Cecil the Lion's Son Xanda Also Killed by Trophy Hunter

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Flutterby
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Cecil the Lion's Son Xanda Also Killed by Trophy Hunter

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By Casey Smith

PUBLISHED JULY 20, 2017

Two years to the month after Cecil the Lion was killed in a controversial hunt in Zimbabwe, one of his sons has also been shot and killed in a legal trophy hunt, ringing similarities to the death of his father.

The six-year-old lion cub, Xanda, was shot by a trophy hunter outside of the Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe—close to the area where Cecil was killed with a bow and arrow in 2015—the Telegraph first reported.

Andrew Loveridge, a zoology researcher at Oxford University, has not responded to a request for comment but he told the Telegraph that Xanda was wearing a collar at the time of his death, which allowed researchers to monitor his movements in the area.

"I fitted [the collar] last October,” Loveridge told the paper. “It was monitored almost daily and we were aware that Xanda and his pride was spending a lot of time out of the park in the last six months, but there is not much we can do about that.”

Zimbabwean professional hunter Richard Cooke reportedly saw the collar after killing Xanda, and he later returned it to the researchers. Because the lion was over the age of six and outside the park’s boundaries, the kill was legal in the country.

Xanda's death raises fresh questions about the value of trophy hunting, says Luke Dollar, the conservation biologist who heads National Geographic's Big Cats Initiative. "Often times we have concerns with this—is the value of that animal who was shot one time equal to the economic benefit that that animal’s sustained existence and draw for tourism would have been over its life to the local and national economies?" Dollar asks. "That’s an ongoing debate between hunters and conservationists."

Although it's uncertain whether Xanda was an alpha male, Dollar said the lion's death could be even more tragic for his pride if he was—other lions could die if a new alpha male tried to take over.

“Regardless, it’s obviously very sad to hear that this lion was lost,” Dollar said. “From an ecosystem perspective, lions and every top predator play a huge role in maintaining the long-term balance of nature in its natural state without constant intervention and management, so that's something important for people to remember.”


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Re: Cecil the Lion's Son Xanda Also Killed by Trophy Hunter

Post by Lisbeth »

Don't come and tell me that hunting is helping conservation. The money goes all over the place but not into conservation @#$


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Re: Cecil the Lion's Son Xanda Also Killed by Trophy Hunter

Post by Richprins »

It is very complex, Lis.

Hunting provides jobs and Forex for desperate countries along the entire supply chain, much like tourism?

Dunno about this Zim outfit, but down here large areas are maintained as pristine wilderness ecologically just to keep some herbivores or carnivores, where otherwise those areas would go to subsistence farming, wood-gathering, informal settlements etc.


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Re: Cecil the Lion's Son Xanda Also Killed by Trophy Hunter

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Maybe, but I do not trust Zimbabwe nor Mozambique :evil: This does not mean that I trust SA, but at least they still have a surface of decency .....or do they O**


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Re: Cecil the Lion's Son Xanda Also Killed by Trophy Hunter

Post by nan »

but why so beautiful beast... with certainly good genes 0*\

and regularisation... until no more Lions... same for Buffaloes, Kudus etc... :evil:


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Re: Cecil the Lion's Son Xanda Also Killed by Trophy Hunter

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Lion trophy hunting: The death of Xanda in Zimbabwe

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BY ADAM CRUISE - 1 AUGUST 2017 - ETURBONEWS -

The death of Cecil’s son, Xanda at the hands of trophy hunters on 7 July is mired in confusion. He was shot just outside Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, near the spot his father had been killed by American bow hunting dentist, Walter Palmer.

It was claimed that Xanda was shot legally as part of an approved quota – seven lions are allowed to be hunted per year in the area outside the park. Yet, like the death of his father, questions have been raised surrounding the circumstances of Xanda’s death. The lion just six years old was considered fair game however, he had a GPS collar and was the head of a pride with several cubs that resided within the protection of the national park that prohibits hunting.

A statement released by the Zimbabwe Professional Hunters and Guides Association stated that Xanda had been ousted from his pride and had moved permanently out of the park. However, this is contradicted by researchers from the University of Oxford who had been tracking Xanda, and say that the six-year old lion was the head of his own pride consisting of three lionesses and had seven young cubs between 12 and 18 months old.

It also seems clear that Xanda’s killing contravenes the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority policy, which states that male lions of any age known to be heading prides or known to be part of a coalition heading prides with dependent cubs of 18 months old or less, should not be hunted. Neither should any lion fitted with a collar.

As a result, Humane Society International (HSI), has sent a letter to Oppah Muchinguri, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Environment, Water and Climate of Zimbabwe, calling on her government to investigate these irregularities.

Audrey Delsink, Executive Director of Humane Society International/Africa, said: “With so many irregularities shrouding the killing of Xanda, we urge the Government of Zimbabwe to hold the people involved in his death accountable if they are found to have acted in an illegal manner.”

The death of Xanda also means that his seven offspring face an unlikely future. “Sadly, Xanda’s death means his cubs are vulnerable to infanticide leading to further unnecessary loss of animals already threatened with extinction,” says Delsink.

Currently, there are fewer than 30,000 lions left in Africa whose range has been reduced to 8 percent of their former range primarily as a result from loss of habitat, poaching and poorly regulated trophy hunting. A report conducted by Economists at Large found that trophy hunting is not economically significant in African countries, with the total economic contribution of trophy hunters at most estimated at 0.03 percent of gross domestic product in the countries studied.

Delsink says this latest incident in Zimbabwe “just highlights further the destructive nature of the trophy hunting industry. At minimum, Zimbabwe must conduct a full investigation and not allow Xanda’s remains to leave the country as a trophy.”

The HSI letter has also requested that Zimbabwe officials bring legal action against the trophy hunters if warranted, prevent the export of the trophy and establish a five-kilometer no-hunting zone around Hwange National Park.

Read original article: http://www.eturbonews.com/160912/lion-t ... a-zimbabwe


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