Hippos in a Ugandan game park are dying of a disease yet to be identified by scientists. Sixty have so far perished in the past two months, wildlife officials said on Tuesday.
”We have been finding the animals dead with saliva oozing out of their mouths. Preliminary results rule out a viral infection but we are not yet sure,” said John Bosco Numwe, the chief warden of Queen Elizabeth National Park.
The park, a tourist destination that is the second largest of Uganda’s eleven game parks and reserves, is home to up to 5 000 hippos, about half the country’s total.
Wildlife officials said two months ago when reports of the deaths of hippos were published, that samples from the carcasses including saliva and body parts were being examined by veterinary doctors at the main government University of Makerere near Kampala.
Contacted for a comment, the executive director for the state-run Uganda Wildlife Authority, Arthur Mugisha, could not confirm the death toll given by his juniors in the field but repeated that examinations of the cause of the deaths are ongoing.
”The cause of the deaths is still under investigation by scientists at Makerere University. Regarding the death toll, I am still waiting for the report,” he said by telephone on Tuesday.
However, Nuwe says that as scientists examine the body samples of the hippos for a possible disease infection, there is suspicion that the deaths may be a result of the hot weather in the park, which has changed the colour of the water bodies there to a deep blue-green.
Hippos stay in water for most of the day and leave it at night for grazing.
”We also suspect the deaths may be due to environmental changes. The recent dry weather led to the turning of Kazinga Channel, Lake Edward and Lake George to a blue-green colour. We suspect this to be toxic. But there are no conclusions yet,” Nuwe said. — Sapa-DPA