The Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC) is seeking strategies to address the challenge of low reproduction levels among animals, particularly the two rhinos kept at the Entebbe Zoo.
While appearing before the Parliament’s Committee of Commissions, Statutory Authorities, and State Enterprises (COSASE) on July 9, 2024, the UWEC Executive Director, James Musinguzi, attributed the failure of the two rhinos to reproduce to the environment they are being raised in, stating that the rhinos perceive each other as siblings.
“They haven’t reproduced because once they are in captivity, they tend to see each other as brothers and sisters,” Musinguzi said.
To address this, Musinguzi revealed that UWEC is working on a project to introduce competition by bringing in either a male or female rhino, with the aim of stimulating reproduction.
“We are working on a project where we want to introduce competition. So we want to bring in either a male or a female, so we create some competition so that they can produce,” Musinguzi said.
However, Medard Sseggona, the Busiiro County East Member of Parliament, argued that the issue is not a lack of competition, as rhinos are already mating, but potentially infertility. He pointed out that other privately-owned wildlife centers have larger rhino populations than Entebbe Zoo.
“There is someone who has a private zoo known as Ziwwa Sanctuary. There are more rhinos. But for us, in a place where we pump money into a government facility, there are only two. To me, it is a big concern because they are getting old,” Sseggona noted.
Founded in the 1950s to accommodate confiscated and injured wildlife and the orphan animals that were confiscated from smugglers, the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre is a fun and exciting place that attracts several tourists, both local and international, who come to see and learn about the animals of Uganda and the ecosystem in which they live.
