In the 1970s, Rwanda boasted a lion population of about 300, which freely roamed the Akagera National Park.

However, in the ’80s and early ’90s, the declining numbers of herbivores in the 112,000-hectare park, coupled with human-wildlife conflict, led to a rapid decline in numbers of the famous big cats.
Things fell apart after the grotesque 1994 genocide when the park was left unmanaged and was occupied by internally displaced people, which created room for herders to poison the remaining few. By 1999, Rwanda’s lions had been declared extinct.

So, for African Parks, the non-profit organisation that is currently running Akagera National Park in partnership with the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), the best success of 2015 was welcoming back the king of the jungle. On June 29, a pride of five female and two male lions, which were donated by &Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve and Tembe Elephant Reserve in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal, were translocated to the Akagera National Park in what African Parks described as “a ground-breaking conservation effort for both the park and the country.”

And the impact of the lions is already being felt, if Jes Gruner, the manager of the park, is to be believed. According to him, the number of domestic visitors to the park increased by 37 per cent this year, driven by the reintroduction of lions. Gruner says domestic tourist numbers rose from 12,809 in 2014 to 14,890 this year.

“Many of the tourists are attracted by the lions more than any other animals,” he said. “The lions have no doubt had a great impact on the park.”