Rwanda brings lions back to safari park, plans for rhinos

July 2, 2015 7:39 AM

Akagera used to be home to lions, but the last ones were poisoned by cattle owners, who had resettled in the park after the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people were killed. The last lion was sighted in 2006.

Rwanda brings lions back to safari park, plans for rhinos

Rwanda reintroduced lions, flown in from South Africa, to its Akagera National Park this week after the last indigenous animal was spotted in 2006 and plans to add rhinos within a year as it bids to draw more tourists, park officials said.

Safaris are a lucrative business in east Africa and the so-called "Big Five", which include lions and rhinos, are usually star attractions for visitors. The other three - leopards, buffalo and elephant - already roam in Akagera.

Rwanda, still heavily dependent on aid after a 1994 genocide tore the nation apart, is best known for treks to see endangered gorillas on the slopes of the Virunga Mountains, but it has been seeking to boost its tourism revenues.

"We've introduced the fourth of the 'Big Five'," Jes Gruner, Akagera National Park manager, told reporters after lions were relocated from two parks in South Africa to Rwanda on Tuesday.

Five females and two males were flown in from two small South African parks, which occasionally have to move lions out to avoid the predator population becoming too large. The seven animals were chosen in part for reproductive potential.

"What remains is the rhino. It makes a much more lucrative product for tourism," he said. "It's a very expensive operation. We have to improve law enforcement. But we hope within a year they'll be coming."

One of the biggest challenges for any park or conservation area that hosts rhinos is to ensure adequate security to stop poachers, who seek the horns to sell mostly to Asian buyers.

Gorillas are still Rwanda's main tourist attraction and biggest single tourist revenue earner, with each person paying several hundred dollars for a short trek to see them, in addition to travel and accommodation costs.

But Akagera draws more visitors than other Rwandan parks, with 28,000 coming last year.

Rwanda has to compete in the regional safari business with Kenya and Tanzania, both far bigger countries with a much more established tourist industry, but Kenyan tourism has been battered in the past two years by a spate of Islamist attacks.