Reintroduction of African lions to Akagera National Park, Rwanda

Summary

Lions vanished from Rwanda's Akagera National Park before 2001, driven out by political unrest, cattle encroachment from returning refugees and retaliatory killing, after a population once estimated at 300 when the park was three times its current size. Improved infrastructure and law enforcement under the Akagera Management Company, a partnership between African Parks and the Rwanda Development Board, made reintroduction viable again, and a 120-km carnivore-proof fence was completed in 2013 to keep lions inside the park and build local support. In July 2015, seven lions, five females from Phinda Private Game Reserve and two males from Tembe Elephant Park in South Africa, mostly unrelated to maximize genetic diversity, were flown in, held for a month in a boma near a ranger post for acclimation, then released together. All were fitted with satellite or VHF collars, tracked initially every two hours and later three times a day, with rangers also making weekly visual checks. Within two years the group had produced 11 cubs from four mothers, all thriving through sub-adulthood; only one lion died, of injuries from hunting. No lions have left the park or been involved in conflict with neighbouring communities, and park tourism rose from about 12,000 visitors in the first half of 2015 to over 15,000 for the same months in 2017, prompting managers to add two more males in 2017. The project rates itself highly successful.