Lions are going to be re-introduced into Rwanda more than 20 years after they were wiped out following the African country's 1994 genocide, conservationists say.
Following the genocide in 1994 by the Hutus that left some 800,000 Tutsi people dead, displaced people trying to save their cattle poisoned the last remaining lions in Rwanda's national parks, they explain.
Seven lions from South Africa will be tranquilized, placed in crates and airlifted to the east African nation, say officials at African Parks, the conservation group organizing the effort to bring lions back to Rwanda.
The five females and two males, after a 2-week quarantine, will be released into the Akagera National Park in the east of Rwanda.
The reintroduction represents "a ground-breaking conservation effort for both the park and the country of Rwanda," park officials said.
The lions are coming from parks in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province from small reserves that occasionally need surplus lions removed, Akagera official said.
Park experts have been working with communities near the 275,000-acre reserve to educate people on harmonious co-existence with the lions.
Adagera park is fenced, but the lions will be fitted with satellite tracking collars to reduce the risk of their entering inhabited areas, they said.
"Their return will encourage the natural balance of the ecosystem," said Yamina Karitanyi, head of tourism at the Rwanda Development Board.
The seven lions, including a mix of ages and genetic makeup, were chosen "based on future reproductive potential and their ability to contribute to social cohesion," says Yamina Karitanyi, head of tourism at the Rwanda Development Board.
The park, some two hours by car from the Rwandan capital of Kigali, is a popular tourist destination, drawing many thousands of tourists annually.
The lions will find plenty of food prey in the park, including zebras, antelope, giraffe and buffalo, officials said.
At the global level, lions remain classified as "vulnerable" on the Red List of threatened species of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Eastern Africa, historical a stronghold for lions, has seen a rapid decline in the big cats, the IUCN says.
A new, emerging threat to the lions is the trade in bones and body parts considered valuable in Africa and Asia for use in traditional medicines, the organization says.
