Learning to co-exist with chimpanzees is the only solution that will solely bring to an end to human-wildlife conflict in Bunyoro Region chimpanzee habitation areas, states Hoima’s Bulindi Chimpanzee and Community Project (BCCP) Manager, Mr Moses Semahunge.
His assertion follows two cases in which two chimpanzees have gone as far as making a place of abode in a swampy area in Hoima city’s West Division causing panic among some dwellers that they might one day be physically harmed by the animals that are currently foraging and destroying their fruit and vegetable crops.
In his guidance, the environmental scientist advises people living near chimpanzee habitats to avoid being aggressive by not hurling objects at the chimpanzees and shouting at them for the animals not to turn wild against them.
He says on many occasions, fatal and serious injuries for both young and old have been registered in chimpanzee-host areas near human settlements in the entire Bunyoro region due to human ignorance on how to co-exist with the animals whose habitats haven been destroyed by human activities.
Mr Semahunge says like human beings, once attacked, chimpanzees also resort to defending themselves against what they now come to know as their adversary.
Avoiding felling trees bearing fruits for chimpanzee consumption in a bid to clear the area for agricultural practices, stops the chimpanzees from foraging on food crops, he advises, stressing that it is not rocket science to know that by invading gardens, means that the chimpanzees do not have any fruits on which to feed.
Chimpanzee migrations to human settlements is a result of those animals searching for food after people cut down fig trees which bear fruits for them not considering the bearing that someday the act will ricochet negatively.
“In fact, if you see a chimpanzee within your farmyard, avoid being aggressive to them. Let them pick up the little food items and they will go,” the conservationist advises.
Moreover, Mr Semahunge advises people living adjacent chimpanzee habitats to stop putting on clothes with shouting colours like red saying the chimpanzees tend to easily interpret them as harmful to them and quickly react to defend themselves against what they construe as their enemy.
The expert says it has on many a day been noticed that children eat food leftovers like jack fruits and sugarcane that have partially been eaten by chimpanzees and other wild animals warning that the act can culminate in the transmission of animal diseases to people, posing a health risk to the community.
Responding to the affected people’s calls to translocate the chimpanzees from human settlements, Mr Semahunge says although his organisation liaises with the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) about the matter, it is impossible to translocate them all at the same time.
He cites inadequate manpower, finance and suitable release habitats as the key challenges facing the organisation to effect the operation of trapping and translocating chimpanzees especially from human inhabited areas.
The environmental scientist says despite the human-chimpanzee conflicts still exist, they are reducing through continuous community conservation projects advocacy effected through the community working closely with the relevant authorities like UWA and others.
Mr Semahunge’s guidance, advice and response answer the Rusembe 1 Cell in Hoima city’s West Division widow’s call to translocate the two chimpanzees in the area that are destroying her crops.
The old woman in her 60s, Ms Constance Muhanuuzi, says despite the residents being advised on how to co-exist with chimpanzees, it remains hard for her to plant fig trees in the small plot of her land for the chimpanzees to feed on yet the area was once devoid of the chimpanzees.
In addition, she says since her childhood, she has never seen the swamp have any trees bearing fruits eaten by chimpanzees.
Mr Fred Ayesiza, the Rusembe 1 Cell chairman, says whatever the argument, the presence of the chimpanzees in the area might become harmful to area residents and students and learners of the nearby Canon Njangali secondary school and Green Valley Nursery and primary school respectively.
He insists that UWA should translocate the chimpanzees.
In his response, too, Mr Moses Africa, the warden at Kabwoya community conservation area, says UWA is looking forward to deploying wildlife veterinarians to assist in trapping and translocating the chimpanzees that have made their homes in the human settlement.
Meanwhile, he advises people whose crops have been destroyed by the chimpanzees to immediately report to their village chairpersons, the police and agricultural officers within their localities for compensation.
