BY GEORGE MURON
The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) officials have dismissed reports of a leopard invasion in the Teso sub region, saying that their investigations on the ground only point to dogs and not wild animals.
Speaking to the residents of Kichinjaji ward, Soroti City East Division where they went on Wednesday in response to a call over suspected foot marks of a leopard, UWA officials led by Dr Joshua Lubega, a veterinary officer dismissed claims of leopard attacks.
“I can say, substantially there is no leopard in Soroti because we have gathered enough evidence that pinned dogs, especially stray dogs, we captured some in our traps and we have seen some of them physically at the scene,” Dr Lubega said.
Adding; “We have spent here almost a week in Teso moving to various places where they have reported suspected leopard attacks on sheep, pigs, goats, and their bird and we have been to four sub counties in Soroti and we have stretched from Soroti city to Amuria and the foot marks are crystal clear that they are of the dogs in all these places we have gone to,” Dr Lubega said.
Asked about the incident at Soroti University, Mr Suleiman Musau, the communications officer UWA said that the pictures circulating in the media are artificial intelligence (AI) generated pictures and the university camera system of the university did not capture any leopard.
He further said that they were still tracking for a student who allegedly photographed a leopard at the university compound for further examination.
“For the last one week when we came, we were very hungry to see the leopard and we could not sleep. We applied all the tricks to capture the leopard but all the cases we responded to were null even when we set our traps, we could capture dogs and when we flew our drones to suspected areas we could not find anything like a leopard,” Mr Musau said.
He called upon the people of Teso to remain calm and vigilant and maintain distance in case they happen to meet any wild animal to avoid getting into a confrontation that may lead to life loss or injuries.
Mr Juma Hassan Nyene, the Public Relations Officer Soroti University insists that leopards were spotted roaming at the university compound and their camera systems captured the images.
According to him, the leopards could have migrated to another place but it does not mean that we were lying.
“We spotted the leopards both with our physical eyes and camera systems but since they are not domestic animals, disappearance is a loss of property to us and to me, they could have migrated and on that basis, UWA should continue tracking,” Mr Nyene advised.
Responding to the question of AI generated pictures which are allegedly circulating on social media, Mr Nyene confirmed that except the photo in the library, the camera captured the leopards roaming at the university compound.
