[5][7] The residents continued to graze their cattle in the reserve, a situation decried by western conservationists, who termed them "invaders" in 1981, but were expelled from their lands after it was upgraded to national park status in 1983, as hoped for by some in the West.

[5] Within the park there are still culturally significant locations, such as Rubanga, where sacrifices were once made to the gods; Ruroko is where the semi-mythical Bachwezi lived, and Kigarama was where the servants of the king used to stay.

Predators may include the lion, leopard, hyenas, genets, African civet, jackals and serval, and since 2015 there is a population of Rothschild's giraffe.

[7] The lion roaming the area eventually attacked and injured three people, causing a large crowd of the enraged community to hound the animal with stones and sticks.

The procurement of an excavator for habitat management, different wildfire regimes, fencing, translocating excess animals, wildlife ranching for the hunting industry, community tourism, licensing more sport hunting companies and increasing quotas may alleviate this; the local community is permitted to uproot acacia for firewood, but this has proved ineffective.