Conservation of the elusive African golden cats in Uganda: A review

The African Golden Cats are one of the three medium-sized African wild cats. They occupy Uvariopsis forest patches in Uganda: Kibale NP, Bwindi Impenetrable N/P, Kibale Forest N/P, Kikonda CFR, Mityana, Mpigi, and Kasohya-Katomi CFR, Echuya FR, and Mpaga FR. The aim of the review was to appraise the roles of conservation-based NGOs in the conservation of the African Golden Cats in Uganda. These forest-dependent cats are highly threatened by forest clearing, illegal wildlife trade, human-African Golden Cat interactions and conflicts, zoonosis, and bushmeat hunting in African forests. The cat-human conflict is often negligible; less than 10% of all predator depredations were caused by golden cats around Bwindi NP in the past 12 months. However, a distressing revelation was made by a researcher after a year of studying snares across the park's forests: 81 cats had perished in unlawful traps set for antelope and other game in 16 square miles of the national park. This implies that the lack of alternative sources of protein was the reason why the local communities indulged in the hunting of wildlife species. NGOs have played an important role in the conservation of African golden cats; the Kikonda CFR is one of many Ugandan forests where varied animal species, including the African Golden Cat, have begun to thrive as NGOs and local communities work together to implement sustainable forestry practices.