Tourism is a recreational travel that people do, Uganda has
been one of the African countries that has attracted prominent number of
tourists from different parts of the world. Uganda the pearl of Africa is one
of the fastest growing economies in Africa, there are so many building blocks
of this economy but one of the vital one that she is proud of is her tourist
attraction that she exhibits to tourists, with a lot of nature, culture and
amusement to offer. A tree did not start as a tree it started as a seedling
sown in the soil and because of the rich nutrient of the soil and care given to
it, it turned it into a tree, there are companies that have thrived and are
still pushing hard to strengthen the tourism industry in Uganda. One of them is
Interior safaris East Africa, one of the veins of the heart of Uganda tourism.
Uganda
has one of the best climates in Africa and in the whole world, this has maintained her tourist
attractions which has made it possible for tourism to occur. One of Uganda’s
tourist attractions are national parks, Uganda has numerous national parks like
Murchison Falls National Park often known as Kabalega mostly visited by
tourists because of its natural beauty, it’s located in the northern region of
Uganda it is 1,344 square miles large this makes it the largest wildlife
reserve. Queen Elizabeth National
Park which is 1,978 square kilometers in size and Lake Mburo National Park etc.
Uganda also has unique eye-catching features in the national parks like trees,
different species of birds and mountain gorillas. Interesting and enjoyable
activities at your view from different parts of the parks which includes
birding, chimpanzee tracking, cultural visits like meeting pygmies from Batwa
who were the first inhabitant of montane rainforest, hot air balloon safaris
and boat cruise. Due to the magnificent hospitality that Ugandans give tourists,
has increased their interest in touring the country because they make them feel
at home. All national parks in Uganda have lodges and hotels at different
points of the national parks which provide the tourists with good care, great
meals and fancy accommodation. When it comes to the longest river in the world
don’t look farther because it’s here in Uganda as well as mount Elgon, these
are places tourists won’t stop talking about because they are enticing and rich
in nature.
Life
has been made easy in case you would love to tour Uganda; with the help of
Interior Safaris East Africa you can be anywhere you want to be. Interior
safaris East Africa has been in the center of the tourism industry in Uganda,
it was founded by Elasmus Godfrey Tumwesigye in 2013. It has its head office in
Uganda. Interior safaris East Africa cares so much about their customers to the
extent that we have Agents in Europe for tourists interested in bare a peek of
the pear of Africa and the great lakes at large. Interior Safaris East Africa is surely the
right package deal to take you around Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania because it
comes With lots of surprises from their services, Interior Safaris East Africa
gives the best to its customers, and that’s why before tourists decide on the
place they would love to visit they first speak to a tour consultant from Interior
Safaris East Africa who will later give them advice about the package that will
fit in their budget that they will be comfortable with.
Connect now to be in a
place enriched with nature.
Information from https://www.wwf.org.uk/learn/fascinating-facts/polar-bears
photo: Florian Schulz/visionofthewild.com
1. POLAR BEARS ARE CLASSIFIED AS MARINE MAMMALS
Because they spend most of their lives on the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean depending on the ocean for their food & habitat, polar bears are the only bear species to be considered marine mammals
photo Jon Aars/Norwegian Polar Institute/WWF-Canon
2. POLAR BEARS ARE ACTUALLY BLACK, NOT WHITE
Polar bear fur is translucent, and only appears white because it reflects visible light. Beneath all that thick fur, their skin is jet black.
Photo: naturepl.com/Steven Kazlowski/WWF
3. THEY CAN SWIM CONSTANTLY FOR DAYS AT A TIME.
As well as reaching speeds of up to 6mph in the water, polar bears can swim for long distances and steadily for many hours to get from one piece of ice to another.
Their large paws are specially adapted for swimming, which they'll use to paddle through the water while holding their hind legs flat like a rudder.
photo: Steve Morello/WWF
4. LESS THAN 2% OF POLAR BEAR HUNTS ARE SUCCESSFUL
Although about half of a polar bear's life is spent hunting for food, their hunts are rarely successful. Polar bears main prey consists of ringed seals and bearded seals,
though they will scavenge carcasses or settle for small mammals, birds, eggs, and vegetation
photo: Public Domain
5. SCIENTISTS CAN EXTRACT POLAR BEAR DNA FROM JUST THEIR FOOTPRINTS
an innovative new technique developed by WWF and DNA specialist firm SPYGEN allows scientists to isolate DNA from a polar bear's footprint in the snow.
Two tiny scoops of snow from a polar bear track revealed not just the DNA of the polar bear that made it, but even from a seal, it had recently eaten.
photo from WWF.org Website
6. THEY FACE MORE THREATS THAN CLIMATE CHANGE
While climate change remains the greatest threat to the polar bear's survival, that is not all that the predator is up against. The oil and gas industry is turning its eyes to the arctic, and with it comes potential risks of habitat destruction from oil exploration work. Contact with oil spills can reduce the insulating effect of a bear's fur requiring them to use more energy to get warm, and can poison them if ingested. Polar bears can also be exposed to toxic chemicals such as pesticides through their prey, which can affect a bear's biological functioning and ability to reproduce.
photo: Klein & Hubert/ WWF
7. GRIZZLY-POLAR BEAR HYBRIDS EXIST
As recently as 2006 genetic testing confirmed the existence of polar bear-grizzly bear hybrids, also known as 'grolar bears' or pizzly bears'. The hybrid physically resembles an intermediate between the two species, but as wild hybrids are usually birthed from polar bear mothers they are raised and behave like polar bears. The ability for polar bears and grizzly bears to interbreed is unsurprising when you consider that polar bears evolved from brown bears as recently as 150,000 years ago.
image: WWF-Canada
8. THERE ARE AS MANY AS 19 SUBPOULATIONS OF POLAR BEAR
The total population of approximately 26,000 wild polar bears is divided into 19 units or subpopulations, of these just 1 subpopulation is increasing, 5 are stable and 4 are in decline. The remaining 9 have not been assessed as they are data deficient. - we simply do not have enough information about them to know how they are doing.
photo: Steve Marello/WWF
9. MALE POLAR BEARS CAN WEIGH AS MUCH AS 10 MEN
Male polar bears can weigh up to 800kg and are twice the size of females. This, in addition to the fact that they can measure up to 3 metres long, making polar bears the largest land carnivore in the world.
photo WWF-US/Elizabeth Kruger
10 THEY CAN SMELL THEIR PREY UP TO A KILOMETER AWAY
Polar Bears have a very strong sense of smell, which they use to find seal breathing holes in the ice. Once it has found the hole, the bear will wait patiently until the seal comes up for air to attack. They can even detect a seal in the water beneath a metre of compacted snow.
PLEASE ADOPT A POLAR BEAR AT support.wwf.org.uk
Other cool facts about Polar Bears:
They can overheat when in running in the summer and when temperatures rise above freezing.
The clean themselves by rolling in snow.
They can reach speeds of up to 25 mph on land and swim 6mph.
They can live up to 30 years
A female polar bear will have an average of 5 litters of cubs her lifetime
SAFARI TRIPS TO SEE POLAR BEARS!
Polar Bear Mother and Newborn Cubs – March
Spring Polar Bears of Baffin – March & April
Narwhal and Polar Bear Safari – May & June
Polar Bears and Glaciers of Baffin Island – August
Polar Bear Migration Fly-In Photo Safari – October & November
Polar bears communicate through body language, vocalizations, and scent markings:
Head wagging from side to side: A sign that polar bears want to play. Adult bears initiate play—which is actually ritualized fighting or mock battling—by standing on their hind legs, chin lowered to their chests, with front paws hanging by their sides.
Nose-to-nose greetings: How a bear asks another bear for something, such as food. The guest bear will approach slowly, circle around a carcass, then meekly touch the feeding bear's nose.
Chuffing: A vocal response to stress, often heard when a mother bear is worried for her cubs' safety.
Scolding: Mother bears scold cubs with a low growl or soft cuff.
Rushing: When a male approaches a female with cubs, she rushes toward him with her head lowered.
Hissing, snorting, lowered head: Signifies aggression.
Loud roars or growls: Communicates anger.
Deep growls: Signifies a warning, perhaps in defense of food.
Charging forward, with head down and ears laid back: Attack mode.
Moving downwind of dominant bears: Signifies submission.
TO KEEP UP TO DATE ON POLAR BEARS WE RECOMMEND YOU BOOKMARK:
https://polarbearsinternational.org/
Continued from last week, this week we count down from 5 to 1.
5. Tooth-billed Pigeon
A relative of the extinct dodo, tooth-billed pigeons are disappearing at an alarming rate. They only live in Samoa and are currently fewer than 400 left in the wild, with no captive populations to help conservation efforts. They are elusive birds, very rarely seen. Even though illegal today, hunting has played a huge part in their decline, along with the main threat being habitat loss due to agriculture, or natural causes likes cyclones or trees.
4. Gharial
Gharials are fish-eating crocodiles from India. They have long thin snouts with a large bump on the end which resembles a pot known as a Ghara, which is where they get their name. They spend most of their time in freshwater rivers, only leaving the water to bask in the sun and lay eggs. There are only around 200 left in the wild. Their decline is due to several issues, though all human-made. Habitat loss, pollution and entanglement in fishing nets pose as some of the biggest threats.
3. Kakapo
The kakapo, also called owl parrot, is a species of large, flightless, nocturnal, ground-dwelling parrot. The total known adult Kakapo population is 209, all of which are named and tagged, confined to four small islands off the coast of New Zealand that have been cleared of predators. A kakapo’s natural reaction is to freeze and blend in with the background when threatened. It is effective against predators that rely on sight to hunt but not smell.
2. Amur Leopard
Amur leopards are one of the world’s most endangered big cats. They are on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In 2015, there were only around 90 Amur leopards left within their natural range. That number is now estimated to be less than 70. Like all species on the endangered list, humans are their biggest threat. Their beautiful coats are popular with poachers as are their bones which are sold for use in traditional Asian medicine. They are also at risk from habitat loss due to natural and human-made fires.
1. Vaquita
The vaquita is both the smallest and the most endangered marine mammal in the world. It has been classified as Critically Endangered by the IUCN since 1996, and in 2018, there were only around 15 vaquitas left. The latest estimate, from July 2019, suggests there are currently only 9. Their biggest threat is from the illegal fishing of totoaba, a large fish in demand because of its swim bladder. Vaquitas accidentally end up entangled in the gillnets set for totoaba and drown because they can no longer swim to the surface to breathe.
In this two-part series, read on to learn some interesting facts about the 10 most endangered animals in the world and how we, as a race, should be more cognizant of the plight of these beautiful creatures.
10. Gorillas
Gorillas share close to 97% of their DNA with humans! They are capable of feeling emotions and even behave like us sometimes – did you know they can laugh? There are two species, the Eastern Gorilla and the Western Gorilla, and they both have two subspecies. Three out of four are Critically Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. The only one that isn’t is the Mountain Gorilla, a subspecies of the Eastern Gorilla.
9. Rhinos
Rhinoceros comes from two Greek words Rhino and Ceros, which when translated into English mean nose horn. Human beings are almost entirely responsible for this beautiful creature nearing extinction. Poaching for their distinctive horns is their biggest threat. Three of the five species of rhinoceros are among the most endangered species in the world: the black rhino, Javan rhino and the Sumatran rhino. The Javan rhino is the closest to extinction with only about 50 left, of which most are in the Ujung Kulon National Park in Indonesia.
8. Sea Turtles
Hawksbill Turtles and Kemps Ridley Turtles are on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Hunting is one of the biggest threats to sea turtles, with poachers targeting their eggs, shells, meat and skin. They are also at risk from habitat loss and pollution as well as climate change. Sand temperature determines the sex of hatchlings with eggs developing as females in warmer temperatures. That means even small temperature changes could skew the sex ratio of populations.
7. Saola
The Saola is one of the rarest large mammals on Earth. It was first discovered in 1992 in the Annamite Range in Vietnam. The Saola is elusive and so rarely seen it’s known as the Asian unicorn.
6. North Atlantic Right Whale
They are gentle giants that stay close to coasts and spend a lot of time at the surface skim feeding on zooplankton, all of which makes them an easy target for hunting. They were almost wiped out by hunters for their blubber and are now one of the most endangered large whales. They are now protected, and hunting is illegal, but population recovery is slow. They are only about 400 left, out of which, only 100 are breeding females. Females don’t breed for the first ten years of their life and then will give birth to a single calf every six to ten years. Vessel traffic also creates noise that interferes with their ability to communicate. Whales use sound to find mates, locate food and avoid predators, as well as to navigate and talk to each other.
Stay tuned for the Top 5 World’s Most Endangered Animal Species in the second part of the blog series. Can you guess which animals will feature on the IUCN Critically Endangered List?
*All Images for this blog sourced from Google and WWF
