Zimbabwe's 'iconic' lion Cecil killed by hunter

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Zimbabwe's 'iconic' lion Cecil killed by hunter

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27 July 2015

A hunter paid a $55,000 (£35,000) bribe to wildlife guides to kill an "iconic" lion in Zimbabwe, a conservationist has told the BBC.

Allegations that a Spaniard was behind the killing were being investigated, Johnny Rodrigues said.

The lion, named Cecil, was shot with a crossbow and rifle, before being beheaded and skinned, he added.

The 13-year-old lion was a major tourist attraction at Zimbabwe's famous Hwange National Park.

Zimbabwe, like many African countries, is battling to curb illegal hunting and poaching which threatens to make some of its wildlife extinct.

Mr Rodrigues, the head of Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, said the use of a bow and arrow heralded a new trend aimed at avoiding arrest.
"It's more silent. If you want to do anything illegal, that's the way to do it," he told BBC's Newsday programme.

'Lion baited'
However, the lion, which had a distinctive black mane, did not die immediately and was followed for more than 40 hours before it was shot with a rifle, Mr Rodrigues said.

The animal had a GPS collar for a research project by UK-based Oxford University, allowing authorities to track its movements.

Image

Mr Rodrigues said Cecil's killing was tragic.

"He never bothered anybody. He was one of the most beautiful animals to look at."

The lion had been "baited" out of the park, a tactic which hunters used to portray their action as legal, Mr Rodrigues said.

Two guides had been arrested and if it was confirmed that the hunter was a Spaniard, "we will expose him for what he is", he added.

The six cubs of Cecil will now be killed, as a new male lion in the pride will not allow them to live in order to encourage the lionesses to mate with him.
"That's how it works... it's in the wild; it's nature taking its course," Mr Rodrigues said.

Image

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33674087


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Re: Zimbabwe's 'iconic' lion Cecil killed by hunter

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Killing of Cecil the lion prompts calls for EU ban on importing lion trophies

Zimbabwe’s famous lion was lured out of a national park, killed, beheaded and skinned. Over 200 lions are legally killed and turned into trophies and sent to Europe every year.

Conservationists and politicians have called on the EU to ban the import of lion heads, paws and skins as hunters’ trophies from African countries that cannot prove their lion populations are sustainable, following the killing of Zimbabwe’s most famous lion by a European hunter with a bow and arrow.

The death of a radio-tagged lion called Cecil in Hwange national park was described as a tragedy by wildlife groups and has led Zimbabwean authorities to attempt to track down the big cat’s hunter, who is believed to be Spanish.

But the lion, whose head and skin were removed, is only one of about 200 such lion ‘trophies’ that hunters legally import to the EU each year. Germany, France and Spain are the biggest importers.

In February, scientific advisers to the EU banned imports from Benin, Burkina Faso and Cameroon for the first time, on the grounds that their wild lion populations were not sustainable.

Lions were classed as vulnerable on the latest update to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s red list of endangered species, and critically endangered in western Africa due to over-hunting and a scarcity of prey.

MEPs said the Cecil incident showed that if hunters were desperate enough to lure lions out of national parks with bait rather than killing them in areas with a hunting quota, lion populations in Zimbabwe were clearly not sustainable.

They said the EU’s import ban should be extended to any African countries without independent, scientific data to show that lion hunting is sustainable.

Catherine Bearder, a Liberal Democrat MEP who on Monday submitted a written question to the European Commission on the issue, said: “The shooting of Cecil the lion was tragic and cruel, but it has at least shone a spotlight on the absurdity of the current situation. Despite the number of lions across Africa plummeting in recent years, hunters are still allowed to import lion hunting trophies into the EU from several African countries.”

Keith Taylor, Green party MEP for south-east England, said he supported Bearder’s call for action.

“It’s outrageous that lions are being killed just so someone in Europe can decorate their home with the body parts. The European commission must immediately impose an EU ban on all imports of lion body parts,” he said.

A group of experts known as the Scientific Review Group (SRG) makes decisions on whether countries should be blacklisted or not. Zimbabwe – along with Namibia, Tanzania and South Africa – is listed as ‘positive’, ie with a sustainable enough population of lions to accommodate hunting.

Dr Peter Kat, a trustee at the UK-based charity Lionaid, said without the SRG having access to more data, there should be a temporary ban.

“What we need is independent lion counts in various countries where we are now allowing imports. Until and unless those counts are produced, then there is a moratorium. At the moment, it’s ‘show us that it is unsustainable’ [a country’s lion population for hunting]. Now we need the reverse: show us that it is sustainable.”

Both Bearder and Kat said that when the SRG meets in September, it should ban imports from Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwe Professional Hunters and Guides Association confirmed on its Facebook page that it had suspended the membership of one of the professional guides who had assisted the hunter.

Cecil was a 13-year-old lion with a distinctive black mane, and was reportedly lured out of the national park with bait earlier this month, before being killed with a bow and arrow and rifle, before being skinned and beheaded. Kat said that such baiting was legal in Zimbabwe, even on the edge of a national park, but it appeared the hunter had broken the law by killing the lion in an area without a hunting quota.

CNN reported that the lion’s head and skin have subsequently been found and would be used as evidence.


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Re: Zimbabwe's 'iconic' lion Cecil killed by hunter

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Safari tourist suspected in killing of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe

By Don Melvin and Khushbu Shah, CNN
Updated 2113 GMT (0413 HKT) July 27, 2015

Cecil the lion is dead, killed illegally in Zimbabwe, authorities allege, by a foreign hunter or hunters who paid about $55,000 for the privilege.

Cecil was part of an Oxford University research project and wore a GPS collar.

He was lured out of a national park with food, shot with a crossbow, tracked for 40 more hours, then finished off with a gun, said Johnny Rodrigues, head of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force.

The 13-year-old lion's head was reportedly cut off as a trophy, and his skin was taken as well. Rodrigues told CNN that the head and skin had been found and confiscated, and were being processed as evidence.

Cecil was killed July 6, Rodrigues said, allegedly by a Spaniard. But he said that as many as three hunters may have been involved, none of whom have been detained. The nationalities of those involved have not been confirmed.

Hunters group says it respects ongoing investigation
The operator of the safari has been arrested, and a hearing has been set for August 6.

The Zimbabwe Professional Hunters and Guides Association confirmed in a Facebook post last week that the hunter in charge of the safari was one of its members. The association said the safari leader had been suspended indefinitely.

"The professional hunter and company he works for have been cooperative in the investigation," the association said. "ZPHGA reiterates it will not tolerate any illegal hunting or any unethical practices by any of its members and their staff."

It asked everyone to respect the ongoing investigation and said it would not comment further until the inquiry is complete.

Researchers at Oxford University expressed grief at the lion's death and at the news that, for one reason or another, he had wandered away from the protection of the national park in Zimbabwe.

"It's not many months ago that I watched Cecil with my hand on my heart as he strayed toward a hunting concession," said professor David Macdonald, founding director of Oxford's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit. "On that occasion he turned back into the protection of the park, but this time he made a fatal mistake and I feel deeply sad, personally."

Macdonald said it was important to realize that lions live in complicated societies. Research has shown, he said, that if one male is killed, "the resulting perturbation" can lead to the deaths of other males and to the deaths of his cubs.

Cecil is survived by about six lionesses with whom he mated regularly and about 24 cubs, Rodrigues said.


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Re: Zimbabwe's 'iconic' lion Cecil killed by hunter

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Disgusting 0=


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Re: Zimbabwe's 'iconic' lion Cecil killed by hunter

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@#$ @#$ It's being reported that the guy is an American dentist. Hope he pays the price and is appropriately punished. (0!) (0!)


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Re: Zimbabwe's 'iconic' lion Cecil killed by hunter

Post by nan »

what a wolrd :-(

@#$ :evil:


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Re: Zimbabwe's 'iconic' lion Cecil killed by hunter

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This was on "Euronews" this morning \O


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Re: Zimbabwe's 'iconic' lion Cecil killed by hunter

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It was also in our local newspaper

Image ....un dentista del Minnesota, Walter Palmer, non nuovo ad esperienze del genere.


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Re: Zimbabwe's 'iconic' lion Cecil killed by hunter

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It was headline news on SkyNews this morning, showing international outrage. The hunter is an American dentist and news teams visited his home town where he is now being shunned by the local community.


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Re: Zimbabwe's 'iconic' lion Cecil killed by hunter

Post by nan »

in mine too... what a shame :evil:


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