We tend to think of African wildlife refuges as large tracks of land where megafauna roam unimpeded and tourists gawk from the back of four-wheel-drive vehicles.

Turaco Trails, a new private refuge in western Uganda, doesn’t fit the mold. You can walk its perimeter in about 20 minutes, and its biggest animals are a few free-range long-horn cattle, said Ronnie Steinitz, a UC Santa Barbara anthropology doctoral student who studies monkeys on the reserve.

Despite its size, the reserve is unique. It supports four species of monkeys, a multitude of birds (including the great blue turaco), and all manner of butterflies, reptiles and small mammals. It’s the little refuge that could demonstrate that private land ownership, agriculture, conservation, tourism and economic empowerment at the local level can all co-exist.

Read the full article in The Current

See also interviews in Mongabay, a conservation-oriented online news portal: https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/answers-in-excrement-fecal-analysis-yields-insight-about-wild-primates/