Killing of Cecil the lion

Cecil (c. 2002 – 1 July 2015) was a male Southwest African lion (Panthera leo bleyenberghi) that lived primarily in the Hwange National Park in Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe. The lion was a major attraction at the park and was being studied and tracked by the University of Oxford as part of a larger study.

Cecil was wounded with an arrow by Walter Palmer, an American recreational big-game hunter, was then tracked, and on 1 July 2015, allegedly killed with a rifle approximately 40 hours later. However, Palmer asserts that Cecil was killed with a bow and arrow in far less than 40 hours after the lion was first wounded. He was 13 years old when killed. Two men in Zimbabwe are being prosecuted in relation to the hunt. Palmer had a permit and was not charged with any crime. Authorities in Zimbabwe have said he is free to visit Zimbabwe as a tourist but not as a hunter.

The killing drew international media attention and sparked outrage among animal conservationists, politicians and celebrities, as well as a strong negative response against Palmer. Five months after the killing of Cecil, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added two subspecies of lion, in India and western and central Africa, to the endangered species list, which includes the species of Cecil, making it more difficult for US citizens to kill these lions. According to Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society, Cecil had "changed the atmospherics on the issue of trophy hunting around the world," adding "I think it gave less wiggle room to regulators."

Cecil

Cecil (/ˈsiːsəl/ or /ˈsɛsəl/) may refer to:

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Lion

The lion (Panthera leo) is one of the five big cats in the genus Panthera and a member of the family Felidae. The commonly used term African lion collectively denotes the several subspecies found in Africa. With some males exceeding 250 kg (550 lb) in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger. Wild lions currently exist in sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia (where an endangered remnant population resides in Gir Forest National Park in India) while other types of lions have disappeared from North Africa and Southwest Asia in historic times. Until the late Pleistocene, about 10,000 years ago, the lion was the most widespread large land mammal after humans. They were found in most of Africa, across Eurasia from western Europe to India, and in the Americas from the Yukon to Peru. The lion is a vulnerable species, having seen a major population decline in its African range of 30–50% per two decades during the second half of the twentieth century. Lion populations are untenable outside designated reserves and national parks. Although the cause of the decline is not fully understood, habitat loss and conflicts with humans are currently the greatest causes of concern. Within Africa, the West African lion population is particularly endangered.