Three lions have been released into the Mountain Zebra National Park outside Cradock.
SA National Park says the two males and one female became the first free-roaming lions in the area after an absence from the area of over 130 years.
Park Manager, Megan Taplin, said on Thursday that the lioness was sourced from Karoo National Park outside Beaufort West, while the two males were brought in from Welgevonden Game Reserve in Limpopo.
She said the decision to introduce lion into the Park was mainly for biodiversity reasons.
"Lions would have occurred here historically and it is SANParks policy to reintroduce the wildlife species which would have occurred in an area before hunting or habitat loss forced them to local extinction in earlier centuries. They will also occupy the niche of large predator in the ecosystem, keeping the numbers of larger herbivores in the Park in check," said Taplin.
The three were released from the Park's boma Thursday morning, as the third predator species in the Park - after the introduction of cheetah in 2007 and brown hyena in 2008.
"SANParks took the decision to allow cheetah to first establish themselves in the Park before introducing lion which may compete with the cheetah for food. The numbers of large herbivores such as black wildebeest, red hartebeest, eland and gemsbok have now reached levels deemed sufficient to support lion," Taplin said.
The lion are collared so that Park Management can monitor them in the first few months or years after release and so that rangers and researchers can observe what habitats they use and which species they prey on.
Taplin said this would enable them to measure the lions' impact on prey species and determine if more should be introduced in future.
Lion often explore the extent of the Park soon after release before establishing themselves in the areas where they have the most success hunting. "On release into a new area, lion often prey on a variety of species before settling down. However, we predict that they will prey mostly on species such as black wildebeest and kudu," said Taplin.
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