Akagera holds around 130 elephants at the last full census, all descended from 26 young animals moved into the park in 1975, and they are seen most reliably along the lake shores and out on the plains between the southern lakes and the north. Elephant viewing is done on a self drive or guided game drive, or from a boat on Lake Ihema. Akagera National park in eastern Rwanda is the only place in the country with wild elephants.
Ten years ago finding a herd here was a matter of luck. Now it is close to routine, which is the result of a fence, a ranger team and a great deal of unglamorous work along the park boundary rather than anything the elephants did themselves.
Elephant Viewing Safaris in Akagera National Park
An elephant viewing safari in Akagera is simply a game drive planned around water. Elephants come out of the woodland to drink, so the lake margins and the tracks that run close to them produce most sightings, and a slow morning circuit along the southern lakes will often turn up a breeding herd or a lone bull before nine o’clock.
There is no separate elephant tracking activity of the kind the park runs for rhino. What you can do is take a guide, which is worth the modest fee because the guides know which loop a herd has been using that week and how long they tend to stay. Elephants in a park this size are predictable over days rather than hours. Drives run from six in the morning until six in the evening, and there is a night drive from half past five for anyone wanting the park after dark.
The 1975 Reintroduction of Akagera’s Elephants
Elephants were hunted out of this part of Rwanda before the park’s recovery began, and everything alive here now traces back to a single translocation. In 1975, twenty six elephants, all under eight years old, fourteen males and twelve females, were moved to Akagera from Bugesera in the south. It was an early piece of conservation engineering, done partly to end human wildlife conflict where the animals had been and partly to restore a species to a park that had lost it.
Three of that group were habituated to people during the move: Mutware, Mwiza and Hélico. The other twenty three stayed wild. Mwiza and Hélico eventually drifted off and joined the wild herd, which left one habituated bull on his own and produced the strangest chapter in the park’s history.
Mutware, the Elephant Rwanda Still Talks About
Mutware, whose name translates roughly as chief, was the best known elephant in Rwanda and he is no longer alive. He died of natural causes in September 2018 at about 48 years old, and the park announced it publicly because so many Rwandans had grown up knowing his name. Anyone who reads older articles describing him as the park’s main attraction is reading something out of date.
His story is worth keeping because of what it explains. Raised alongside people as a calf, he stayed familiar with humans all his life, and visitors used to come just to touch or feed him. The other side of that familiarity was serious disruption: before the boundary was fenced he broke out repeatedly and wrecked crops and property in the villages next to the park, behaviour the park itself later described plainly as the consequence of his early human contact rather than any fault of his own. He lost his tusks in 1994 and survived. In his last years he spent most of his time at the very southern tip of Lake Ihema, often standing in the water, crossing the park perhaps once a year for a few weeks at a time.
The story that grew around him, that Akagera had only one elephant, was never true and is now comfortably dead. There are well over a hundred, in two main groups.
How Many Elephants Live in Akagera Now
The last full wildlife census put the elephant population at roughly 130, and more recent counts published by the park’s partners are higher still, in the region of 170. Either figure tells the same story: from 26 founders, in a reserve of 1,122 square kilometres, this is a population doing well.
They live as two largely separate groups, a southern herd and a northern one, which sometimes meet in the middle of the park and sometimes turn away from each other. Six elephants carry monitoring collars as part of the park’s tracking programme, alongside collared lions and transmitters fitted into rhino horn. No elephant has been lost to poaching since the joint management arrangement with African Parks began in 2010, which for a species under pressure across most of the continent is the number that matters most.
Where to See Elephants on an Akagera Game Drive
Water first. The southern lakes, Ihema and the loops that reach its shoreline, give day visitors their best chance without a long drive. Further in, Lake Mihindi is where most people stop to eat, and elephants come to drink there; the shore at that spot is one of very few places in the park where you may leave your vehicle, inside a low stone perimeter.
Beyond that, the plains between the southern lakes and the north are strong ground, and the far north around Lakes Hago and Nyamheke holds the northern herd for weeks at a time. Lone bulls are a different proposition altogether: they turn up along the road between the entrance gate and reception, entirely unbothered by vehicles, which means some visitors see their first Akagera elephant before they have paid their park fee. Full route detail sits on the game drives page.
Elephant Viewing From a Lake Ihema Boat Safari
Seeing elephants from water level is a different experience from watching them through a windscreen, and the Lake Ihema boat safari is the way to do it. Departures run four times daily at half past seven, nine, three and half past four, each about an hour, and elephants come down to the shoreline to drink throughout the day, more so in the dry months when other water has gone.
You will not always get them. Hippo and Nile crocodile are guaranteed in a way elephants are not, and a boat trip taken purely for elephants can disappoint. Taken as an hour that might include elephants at the water’s edge, along with buffalo, waterbuck and a great deal of birdlife, it rarely does. Booking details are on the boat trips page.
The Fence, Crop Raiding and Human Elephant Conflict
Rwanda is the most densely settled country in Africa, and Akagera is ringed by farmland worked by families who once used the park for grazing, firewood and water. An elephant that walks out of a reserve here does not find bush; it finds someone’s maize. That is the context for everything the park has built.
A solar powered electric fence of roughly 120 kilometres was completed along the boundary in stages, and it changed the relationship. Break outs and crop raiding dropped sharply, retaliation against elephants dropped with them, and the villages next to the park stopped losing harvests on a regular basis. A team of fence attendants walks the line daily to find breaks, which is unspectacular work that keeps the whole arrangement standing. Alongside it, ten percent of park income goes into Rwanda’s tourism revenue sharing scheme and a further share into a fund that compensates households for damage caused by wildlife. You can walk a section of that boundary yourself on the seven kilometre Walk the Line route, described on the cultural tours page.
Monitoring and Protecting Akagera’s Elephants
Six collars, a hundred rangers, a canine anti poaching unit and tracking software running on satellite communication add up to a level of monitoring most parks of this size do not have. Snare collection has fallen from thousands of items a year to a small fraction of that, and poaching arrests have dropped steeply since 2012.
The elephants themselves are studied, not simply guarded. Collar data shows how the two herds use the park and when they cross, which feeds into decisions about water, fire management and where tourism pressure should sit. It also means that when a herd moves into an area, the guides usually know before you arrive at the gate.
Elephants Alongside the Rest of Akagera’s Wildlife
Elephants and buffalo were the two of the Big Five that held on here through the worst years. Lions came back in 2015, eastern black rhino in 2017 and 2019, and southern white rhino in 2021 with a much larger group flown in more recently, which returned Akagera to Big Five status. Leopard has always been present and remains the hardest to find.
So an elephant focused drive gives you a great deal besides. Buffalo in large mixed herds, giraffe and zebra on open ground, topi, impala and eleven or more antelope species, hippo and crocodile on the lakes, and more than 480 recorded bird species. The park’s attractions page covers what fills a day, the wildlife safari page goes species by species, and the lions of Akagera page covers the predators sharing the same ground.
Best Time for an Elephant Safari and Getting There
Elephants are resident year round, so this is about visibility and access rather than presence.
The southern gate is about 110 kilometres from Kigali, two to two and a half hours by road, which makes a day trip workable. The northern gate is exit only. Directions are on the getting there page and gate charges under entrance fees and costs. If you want the northern herd, plan a night in the park rather than a long day.
Frequently Asked Questions About Elephants in Akagera
How much does it cost to see the elephants in Akagera?
There is no separate elephant fee, only park entry and any activity you add. Entry currently costs an international adult 100 US dollars for a day or night, 150 for two nights and 200 for three, with children of six to twelve at about half and under fives free. Residents of Rwanda or the East African Community pay 50 dollars, Pan African visitors from outside the region 50, and Rwandan and EAC citizens 15,000 Rwandan francs. Vehicles are charged separately, currently 10 dollars for a car or minibus and 20 for a bus or overlander. A boat trip on Lake Ihema is 35 dollars per adult, or 45 for the sunset departure, and a guide in your own vehicle is 25 dollars for a half day or 40 for a full day.
How many elephants are in Akagera National Park?
Around 130 at the last full census, with more recent counts running higher, close to 170. They descend from the 26 young elephants brought in from Bugesera in 1975 and live as two main groups, one in the south and one in the north. Six carry monitoring collars.
Is Mutware the famous elephant still alive?
No. Mutware died of natural causes in September 2018 at roughly 48 years old. He was one of the original 26 brought to the park in 1975 and one of only three habituated to people. Older articles that describe him as a living attraction are simply out of date, and there is no longer any elephant in Akagera that visitors can walk up to or feed.
Am I likely to see elephants on a day visit?
Yes, more likely than not, which was not true a decade ago. Work the lake shores in the south rather than pushing north if your time is short, and go early. Lone bulls are often seen close to the road between the gate and reception. Nothing is guaranteed, since herds move on water and grazing, but elephants are among the easier large animals to find here.
Can I get out of the vehicle near elephants?
No. Leaving your vehicle is forbidden anywhere in the park except campsites, designated picnic spots and reception. Elephant, buffalo and hippo are the main reason that rule exists. At the Lake Mihindi picnic stop there is a stone perimeter, and even there you should stay close to it. Walking safaris are not offered inside the fence.
Do elephants still raid crops around Akagera?
Far less than they used to. The 120 kilometre solar powered electric fence around the boundary sharply reduced break outs, and a team of fence attendants walks it daily to catch damage early. Where losses do occur, a national fund exists to compensate affected households, and ten percent of park income flows into community revenue sharing.
Are there elephants anywhere else in Rwanda?
Not wild ones in any meaningful numbers. Akagera is the country’s only savannah park and the only place to see elephants on a Rwandan safari. Most visitors pair it with gorilla trekking in Volcanoes National Park and chimpanzees in Nyungwe, since the three parks offer completely different wildlife.
Fitting elephants into a wider Rwandan trip is mostly a question of how many nights you give Akagera and which sector you sleep in. The operators listed on our Rwanda safari companies page can arrange the drives, add a boat trip on Ihema, and sort park bookings and guiding for you.
Ask them where the herds have been in the weeks before you travel. Anyone who actually works the park will know, and the answer will shape a better itinerary than a generic two day package.