Animals in the equatorial park were systematically hunted down in the 1980s and 1990s by poachers from nearby Somalia who wanted elephant tusks and rhino horns to sell in West Asia and Asia.

Joy herself was murdered in the park by a disgruntled employee in 1980, and her husband George Adamson was shot by Somali bandits nine years later in nearby Kora, part of the same ecosystem.

By 1989, all but one of the park’s 300 rhinos had been killed. The number of elephants in the park fell from 3,500 to 700. The only animals that thrived were Joy’s beloved lions, which fed off carcasses left by poachers.

“Lion numbers rocketed in the 1980s and 1990s because there were so many dead animals around,” said Mr Mark Jenkins, the warden in charge of Meru. “Their natural mortality rate fell and pride sizes increased to abnormal levels — you would get about 20 animals in a pride, when normally you just get five or six.” The lions are still there, but as the poachers are driven away they have to hunt for their food again. They are being joined by rhinos, elephants, impalas and zebras. Some of the animals have wandered back into the park of their own accord, others have been transported there from other game reserves.

Most of the rehabilitation began five years ago when the US-based International Fund for Animal Welfare gave $1.25 million to Meru to improve security and rebuild roads and warden’s offices in the park.

Mr Tony Fitzjohn, who worked as George’s assistant, is helping Kenyan Wildlife Services to rebuild George Adamson’s camp in Kora. He also wants to clean up the graves of George Adamson and his assistants who were killed in the same attack. The headstones were destroyed by poachers.

“If we care for the graves, we send out a message that this area has not been forgotten and that poachers cannot expect to operate here unhindered,” said Mr Fitzjohn.