh30,000.
The report was issued following a six month study commissioned earlier this year by the Wildlife Conservation Trust, International Crane Foundation and Nature Uganda, a partner of BirdLife International.
Titled, “African Crane Trade Project: Uganda case study,’’ the report added that local witchdoctors were also killing the Crane to make love portions.
Its claws, beak, feathers and eggs are crushed, mixed with herbs and sold to clients seeking love, it said.
“Over 40 cranes were recorded to have ended in the shrines of traditional healers,’’ the report stated.
The crane is also thought to be a symbol of royalty and a good omen and keeping one is said to cast evil spirits from children, the report added.
Local people in Masaka, Rakai and Isingiro working with experts from Nature Uganda, between February and July, discovered that five Tanzanian traders, two of them based in Kampala, were involved in the illegal transactions.
At the Nakivaali refugee camp in Insingiro, ostrich and crane feathers and eggs are sold openly and smuggled across the border to Tanzania, said the report.
Other birds like pelicans are sold for meat at Lukaya food market, a popular stopover for travellers on the Kampala-Masaka highway.
The report blamed the threat to the Crane on high ranking businessmen who employ the and supply of the Crane.
“Low incomes have been behind the general decline in the population of the grey crowned cranes,’’ the report explains.
The birds are captured using poison, metallic traps, snares and hooks in the process maiming and the killing of the Crane.
The report added that the traders use wire mesh boxes to transport the Crane across Lake Victoria into Tanzania.
In transit, the birds go without adequate food. At the destination, their movement is restricted, causing the bird to suffer high levels of stress.
Alternatively, its wings are clipped to make it unable to fly and to breed.
MORE than 100 Crested Cranes have been captured and exported illegally, according to a report released on Monday. Commercial poaching, according to the report, is likely to deprive Uganda of its treasured national bird.
The Crested Crane is increasingly being removed from the wild and this is unsustainable, said Achilles Byaruhanga, the executive head of Nature Uganda, one of the organisations which issued the report.
“Mitigation measures are needed to minimise this threat to the Grey Crowned Crane,’’ he added.
Massive encroachment on wetlands, the breeding grounds for the Crane, has also been blamed for the disappearing bird, according to the report.
It said the population of the Grey Crowned Cranes in Uganda has been declining.
“Evidence from past studies carried out between 1980 and 2000 in major habitats of the species revealed that the national population had declined from 50,000 to 20,000 birds,’’ stated the report.
Sources said the cranes are smuggled by Tanzanian wildlife traders who export them to Europe, where they are kept as pets.
The Crane chicks are sold for sh40,000, while the adults fetch sh30,000.
The report was issued following a six month study commissioned earlier this year by the Wildlife Conservation Trust, International Crane Foundation and Nature Uganda, a partner of BirdLife International.
Titled, “African Crane Trade Project: Uganda case study,’’ the report added that local witchdoctors were also killing the Crane to make love portions.
Its claws, beak, feathers and eggs are crushed, mixed with herbs and sold to clients seeking love, it said.
“Over 40 cranes were recorded to have ended in the shrines of traditional healers,’’ the report stated.
The crane is also thought to be a symbol of royalty and a good omen and keeping one is said to cast evil spirits from children, the report added.
Local people in Masaka, Rakai and Isingiro working with experts from Nature Uganda, between February and July, discovered that five Tanzanian traders, two of them based in Kampala, were involved in the illegal transactions.
At the Nakivaali refugee camp in Insingiro, ostrich and crane feathers and eggs are sold openly and smuggled across the border to Tanzania, said the report.
Other birds like pelicans are sold for meat at Lukaya food market, a popular stopover for travellers on the Kampala-Masaka highway.
The report blamed the threat to the Crane on high ranking businessmen who employ the and supply of the Crane.
“Low incomes have been behind the general decline in the population of the grey crowned cranes,’’ the report explains.
The birds are captured using poison, metallic traps, snares and hooks in the process maiming and the killing of the Crane.
The report added that the traders use wire mesh boxes to transport the Crane across Lake Victoria into Tanzania.
In transit, the birds go without adequate food. At the destination, their movement is restricted, causing the bird to suffer high levels of stress.
Alternatively, its wings are clipped to make it unable to fly and to breed.