Mathias Behangana

Nature Uganda · Department of Environmental Management

Whilst wetlands are vital ecosystems supporting natural cycles and biodiversity, intensive agricultural practices and land use have led to widespread degradation, particularly in tropical Africa. In Uganda’s ‘cattle corridor’, an agro-pastoral landscape stretching across 84 000 km ² , natural wetlands have been largely destroyed, and their degradat...

Biological communities are structured by a variety of biotic and abiotic relationships, whose understanding forms the basis for effective conservation. Among the myriad factors influencing community dynamics, resource partitioning stands out, potentially enriching ecosystem complexity but also carrying risks for conservation if disregarded. In this...

Among the flower beetles (Scarabaeidae, Cetoniinae), the Goliathini comprise several genera of medium-and large-sized beetles widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa. In this tribe, the genus Fornasinius Bertoloni, 1853, includes two species found in West Africa: F. higginsi (Westwood) and F. klingbeili Zöller, Fiebig, and Schulze. In this study,...

Wetlands are one of the world’s fastest shrinking ecosystems, yet they are home to roughly 43% of all reptile and amphibian species. Sub-Saharan Africa has the fastest growing human population on the planet while also experiencing significant internal migrations of displaced peoples who settle in refugee camps. These camps are often in remote and p...

The global refugee crisis is above all a human tragedy — but it affects wildlife, too

The Critically Endangered Nubian Flapshell Turtle (Cyclanorbis elegans) is found in the White Nile River system in South Sudan and northern Uganda. Over the past few decades , its populations have sharply declined, primarily due to human-induced threats, leading to its near-extinction across almost its entire range. In this paper, we present the re...

In a recent molecular study, the pygmy chameleon Rhampholeon boulengeri Steindachner, 1911 was shown to contain six genetically distinct, but phenotypically cryptic lineages. Phylogenetic analyses of genetic data demonstrated that several well-supported clades occurred in non-overlapping elevational ranges across the Albertine Rift in Central Afric...

The Critically Endangered Nubian Flapshell Turtle (Cyclanorbis elegans) is found in the White Nile River system in South Sudan and northern Uganda. Over the past few decades , its populations have sharply declined, primarily due to human-induced threats, leading to its near-extinction across almost its entire range. In this paper, we present the re...

The Critically Endangered Nubian Flapshell Turtle (Cyclanorbis elegans) is found in the White Nile River system in South Sudan and northern Uganda. Over the past few decades , its populations have sharply declined, primarily due to human-induced threats, leading to its near-extinction across almost its entire range. In this paper, we present the re...

Wetlands are one of the world’s most threatened ecosystems, yet they provide outsized ecosystem services compared to their global surface area. Africa is experiencing a burgeoning human population, and though border areas receive short-term pulses in transient population growth, borders often create legal and logistical barriers to long-term settle...

We conducted surveys at 14 locations in western Uganda to generate baseline data on the diversity and community structure of herpetofauna before the area is significantly impacted by oil and gas extraction activities. Sampling involved visual encounter surveys and pitfall traps with drift fences covering a total of 118 survey days over three period...

Upland wetlands are disappearing throughout Africa. In Uganda the only remnants almost-natural high altitude wetlands occur in the Lake Bunyonyi system. Biotic communities are poorly known from the area, and nothing is known about the local communities of amphibians and reptiles. Here, we analyse the communities of amphibians and reptiles in a seri...

The Nubian Flapshell Turtle, Cyclanorbis elegans, is classified as one of the most threatened chelonian species globally (Critically Endangered according to the IUCN Red List). The species is presumed extinct in most of its historical distribution range, but still survives along the White Nile between South Sudan and northern Uganda. In this paper,...

Lygodactylus is the most speciose gekkonid group in Africa, with several additional, candidate species already identified from previous studies. However, in mainland Africa, several groups remain only partially resolved, and there are several taxonomic inconsistencies. Lygodactylus gutturalis was described from Guinea-Bissau in the 1870s and since...

Agricultural intensification has increasingly destroyed natural habitats, resulting in species declines. Insights into the effects of landscape structure on species' diversity and distribution are needed to effectively conserve biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. The influence of land use practices on amphibian species diversity was investigat...

We studied ontogenetic changes in habitat use and seasonal activity patterns in a population of Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus) inhabiting the Lake Albert Delta Wetland System, a Ramsar Site of international importance in Murchison Falls National Park of western Uganda. From monthly surveys of five transects during October 2017 to September...

1. The area of the Murchison Falls-Albert Delta is among the most important for conservation in East Africa due to the high species richness, and the presence of several endemic species of conservation concern. 2. Here, we report a study on the diversity patterns and community structure of the herpetofauna of this area. 3. Field studies were conduc...

Community ecology patterns are poorly understood in Uganda, as well as in the rest of East Africa. Therefore, the aim of the study was to determine the patterns of diversity and distribution of reptiles and amphibians in selected wetland sites in the greater Nabugabo–Ramsar area, Uganda with contributions to the understanding of their ecology and c...

Atractaspidines are poorly studied, fossorial snakes that are found throughout Africa and western Asia, including the Middle East. We employed concatenated gene-tree analyses and divergence dating approaches to investigate evolutionary relationships and biogeographic patterns of atractaspidines with a multi-locus data set consisting of three mitoch...

Settings for high-resolution CT scans and DOI numbers for supporting files on the Morphosource website, in Microsoft Excel format. (XLSX)

Uganda is one of the most species rich countries in Africa because of the presence of several major biomes. However, it is also a country that has lost much of its natural habitat to agriculture. Uganda is a country that has been better surveyed for its biodiversity than many African countries, but despite this, there has not been a comprehensive a...

Uganda is one of the most species rich countries in Africa because of the presence of several major biomes. However, it is also a country that has lost much of its natural habitat to agriculture. Uganda is a country that has been better surveyed for its biodiversity than many African countries, but despite this, there has not been a comprehensive a...

African snake-eaters of the genus Polemon are cryptic, fossorial snakes that mainly inhabit the forests of central, eastern, and western Africa. Molecular results from a previous study demonstrated that Polemon christyi is not monophyletic-two distinct lineages were recovered from Uganda (the type locality) and southeastern Democratic Republic of t...

Introduction to the Guide Chameleons have long been admired for their unique appearance and remarkable ability to change colors. The first writings on chameleons can be traced back to Aristotle (350 BC), where he regarded them as similar to lizards, but also akin to fish, baboons, and crocodiles. Chameleons have laterally compressed bodies, a prehe...

We provide data derived from nearly four months of field surveys on the distribution, natural history, and habitat of the poorly known Sudanese Unicorn Chameleon (Trioceros conirostratus) from Northern Region, Uganda, Africa. Our study also provides the first description of the reproductive mode and an estimate of the litter size for T. conirostrat...

Several biogeographic barriers in the Central African highlands have reduced gene flow among populations of many terrestrial species in predictable ways. Yet, a comprehensive understanding of mechanisms underlying species divergence in the Afrotropics can be obscured by unrecognized levels of cryptic diversity, particularly in widespread species. W...

1. A 12-month-long survey (April 2013 to March 2014) for Nile crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus) was conducted along a section of the Victoria Nile/Ramsar site of Murchison Falls National Park, in order to update the historic information on crocodile populations in the area, locating nesting areas, determining seasonality patterns and habitat use, a...

The Albertine Rift (AR) is a centre for vertebrate endemism in Central Africa, yet the mechanisms underlying line-age diversification of the region's fauna remain unresolved. We generated a multilocus molecular phylogeny consisting of two mitochondrial (16S and ND2) and one nuclear (RAG1) gene to reconstruct relationships and examine spatiotemporal...

This article is about the new records and Geographic Distribution of Naja haje - the Egyptian Cobra in Uganda

This article is about the new records and Geographic Distribution of Naja nigricollis - the Black-necked Spitting Cobra in Uganda

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY With the main objective of developing the content of lectures for a short course entitled Monitoring and Mitigation of Environmental Impacts of Oil and Gas Development, I was tasked to review relevant documents and contribute to Module 3: Applied Biodiversity, Module 6: Environmental Data Acquisition, Management and Use and Module...

The African river frog genus Amietia is found near rivers and other lentic water sources throughout central, eastern, and southern Africa. Because the genus includes multiple morphologically conservative species, taxonomic studies of river frogs have been relatively limited. We sampled 79 individuals of Amietia from multiple localities in and near...

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), the cause of chytridiomycosis, is a pathogenic fungus that is found worldwide and is a major contributor to amphibian declines and extinctions. We report results of a comprehensive effort to assess the distribution and threat of Bd in one of the Earth's most important biodiversity hotspots, the Albertine Rift in...

Trained model of the current relative habitat suitability and distribution of Bd. A. (Initial model). Current distribution of areas where amphibians are likely to be at risk for Bd infection using original records (maroon hexagons). All areas predicted as suitable where the new positive localities (green hexagons) appear indicate areas where we had...

FASTA file. DNA sequence alignment of partial ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 sequences used in Fig 2. (FASTA)

Calculated copy numbers in positive samples. Log-scale graph showing all Bd-positive samples plotted against the calculated number of copies of the ITS1-5.8S region per swab. Error bars indicate the standard deviation (positive only) for each triplicate sample. Red bars indicate which two samples had corresponding skin tissue analyzed and had histo...

Summary of Bd results from historical specimens. Elevations are in meters above sea level. (DOCX)

PCR results of historical samples collected from Makerere University in Uganda. Elevations are in meters above sea level. (DOCX)

Sample ID, Genus, Date of collection, and GPS location of all Bd positive samples included in the modelling analysis. Elevations are in meters above sea level. (DOCX)

Additional Bd-positive localities provided by Bd-maps.net and E. Greenbaum that went into the modelling analysis [29–32,49]. Elevations are in meters above sea level. (DOCX)

This report summarises the findings of a biodiversity survey of Murchison Falls Protected Area (MFPA - including Murchison Falls National Park, Bugungu and Karuma Wildlife Reserves). The survey shows that MFPA is rich in species and biodiversity with a total known list of 144 mammal species, 556 bird species, 51 reptile species, 28 known amphibian...

This report summarises the findings of a biodiversity survey of Murchison Falls Protected Area (MFPA - including Murchison Falls National Park, Bugungu and Karuma Wildlife Reserves). The survey shows that MFPA is rich in species and biodiversity with a total known list of 144 mammal species, 556 bird species, 51 reptile species, 28 known amphibian...

East African wetlands act as hot-spots for biodiversity. Biodiversity act as indicators of change. Indicator values: -Species respond differentially to environmental attributes (hydrology, hemeroby, trophic level). Vegetation based assessment: -Properties of vegetation indicate the health or degradation state of wetlands. Regeneration dynamics: -Ve...

The food habits of a freshwater pelomedusid turtle (Pelomedusa subrufa) were studied by fecal analysis and stomach flushing in 2 study areas in Nigeria. Males and females were predominantly carnivorous; they fed mainly on fish, tadpoles, and aquatic invertebrates but also on terrestrial vertebrates. Sexes overlapped highly in dietary habits during...

Broad-scale ecological correlates affecting species richness and abundance patterns of amphibians were studied in 37 sampling sites from 15 independent protected areas in the Albertine Rift, East Africa. Amphibians were caught by a combination of sampling techniques, including time-constrained visual searching, pitfalls with drift fences, dip-netti...

Community structure was studied across six different habitat types in an amphibian assemblage constituted by 24 species belonging to five families, from Lake Nabugabo, Uganda. We employed a suite of different statistical methods, including univariate, multivariate, and Monte Carlo procedures to investigate the randomness/nonrandomness and the seaso...

The Albertine Rift is one of the most important regions for conservation in Africa. It contains more vertebrate species than any other region on the continent and contains more endemic species of vertebrate than any other region on mainland Africa. This paper compiles all currently known species distribution information for plants, endemic butterfl...

The research study was carried out between 1999 and March 2001 covering nine study sites, eight of which are satellite lakes of Lake Kyoga and the ninth is a bay on the main lake. Sampling took place during both the rainy and wet seasons. However, the resident time of each visit usually lasted a day or two, which definitely could affect the quality...

Abstract Six major vegetation types surrounding Lake Nabugabo were sampled for amphibians. These types were: shoreline zone (habitat type code A) representing vegetation on the shoreline about 2 m from the shoreline; Miscanthidium violaceum (B); Eragrostis-Loudetia (C); swamp forest (D); Cyperus papyrus (E); and medium altitude evergreen forest (F)...