An African elephant in Uganda.
Endangered rhinos and elephants are rebounding in Uganda’s wildlife reserves, buoyed by decades-long conservation efforts, the state wildlife agency said Thursday.
“Wildlife populations are on a steady recovery,” the agency said.
Ugandan wildlife saw a precipitous decline from the 1960s through the early 1980s, when conflict and political upheaval allowed for rampant poaching. After northern white and eastern black rhinos were wiped out by hunters in the early 1980s, the government introduced new measures to protect wildlife, including lengthy sentences for poachers, News reports.
Four rhinos where reintroduced in 2005, and today their numbers total 32. Since 1983, the population of buffaloes has grown 77 percent, reaching 44,163 in 2021. And over the same period, the population of elephants grew nearly 300 percent, reaching 7,975.
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