Cecil The Lion

Cecil

Image Via The Telegraph
Born	2002
Died	Hwange National Park
Years active	2002 to 2015
Named after	Cecil John Rhodes

Cecil the Lion was a Zimbabwean lion that was well known for enjoying human contact as well as being one of the oldest lions in the Hwange National Park. The lion was part of a research by Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford University since 1999.

Background

Cecil was born in 2002 and was part of a research carried out by Oxford University. The research initially included 62 lions but 34 had died, 24 being killed by trophy hunters.^[1] Cecil was said to have been the leader of one of the lion packs while the other one is led by the other lion identified as Jericho. Cecil was named after one of the architects of the colonisation of Zimbabwe, Cecil John Rhodes

Killing

The animal was killed by American dentist from Minnesota known as Walter Palmer for a fee of 35 000 pounds.^[1] The slaying of the lion drew widespread angry reactions from people around the world who were protesting against the slaying of the animal. In the United Staes, there were also members of the public who left stuffed animals at the offices of the dentist in protest. Although Palmer remained adamant that he had nothing wrong, he was said to have gone into hiding. After the animal was killed, Palmer and his party are said to have removed the animal's collar in an attempt to cover their act of killing an animal