Zimbabwe's best-loved lion killed by American, not Spaniard

A HUNTER, initially reported as being Spanish, and who allegedly paid guides at Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park to shoot a lion who has been its star attraction for many years, has now been identified by the country's authorities as an American dentist.

Cecil the lion, who was 13, was found headless and skinned just outside the park – meaning his killing initially appeared 'legal', but a GPS on his collar which had been attached by researchers at Oxford University showed the animal was tricked into leaving the enclosure in order to avoid problems with the law.

Using a recently-killed smaller animal as bait, Cecil was lured out of the park and then shot with a bow and arrow.

This is a technique used by hunters so they cannot be accused of killing within protected areas.

Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force boss Johnny Rodrigues says the loss of Cecil is a huge tragedy as he was a 'symbol' of the country.

And his six cubs will not survive because other male lions will kill them so that they can mate with Cecil's female partners, since lionesses will not let males mate with them when they have suckling cubs with them.

The Minnesota dentist, Walter Palmer, who took Cecil's life allegedly bribed the park keepers €50,000 to make his kill.

Cecil was one of 62 lions in the safari park tagged since 1999 to find out how far shooting for 'pleasure' had an impact on the wildcat population.

Of these, 34 died – 24 of them at the hands of 'leisure' shooters – in fact, 72% of adult male lions wearing GPS tags were shot dead.

Wildlife organisations are attempting to block any possible import of Cecil's head as a 'trophy'.

Between the years 2007 and 2012, Spain imported over 450 lion's heads from southern Africa, the highest number in Europe – Germany was the second-highest with 100.

Spokesman Luis Muñoz of the wildlife protection group Chelui4lions says the EU needs to outlaw imports of animal heads as 'trophies'.

Muñoz, outraged, wanted to know 'what kind of lunatic' would murder a 'magnificent lion' which was 'known to and photographed by' all visitors to the Hwange National Park.

“We're ashamed that there are rich and mad people who actually pay to kill beautiful wild animals,” Chelui4lions' boss laments.

Visitors staying at the lodge near Cecil's habitat specifically to see him would bring €8,000 a day into Zimbabwe's economy, meaning tourists seeking to photograph him would have generated more income in a week than his killer did by paying €50,000 to shoot him.