Uganda Excited About The Historic Return of Tigers

Ugandans can’t hold their excitement following the historical return of Tigers after over 6 decades of being extinct to boost the country’s tourism product base. The pair of majestic tigers (male and female) was imported from South African about 8 months ago and finally unveiled at the Uganda Wildlife Education Center (in Entebbe). This makes Uganda the first East African country to shelter the largest members of the cat family.

“The tigers, upon arrival into the country on 7^th March had to undergo institutional quarantine as well as medical examination to make them fit to live within the Center”. Said Dr. James Musinguzi, the Executive Director Uganda Wildlife Education Center (UWEC). He further revealed that these large Cats once lived in Uganda until the 1970s when they suddenly became extinct. It should be noted that few countries in Africa shelter the tigers and even those that home them are in the Zoos and Sanctuaries not in the wild.

The Tigers that were imported are Bengal tigers (sometimes referred as Indian tigers) because they are native to the Indian Sub-Continent and have for the 8 months adjusted and lived well within the UWEC environment. Tigers are classified as endangered species under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species with their evidently small World population being affected by poaching and habitat loss from intensive logging and years of modernization. With the introduction of the tiger pair in UWEC, there is hope of fulfilling the Center’s roles of recreation, education and research among others.

UWEC Executive Director also revealed that the tigers were exchanged for over 25 monkeys from Uganda and all the Government needed was to foot the shipping cost ($2000) from South Africa to Uganda. These big Cats consume over 10 kilograms of meal daily, hence requiring Shs 150,000 per day. Interestingly, there are also plans of introducing other stunning wildlife species such as Kangaroo among others and setting up regional zoos across the country.

About Tigers

Tigers are scientifically known as Panthera tigris and are the largest Cat species. Tigers are characterized by dark vertical stripes across their orange-brown fur, as well as lighter underside. These Cats are native to Asia where they live in the wild and captivity while in Africa only live in the latter. This stunning animal is the National animal for four Asian countries that is India, South Korea, Bangladesh and Malaysia. As of 2015, the World Tiger population stood at between 3062 and 3948 individuals