Country Area - 236,040 km²
Range Area - 17,048 km² (7%)
Protected Range - 73%
Information Quality Index (IQI) - 0.51
CITES Appendix - I
Listing Year - 1991 (year of accession)
Elephant numbers in Uganda were reduced to a very low level by the late 1980s as a result of poaching for ivory and conflict for land with Uganda’s dense human population (Uganda National Parks, 1991). Since then elephant populations, which are mostly confined to a small number of protected areas, are believed to have slowly increased.
Elephant poaching is currently at a significantly lower level than it was during the years of civil unrest and insecurity during the late 1970s and early 1980s but an upward trend has been detected in recent years (Harrison et al., 2015).
In recent analyses of seizure data in ETIS, prepared for CITES, Uganda has been identified as a country with a worrying involvement in illegal ivory trade (CITES Secretariat, 2012; Milliken et al., 2013, 2016). Uganda was requested to prepare a National Ivory Action Plan which was finalized in May 2013 and a number of progress reports have been submitted (CITES, n.d.-a).
In 2015, as part of the Elephant Protection Initiative, Uganda developed a draft national strategy for elephant management.
The estimated number of elephants in areas surveyed in the last ten years in Uganda is 4,923 ± 2,012 at the time of the last survey for each area. There may be an additional 653 elephants in areas not systematically surveyed. These guesses likely represent a minimum number, and actual numbers could be higher than those reported. Together, this estimate and guess apply to 13,455 km², which is 79% of the estimated known and possible elephant range. There remains an additional 21% of the estimated range for which no elephant population estimates are available.
Although there has been an increase of nearly 1,000 elephants in the estimates for Uganda, confidence limits associated with these surveys are high, and this increase is not statistically significant.
Elephants in Uganda are largely confined to protected areas in the western region of the country, and most are thought to be savanna elephants. Some forest-savanna hybrids have been found in the south-west (Mondol et al., 2015).
An aerial total count of Kidepo Valley (including the Kidepo Valley NP and Karenga Community Wildlife Area) in the extreme north-east of Uganda was carried out in 2014, giving an estimate of 621 elephants (Wanyama et al., 2014c). This replaces a total count estimate of 454 from 2005 (Rwetsiba & Wanyama, 2005). Other aerial total counts were conducted in 2008 (WCS Flight Programme, 2008) and 2012 (Wanyama, 2012) giving estimates of 387 and 502 respectively. An aerial sample count carried out in 2012 gave an estimate of 656 ± 663 (Wanyama et al., 2014c). In the 1990s, elephants of Kidepo mostly occurred in a single group in the vicinity of the park headquarters, but as numbers have increased, their range has expanded into the Kidepo Valley to the east of the park, and into the Karenga corridor to the south. The range map has been amended and a new area of known range was added to show this. There are believed to be movements between Kidepo NP and adjacent range in southern Sudan and, sporadically, into north-western Kenya (Grossmann et al., 2008).
There are still small numbers of elephants in the Otze Forest but they are probably not resident and come from Nimule National Park in South Sudan (Tomor, 2015). A guess of six from 2004 (Lamprey, pers. comm., 2015) replaces the earlier guess of 200 from 1998 (Michelmore, pers. comm., 1998).
An aerial sample count was conducted in the Murchison Falls Conservation Area (including Murchison Falls National Park) in 2014, resulting in an estimate of 1,352 ± 900 (Wanyama, et al., 2014b). This estimate replaces a comparable one of 516 ± 635 from 2005 (Rwetsiba & Wanyama, 2005). Additional aerial sample count surveys were conducted in 2010 (Rwetsiba & Wanyama, 2010) and 2012 (Rwetsiba et al., 2012) giving estimates of 904 ± 333 and 1,617 ± 1,174 respectively. The majority of elephants are found on the north bank of the Victoria Nile, but there are extensive patches of woodland on the south bank and elephants there may be under-recorded in aerial surveys. Oil exploration has been carried out in the northern part of Murchison Falls NP and some road and well infrastructure has been constructed. In order to study the impact of this development, a number of elephants were fitted with radio-collars (Plumptre et al., 2015a) and the known range has been extended to the north-east using information from this study.
The status of elephants in East Madi and the Madi corridor, north of Murchison Falls National Park, is uncertain. An aerial sample survey carried out in 2008 found no elephants in the area (WCS Flight Programme, 2008) but 19 were reported as having been seen in the corridor in 2009 (Edward, 2009). Radio-collared elephants have been recorded moving north from Murchison NP but not as far as East Madi, so this area has been changed to possible range (Rwetsiba et al., 2012).
An aerial sample count of the Queen Elizabeth Conservation Area (including Queen Elizabeth National Park) was carried out in 2014 giving an estimate of 2,904 ± 1,800 (Wanyama et al., 2014a). This replaces a comparable 2006 estimate of 2,959 ± 1,476. Another sample count was carried out in 2010, giving an estimate of 2,502 ± 1,440 (Plumptre et al., 2010). Total counts were conducted in 2010, 2012 and 2014 giving estimates of 1,570, 3,018 and 2,561 respectively (Plumptre et al., 2010; Wanyama, 2012; Wanyama et al., 2014a). Part of the reason for this variability in numbers may be movements of elephants between Queen Elizabeth NP and Virunga National Park across the border in the DRC. This has been demonstrated by movements of elephants fitted with radio collars in Virunga NP in 2015 (Douglas-Hamilton, pers. comm., 2016b).
An aerial total count was carried out in the Toro Semliki Wildlife Reserve in 2013, giving a minimum estimate of 27 elephants (Wanyama, 2013) and the UWA provides an informed guess of 27 (Uganda Wildlife Authority, 2016). This replaces a guess of 80 from 1998 (Michelmore, pers. comm., 1998). Forty- seven elephants were counted in another aerial total count in 2010 (Wanyama, 2013).
There are some new guesses from other areas of elephant range in the vicinity of Queen Elizabeth NP, including 11 in the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park and 43 in Bwindi National Park (Uganda Wildlife Authority, 2016). A guess of 30 from the Semliki National Park (Michelmore, pers. comm., 1998) and one of 20 in Rwenzori National Park (Keigwin, pers. comm., 2005) have been retained from the AESR 2007.
There is a new estimate of 487 elephants in Kibale National Park from a dung count in 2010 (Uganda Wildlife Authority, 2016) which replaces an estimate of 393 ± 210 (Wanyama, 2005). There is a remnant population of perhaps 20 elephants in the Katonga Game Reserve, east of Kibale NP (Uganda Wildlife Authority, 2016). These elephants are thought to have once been part of a larger population extending to Kibale NP, but are now isolated.
Elephants are still believed to occur in the Sango Bay area in the south of Uganda and there is a new guess of 36 (Uganda Wildlife Authority, 2016) replacing an old guess of 30 (Michelmore, pers. comm., 1998).