Kenya Wildlife Service -KWS- has started restocking Shimba Hills National Reserve at a cost of sh. 3.5 million with various wild animals to improve biodiversity and enhance tourist experience.

The translocation of wild animals from Tsavo East National Park over a 150 km distance to one of Kenya's treasured coastal rainforests includes 100 impalas, 15 giraffes and 50 kongoni.

Mr Simon Gitau, the Coast Assistant Director, Friday morning released three giraffes into the 250km square park to formally launch the restocking.The restocking is meant to attract more visitors, not just to the Shimba Hills National Reserve, but also to the neighbouring Mwaluganje Elephant Community Sanctuary.

Gitau said that this is the first time the park is being restocked and increasing the numbers of animals will ensure that the tourists who visit the park get value for their money.The park  collects annual revenue of 25 million shillings but last year only 15 million shillings was raise as a result of the post election disturbances.

Previous attempts to bring in giraffes have been unsuccessful as the animals are delicate and die as a result of the stress they experience during translocation.Gitau also admitted that elephants have been a cause of human wildlife conflict in the area adding that KWS intends to move 75 elephants to Tsavo west national park from Shimba Hills.

He said that this will reduce the current number of elephants which currently stands at 450 animals. 258 elephants had previously been translocated in 2007 at a time when the elephant population stood at 700 far outstripping the game reserve carrying capacity of 350 elephants.

The grazing area in Shimba Hills ecosystem has been under-utilised due to a low numbers of mammals.Many tourists to Shimba Hills expect to see not only a beautiful coastal rain forest but also a variety of wildlife but get disappointed by limited game viewing.

The restocking will to address this challenge. The new animals will not compete for food with the existing animals as the area is also a gazetted forest reserve proving adequate vegetation for all. The giraffes will be the only browsers in the game reserve, eating from the top of the trees.

The reserve is the only place in Kenya with the magnificent but endangered population of the Sable antelope.Other wild animals found in the park include elephants, colobus monkeys, the leopard, serval cats and hyenas.Shimba Hills, located 35 km south west of Mombasa via the Likoni Ferry, offers several panoramic picnic and observation points: Makadara Picnic site, Giriama Point, Ocean View Point, Pengo Hill Lookout and Elephant Lookout.

The Shimba Hills are cloaked in a mantle of ancient forests, one of the largest contiguous pieces in East Africa.Over a thousand species of plants have been recorded, a quarter of them endemic to the area.The ecosystem's close proximity to the coast means it has the potential to attract large numbers of visitors on short excursions from the coast to see elephants.

The Shimba Hills are regarded as one of the most diverse forested ecosystems in the Coastal Region as about 15 percent of the rare plants in them are coastal endemic and over 50 per cent of the 159 rare plant species known to occur in Kenya are found in the ecosystem.

The ecosystem is an important water catchment as it provides fresh water locally and regionally.The Shimba Hills are the source of three permanent rivers, which include: Marere/Manolo/Pemba river; Mkurumudzi and Ramisi.

Water from Marere springs in the Shimba Hills reserve is supplied to Kwale, Mombasa and the south coast of Mombasa.Waterfalls in the hills serve as key tourist attractions while the forest tends to moderate temperatures and encourage rainfall locally.