Conservation centres seek government support in feeding animals

The COVID-19 pandemic seems to have not only affected the business community and tourism sector but also the conservation sector.

Following measures put in place by government to contain the spread of the coronavirus, the Uganda Wildlife Conservation Education Centre and Ngamba Chimpanzee sanctuary are now struggling to support the smooth running of its daily activities.

The centre’s Executive Director Dr James Musinguzi says they have now made a request to the government for support to ensure that animal welfare is taken care of. He says they have submitted a request of Shs1.5 billion to government through the National COVID 19 taskforce.

“We are optimistic that some help will be availed because we can no longer handle the situation by ourselves,” he told Daily Monitor on Wednesday.

The centre has over 253 animals under captivity including cats, reptiles among others.

“We have nine lions, two cheetahs and leopards and their daily diet is beef. Lions eat 8kgs of meat daily and each kilogram goes for Shs12000 and on average we spend Shs96000 on lions, Shs48000 on hyenas, Shs24000 on leopards and Shs40000 on savo-cats to buy chicken,” said Mr Musinguzi.

He noted that the centre collects Shs3.5 billion every year from school children, adults both locals and international who come to tour the conservation centre, but now nothing is being collected because of the lockdown.

According to the Executive Director Ngamba Chimpanzee sanctuary Dr Joshua Rukundo, he faces the same issues.

“The lockdown has affected the cash flow of Chimpanzee Trust since all its operations are dependent on tourists and donors. Chimpanzee Trust will not be able to sustain its operations at Ngamba Island for the rest of the year,” he said.

A chimpanzee needs to consume about 10-15% of its body mass in fruits and vegetables to be healthy and well.

“We are currently only able to give about 6% of the body weight since our chimpanzees are not as active as wild chimpanzees. To achieve this, the chimpanzees on Ngamba Island are fed four times a day, in measured portions to ensure that all receive a relatively adequate share. This is done every 3-4 hours between 7am and 6:30pm,” Dr Rukundo said.

He said daily feeding of one chimpanzee at Ngamba Island costs Shs16,060 and Shs481,800 for a month. This includes the cost of procuring and delivering the food to them.

“Therefore the Trust needs a total of Shs24,090,000 to feed all the 50 chimpanzees within its care at Ngamba Island which we don’t have per now and we call upon the government of Uganda to render us support,” said Dr Rukundo.