Title
Biodiversity Surveys of Kabwoya Wildlife Reserve and Kaiso Tonya Community Wildlife Area
Author(s)
A.J Plumptre, N. Mutungire,H.Mugabe,B.Kirunda,C.Bogezi,R.Kityo,M.Behangana,J.Turyeigurira and S.Prinsloo
Abstract
The Kabwoya Wildlife Reserve and the Kaiso-Tonya Community Wildlife Area were established following the revision of the protected area estate in Uganda in the late 1990s. A decree of parliament in 2002 created the two protected areas from the former Kaiso Tonya Controlled Hunting area which had been gazetted in 1963. No surveys of the biodiversity of these two areas have previously been made, although surveys of large mammals had been made by Uganda National Parks in 1982, 1992 and 1996 and by Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) in 2006 (ground count) and 2007 (aerial survey). Survey teams from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Makerere University assessed the species of large and small mammals, birds, amphibians and plants (ferns and higher plants) in this area in February and March 2009. A mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods were used to provide species lists for the park and also measures of relative abundance and species accumulation curves. A total of 30 mammal species, 20 reptile and 18 amphibian species, 176 bird species, and 167 plant species were recorded for the two protected areas. The area did not have any particularly threatened or endangered species but does seem to be an important area for migratory birds with large flocks of some species from Europe and north Africa. Signs of illegal human impact were minimal with most concentrated in the Kaiso-Tonya Community Wildlife Area but compared with other sites in Uganda these were not abundant.
Keywords
biodiversity, savanna, Kabwoya Wildlife Reserve, surveys
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