Rwandan park mourns death of first reintroduced male lions

It has been announced that the two male lions, which were part of a group of seven brought to Rwanda’s Akagera National Park in order to reintroduce the mammals to the country, have died.

Ntwali, 13 and Ngangari,12, arrived in the country in 2015.

They died from old age last year, but their deaths have only just been made public by the park.

Lions were wiped out in Rwanda in the years after the 1994 genocide when returning refugees settled in protected areas of the park, and killed the big cats to the last to protect their livestock.

Ntwali (meaning – hero) and Ngangari (the strong one) once ruled the northern plains territories of the park before eventually relocating to the north-east part of the park to spend their remaining years alongside the lioness Amahoro (peace), a group of the park experts said.

The park is now home to around 60 lions, all of them descendant of Ntwali and Ngangari.

The two late lions originated from Etosha National Park in Namibia, according to National Geographic.

By BBC