Explore the Beauty of Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary And Wildlife Ranch; at first Uganda was having both Black Rhinos and North White Rhinos in the country but due to a number of factors including poaching, mismanagement of their habitat and prolonged armed human conflicts, in the year of 1982, both of this indigenous species of animals was been wiped out of the country.
Ziwa ranch was established in the year of 1982 as a cattle farm that introduced the Exotic cattle into Uganda and it is privately owned by captain Roy and his family, it operated as a cattle farm for almost the period of 20 years.
In the year 2002, the Roy family engaged in lengthy discussion with the Rhino Fund Executive Director, Yvonne following this, the decision was made to relocate over 7,000 heads of cattle in order to establish the safe haven for the Rhinos. At the time the Rhinos had become extinct in Uganda due to poaching. Therefore, it seemed a logical choice to re-introduce and preserve this magnificent species of animals.
Ziwa Rhino sanctuary was established in 2005 to reintroduce with the southern white rhinoceros to Uganda. The long term goal of the sanctuary is to { build a sustainable rhinoceros population and relocate the rhinos back to their original habitat in the Uganda’s protected areas}. In the January 2010, ziwa rhino sanctuary was opened for the tourist and is the only place / location in Uganda were rhinos can be observed in their natural habitat in Uganda.
Uganda has no wild rhinos in their parks, the rhinos where killed off in between the of 1070s to 1980s. Its about 3 hours, north of Uganda’s capital kampala the road to Murchison falls national park its ziwa rhino sanctuary at the closest village Nakitoma.
The ziwa rhinos sanctuary has been serving for about 19 years and it was started with six white Rhinos imported from Kenya and USA. As per now the number is increased to 45 individuals, the rhinos live in the park with many acres of land so the ziwa rhinos sanctuary will be used as a breeding Centre for rhinos after they will relocate to the national parks. In the ziwa rhinos are accustomed to human beings near them as the rhinos has armed guards near for protection 24hours a day from poaching.
Best time to go for rhino trekking in ziwa rhino sanctuary; the rhino trekking can be done throughout the year. However this activity can be done in the dry season of months of June to September and from December to the February, the period of time the vegetation is easier and gives you best view of rhinos and other wildlife in ziwa since the ranch harbors many wild animals species like the Uganda kob, bush buck, water buck, leopard, and over 300 bird species like shoe bill stalk, kingfishers, fish eagles, Grey crown crane the Uganda’s national bird, among others.
The best time to trek the rhinos is the morning hours at around 7am to 10am at this time the rhinos are more active in searching for food which last in hot hours at around 11am to 4pm where they will be hidden in the bush due to hotness and comes out in the evening, the rhinos can graze at hot hours they slept under the shade until low temperatures where they come again, that why they spend the entire night grazing because of the coolness and in hot hours some time they wallow in mud to cool them selves.