American dentist Walter Palmer paid around £35,000 to hunt Cecil the
lion with a crossbow but the death of the 13-year-old animal triggered
international anger, forced Mr Palmer into hiding and the guide has been
prosecuted for illegal hunting.
Southern African countries are said to make an estimated £650m a year from the big game hunting industry, with its supporters saying that the money is pumped back into conservation efforts.
Brent Stapelkamp, who leads the Hwange lion project, told Sky News that hunting of lions should end. “My personal feeling is lion hunting shouldn’t exist. Where I believe hunting is important, lion hunting I don’t believe there’s justification for it any more,” he said. “They are too rare and too sensitive to the off take of a pride male. The repercussions after that hunt far exceed anything in any other species.”
His comments come as a range of wildlife preservation bodies, including the Zambia Wildlife Authority and the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative, mark World Lion Day today to celebrate the animals and raise awareness of their plight.
Brent Stapelkamp, front right, with colleagues in the same park
A survey by National Geographic found that 19 per cent of Americans who had heard about Cecil feel they are now “much more” informed about the decline of big cats in general as a result of hearing about his specific story.
Cecil was wearing a tracking device around his neck and he was killed in an area outside of the protected Hwange national park. Tracking data from his GPS collar linked to researchers at Oxford University showed he was followed for 40 hours before being shot dead with a rifle.
One of Cecil’s cubs has been reportedly killed as other males seek to take over his territory. Theo Bronkhorst, the guide who took Mr Palmer to the area where he was shot, has appeared in court over the killing but criticised his prosecution as “frivolous and wrong.” Environment Minister Rory Stewart has condemned the killing of Cecil the Lion but has said it was important to understand why hunting was allowed in many African countries. “This is about working with African governments. Some of those governments, the South African government for example, is making significant money – which is then reinvested back into lion conservation and parks – from legal hunting,” he said.
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Southern African countries are said to make an estimated £650m a year from the big game hunting industry, with its supporters saying that the money is pumped back into conservation efforts.
Brent Stapelkamp, who leads the Hwange lion project, told Sky News that hunting of lions should end. “My personal feeling is lion hunting shouldn’t exist. Where I believe hunting is important, lion hunting I don’t believe there’s justification for it any more,” he said. “They are too rare and too sensitive to the off take of a pride male. The repercussions after that hunt far exceed anything in any other species.”
His comments come as a range of wildlife preservation bodies, including the Zambia Wildlife Authority and the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative, mark World Lion Day today to celebrate the animals and raise awareness of their plight.
Brent Stapelkamp, front right, with colleagues in the same park
A survey by National Geographic found that 19 per cent of Americans who had heard about Cecil feel they are now “much more” informed about the decline of big cats in general as a result of hearing about his specific story.
Cecil was wearing a tracking device around his neck and he was killed in an area outside of the protected Hwange national park. Tracking data from his GPS collar linked to researchers at Oxford University showed he was followed for 40 hours before being shot dead with a rifle.
One of Cecil’s cubs has been reportedly killed as other males seek to take over his territory. Theo Bronkhorst, the guide who took Mr Palmer to the area where he was shot, has appeared in court over the killing but criticised his prosecution as “frivolous and wrong.” Environment Minister Rory Stewart has condemned the killing of Cecil the Lion but has said it was important to understand why hunting was allowed in many African countries. “This is about working with African governments. Some of those governments, the South African government for example, is making significant money – which is then reinvested back into lion conservation and parks – from legal hunting,” he said.
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