UGANDA HOLIDAY
What no one tells you about Uganda is how green it is. The garden of Africa, it’s a shock of emerald flora. Roads are lined by mango, jackfruit and banana trees, humpy hills form shamrock-colored tea and coffee plantations and lakes and rivers are flanked by clumps of tall elephant grass. Its tangles of dense jungle and forests lay home to some of the world’s favorite primates and its plains are decorated with acacia trees and thickets of grassland.
This swathe of greenery is juxtaposed with red soil, considered among the planet’s most fertile. Compared to its neighbors, Sudan, Kenya and Tanzania, Uganda is a garden of fecundity. Plant something in Uganda and it can’t help itself but grow.
Uganda is renowned for its physical beauty. Strung like a necklace around its borders are some of the continent’s greatest geographical landmarks. A full circuit would take you from the shores of lake Victoria, queen of African lakes, to the Virunga and Rwenzori mountains, the western rift valley lakes Edward and Albert, the Nile and mount Elgon.
The country encompasses golden savannah, semi dessert thirsty lands, equatorial rainforests and farmlands so fertile that a seed dropped on the ground will sprout and bear fruits without benefit of care. Often described as the pearl of Africa, this rush tropical land is the true birth place of the Nile, where the great river spills out of lake Victoria and starts it long journey to the Mediterranean sea.
This pearl is very famous for hosting 50% of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas and other various primate species in its thick tropical forests of Bwindi impenetrable national park and Mgahinga gorilla park
Uganda Wildlife Experience
Wildlife to see in Uganda is what comes to everyone’s mind planning an adventure holiday in Uganda. From the forest treks and hikes to game drive and walking safari. Some looking forward for the famous big five on their safaris, others concentrating more on primates in the thick jungles of Uganda.
The official checklist of mammals found in Uganda numbers 345 species with both West and East African mammals being well represented. Using the same distinction between small and large mammals as that of the checklist, 132 of the species recorded in Uganda can be classified as large mammals and the remainder are small animals, as latter grouping comprising 94 bat species, 70 rat and mice, 33 shrews and otter, 8 gerbils, 4 elephant shrews and a solitary golden mole.
Uganda Primates
Primates are exceptionally well represented in Uganda. There is a wide spread disagreement about the taxonomical status of many primate species and subspecies, but the present checklist includes 13 diurnal and six nocturnal species. Six of the diurnal primates found in Uganda are guenon monkey, member of the taxonomically controversial family cercopithecus. The vervet monkey and blue guenon monkeys for instance are both widespread African species known by at least five different common names and both have over 20 recognized races, some of while are considered by some authorities to be separate species. Having been forced to try to make sense of this taxonomical maze in order to work out what is what, I might as well save you the effort and provide details of local races where they are known to me.
Apes found of Uganda
The great apes of the family Pongidae are closely related to humans that a very partial observer might well place them in the same family as us. Its though that chimpanzee is more closely related to human than it is to any other ape.
There are four apes species, of which two are found in Uganda.
Mountain Gorillas in Uganda
In Uganda, mountain gorillas are residents of Bwindi impenetrable national park and Mgahinga gorilla national park.
Gorillas are the bulkiest member of the primate family; an adult gorilla may grow up to 1.8m high athough they seldom stand fully upright and weigh up to 210kg. Three subspecies of gorilla are recognized. The most common race, the western lowland gorilla (G.g.gorilla) is not present in Uganda, but an estimate of 40,000 live in the rainforest of west and central Africa. The endangered east lowland gorilla (G.g.gaueri) is restricted to patches of the forest in eastern Congo, where there is an estimate of 4,000 animals. The most threatened race of gorillas is the mountain gorilla (G.g.beringei). in 1993, their number was estimated to be 640 but now there is an increase to 1063 due to conservation boost.
Chimpanzees in Uganda
Chimpanzee live in most of these forests in western Uganda and they have been habituated for tourists in areas of Kibale forest national park, Kyambura gorge and Kalinzu forest of Queen Elizabeth national park, Bugoma forest and Budongo and Kanyiyo Pabidi forests in Murchison falls national park.
Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) is a distinctive black coated ape, more closely related to human than any other living creature. Chimps live in loosely-bonded troops of between 10 and 120 animals, normally based around a of related males with an internal hierarchy topped by an alpha male. Females are generally less strongly bonded to their core group than are males; emigrating between communities is not unusual. Mother-child bonds are strong. Daughters normally leave their mother only after they reach maturity, at which point relations between them may be served.
Mother-son relations have been known to survive for over 40 years. A troop has a well defined core territory which is fiercely defended by regular boundary patrols.
Chimpanzees are primarily frugivorous(fruit eating) but they do not eat meat on occasion; young baboons, various types of monkeys, small antelopes and bush pigs. Most kills are opportunistic, but stalking of prey is not unusual. Cannibalism has also been observed. The first recorded instance of chimp using a tool was at Gombe stream in Tanzania, where they regularly use modified sticks to fish in termite mounds. I n west Africa, they have been observed cracking nuts open using a stone and anvil.
Chimpanzees are amongst the most intelligent of animals; in language studies in the USA , they have been taught to communicate in American sign language, and have demonstrated their understanding in some instances by even creating compound words for new objects (such as rock-berry to describe a nut)
