According to a report in the BBC, an American dentist named Walter Palmer shot down Cecil, Zimbabwe’s most famous lion in the Hwange National Park.
Palmer claims that he believed he was on a ‘legal hunt’ and had hired professional guides for the task.
However, further examination of the carcass, which was discovered days after the July 1 hunt, revealed that the lion was wounded and tracked for 40 hours, during which he suffered severe bleeding, before being shot down with a rifle.
Image courtesy: Facebook.com
The investigation also revealed that Cecil was skinned and beheaded after being killed.
Soon after the news came out, hate messages directed toward Palmer flooded social media and even groups encouraging people to boycott the dentist were established on Facebook.
The decreasing population of lions is a huge concern throughout the forest reserves in Africa, and yet, hunters are willing to pay high sums for trophy hunts. In this particular case, Palmer is reported to have paid $50,000 to hunt Cecil.
Palmer, who is now wanted by the Zimbabwe authorities, still claims that he wasn’t aware that the animal was a local favourite and was monitored by conservationists.
“I relied on the expertise of my local professional guides to ensure a legal hunt,” Palmer revealed in a statement. He even laid out a bunch of stuffed animals outside his clinic in Minnesota as a memorial for Cecil.
Image courtesy: Facebook.com
But the worst part of this incident is probably still not over. Cecil has left behind 6 cubs, who will probably all be killed by Jericho, the next lion in the hierarchy, in order to win over the female and mark his territory.
“The saddest part of all is that, now that Cecil is dead, the next lion in the hierarchy, Jericho will most likely kill all Cecil’s cubs so that he can insert his own bloodline into the females,” said Johnny Rodrigues, who heads Zimbabwe’s Conservation Task Force.
