Cecil, the star lion in Wanki National Park in Zimbabwe, Africa, known as the "African Lion King", was hunted and killed earlier this month, hit by an arrow for 40 hours, shot and killed, and finally beheaded and skinned. Local police said yesterday that the killer was believed to be Palmer, an American dentist, but stressed that he was lawfully hunting.
The persons concerned face charges
Cecil, a 13-year-old black-maned male lion who is the "living signboard" of Zimbabwe's Wanki National Park, is docile and kind, not afraid of humans, often haunts the road, and is loved by tourists and rangers.
Palmer reportedly paid a Zimbabwean hunter and a private hunting park owner $50,000 (about 310,000 yuan) to hunt in Zimbabwe. At night, he lured Cecil out of Cecil with animal carcasses as bait, accompanied by a local guide, and Palmer shot him with a bow and arrow, but Cecil did not die immediately. After 40 hours, Palmer and his party tracked Cecil, shot him dead, and finally beheaded and skinned him. The three cruelly skinned the lion, cut off the lion's head as a "trophy", and tried to remove the "GPS positioning collar" it was wearing and hid it, but they did not succeed.
Palmer is a dentist from Minnesota, USA, famous in the hunting world, good at using bows and arrows, hunting all over the world. Palmer admitted he shot Cecil, but said he didn't know it was a star lion beforehand and stressed that he was legally hunting under the guidance of a professional guide.
However, the Zimbabwe Wildlife Authority and Wangi National Park said in a statement that the relevant investigation said that the owner did not share the hunting quota in 2015, so this is an illegal hunt, and the relevant personnel in the case will face charges.
"Didn't know it was a star lion"
"Cecil" is Zimbabwe's "animal star". Its handsome black mane, its non-stage-skipping personality in front of people, and its full sense of lens make it popular with tourists. For travel photographers, being able to photograph Cecil is their dream. Previously, a research team at Oxford University in the United Kingdom also wore a smart collar for the animal star in order to study it.
Although his whereabouts are unknown at the moment, Palmer issued a statement arguing that he did not know in advance that the prey was so famous. As far as he knows, the hunt was "compliant and legal."
"It wasn't until the end of the hunt that I learned that the lion I hunted was a well-known local (animal) darling and was collared as part of my research," he said. And the death of this lion is deeply regrettable. ”
However, Palmer's explanation did not convince a group of netizens, and social networking sites such as "Twitter" and "Facebook" were full of criticism of him. Due to the negative evaluation of "brushing the screen", the official website and social media accounts of the clinic where he worked were forced to close on the 28th.
By the afternoon of the same day, nearly 100,000 people had left messages under the "Twitter" hashtag "Lion 'Cecil'". Netizen Anna wrote: "You are a despicable person. Netizen "Old Boy" left a message saying: "Isn't this the person who gets spiritual pleasure by slaughtering animals?" (Xinhua)