US dentist paid $50,000 to hunt and kill Zimbabwe’s Cecil the lion

An American dentist has been identified as the hunter who paid £32,000 to kill Zimbabwe’s “iconic” lion. The lion, named Cecil, was lured from a national park and shot with a crossbow, before being tracked for 40 hours and then shot with a gun, according to Johnny Rodrigues, head of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force. The 13-year-old lion was then decapitated and skinned. The man responsible for killing Cecil was named as US citizen Walter Palmer, from a small town near Minneapolis. It is believed the hunting party tried to destroy a tracking device fitted to Cecil, hence he was beheaded.

They tied a dead animal to their vehicle to lure Cecil out of the park and they scented an area about half a kilometre from the park.

Johnny Rodrigues, head of the ZCTF

The Zimbabwe Professional Hunters and Guides Association (ZPHGA) admitted in a Facebook post that the professional hunter in charge of the safari was also involved in the hunt. His membership has since been suspended indefinitely. Animals are often tempted from the protection of their parks so that they can be killed ‘legally’, however the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, who are responsible for issuing hunting permits and quotas, insisted in a statement that the lion was killed illegally. The lion had a GPS collar for researchers at Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit to track its movements.

All persons implicated in this case are due to appear in court facing poaching charges.

Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority

World Cecil dentist