Three adult lionesses and eight cubs were allegedly poisoned by the locals in the area for allegedly killing a cow belonging to a pastoralist living in Hamukungu fishing village.

AUTO says 'such acts undermine the efforts by tour operators to market the country and attract visitors to Uganda'.

Tour operators have called on the government to support the wildlife crime investigations unit to thoroughly examine the incident and punish the culprit.

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They also want the government to realign the profit sharing programs for the national parks, in order to directly benefit the local communities.

Uganda Wildlife Authority estimates that each lion fetches about UGX50m per year -- meaning about UGX600m will be lost annually after the death of the 11 lions.

The population of lions has greatly reduced from 600 to 400 in a period of one decade according to the 2009 Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) national census of lions.