Zimbabwe's 'iconic' lion Cecil killed by hunter

[nan]

[Toko]

[nan]

and why not all the "livestock"... for some $ more

[RogerFraser]

There are now conflicting reports that this is a false report and Jerico is actually still alive .Lets hope this is true and its just a hyped news story ...

[nan]

I cross the fingers

[Toko]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cecil-th ... 48?fref=nf

We are trying to verify the conflicting reports we are receiving. As you know earlier this morning we posted, then removed a report that Jericho, Cecil's partner, sometimes reported as his brother had been shot and killed. It appears now that these reports are true as a number of news outlets contacted us to confirm it and are now reporting on it. If true, we are devastated. We will provide updates as we confirm and receive more info.

[Richprins]

I tells ya this witchunt on the dentist is going to trouble the industry...

[nan]

there is lot in all the newspaper , radio and TV here

at last something to shake a bit the people about all these "destructions"... speaking positive

[Flutterby]

Row after it emerges that Oxford Uni took pro-HUNTING cash for Cecil the lion research

By REBECCA PERRING
PUBLISHED: 11:27, Wed, Aug 5, 2015

THE University of Oxford has come under fire after it emerged that researchers studying slaughtered Cecil the lion were being funded by pro-hunting companies.

The prestigious university's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) had been tracking much-loved Cecil's movements by satellite since 2008.

And its founder Professor David Macdonald said he was" horrified" after the 13-year-old was brutally killed by American dentist Walter Palmer, after paying £32,000 to hunters, in Zimbabwe last month.

But now it has emerged that the research unit is partially funded by the conservation group Panthera and the Dallas Safari Club, that advocates sustainable trophy hunting.

The news is set to embarrass the unit, which has received a staggering £500,000 in donations from outraged animal lovers since Cecil's death.

The cash is set to go towards funding the unit for another 18 months.

Defending the revelation, Professor Macdonald said there was no conflict of interest between WildCRU's work and its source of funding.

He told The Times: "We simply do our work. There is no risk of any donor affecting our results - we report our results regardless of whether they state any particular point of view or not.

"We are not an advocacy organisation."

Professor Macdonald said it was up to the "wider society" to decide on hunting laws, but WildCRU was simply an "evidence-based organisation".

Mr Palmer allegedly lured Cecil outside a Hwange National Park - in which he was protected - and then wounded him with a bow and arrow, before tracking him for 40 hours, shooting him dead and skinning him.

He is understood to have paid professional hunter Theo Bronkhorst £32,000 to help him track and kill the lion.

Dr Luke Hunter, executive vice president of Panthera, claimed that while "far too many lions are being shot for sport", hunting can "benefit lions".

In a blog this year, he posted: "In Africa, sport hunting is the main revenue earner for huge tracts of wilderness outside national parks and reserves. Many such areas are too remote, undeveloped or disease-ridden for the average tourist, precluding their use for photographic safaris.

[Richprins]

Lions will now be protected under US 'endangered species' law

The decision follows the high-profile killing of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe by a US bowman.



Jean-Jacques Cornish | about 2 hours ago

PRETORIA – United States authorities have declared lions at risk of extinction.

The wild cats will now be protected under America's law as an endangered species.

The decision follows the high-profile killing of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe by a US bowman, which sparked global outrage.

The US Fish and Wildlife service said certain kinds of the iconic big cats of West Africa and India are now considered endangered because they are in dramatic decline.

The decision will pave the way for stricter regulations on the import and export of lion carcasses.

The added protection extends to a subspecies of lion known as Panthera Leo, which now numbers only about 1,400 individuals; 900 or so in western and central Africa and about 500 in India.

(Edited By Leeto M Khoza)



http://ewn.co.za/2015/12/22/Lions-at-risk-of-extinction