Famished after the long journey, Rwanda’s newest residents – seven lions from KwaZulu-Natal – feasted on a buffalo carcass, followed by a long nap.
African Parks, the conservation group behind the ambitious translocation to Akagera National Park, said on Wednesday the males were at first reluctant to leave the crates in which they had made their 26-hour journey.
“By contrast, the females were eager to discover their new home and the two sisters in the group greeted each other affectionately on emerging from their crates in the boma,” the conservation group said.
Early on Wednesday, after their first night in Rwanda, they had their first visit from some of the park’s other permanent residents: a troop of baboons.
“(The baboons) began calling alerts from nearby trees, spreading the news of the arrival and re-introduction of seven magnificent lions.”
Upon arrival, the lions were placed in a specially-erected, 1 000m2 boma in the north of the park. “Split into two separate enclosures, the perimeter features a 3-metre high, chain-linked electrified fence. A water reserve has been constructed within the boma and the lions will be fed every three to four days, replicating their natural feeding pattern.”
The organisation said the lions would be quarantined for a minimum of 14 days, during which they would be continually monitored, before being released into the wilderness of the park.
Lions have not been part of the park since the country’s civil war and 1994 genocide.
In the years after the massacre, the park went unmanaged and cattle herders poisoned the lions.