Quote:
Originally Posted by Unsettomati
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Actually, to sum it up, it went like this:
Zimbabwe hosts thousands of tourists who travel by jeep and truck into protected wildlife areas. There they get to be up close and personal with all kinds of animals including lions. The lions, no longer afraid of humans walk around the vehicles and are no longer protective of themselves or their offspring which also walk around the humans as if it were ok.
One of these lions has been given a name, Cecil. Quite often, pictures are taken with the tourists and Cecil close together. Cecil the lion has become a stream of revenue for the park. The tourists love him and so does the park.
Cecil has become so comfortable around the tourists that he has lost his fear of people and unlike truly wild Lions, doesn't avoid people, he comes around when they show up.
Some guy named Palmer, a Dentist who has some wealth and who engages in trophy hunts arranged for and purchased a permit to shoot a lion with a crossbow in Zimbabwe.
The permit was issued be the country even though Lions are a declining species and have been eradicated from much of their natural habitat. Regardless, Zimbabwe routinely allows trophy hunts and claims to use the money generated by the hunts to help operate the protected areas where lions like Cecil live. The protected areas are off-limits to hunters.
Palmer has a colored history with hunting, he has poached before yet he was still granted an official permit to hunt lions in Zimbabwe.
During Palmer's trophy hunt, his guides illegally lured Cecil out of the park using a truck behind which they dragged meat to entice Cecil to follow. Why Cecil would follow a truck outside the protected area isn't known however, it is not common that lions follow trucks unless they are used to being around them. Wild animals, including lions, try to avoid contact or close proximity with people however, the protected area treat the lions there differently that they are treated in the wild. In the park, they are observed by people routinely, spoken to and in general conditioned to accept the presence of people as a normal and routine event. It is quite possible that Cecil, no longer fearing humans, chased the truck to get the bait food because having lost his fear of people, did not associate the truck or the people inside with danger. That danger, as real an imminent as it was, made no impression upon the big cat because until then, people just called out to it by name, took pictures and treated like as a big kitty instead of a wild animal. Cecil is the most photographed lion in the world and the revenue from pictures sold go to the government of Zimbabwe.
When Cecil was outside the protected area boundaries, Palmer shot him with a cross bow and as is common with such a weapon and similar types like bow and arrow, Cecil did not die immediately and ran off. Approximately 40 hours after being shot and running off wounded, the lion was found either dead or killed at that point. This is not unique in the world of hunting, especially with weapons that shoot bolts or arrows. This is because a bolt or arrow, unlike a bullet, relies on the animal bleeding to death. In the best of circumstances, the animal dies quickly but nevertheless almost always runs off, going either a short distance or quite a distance from where it was originally shot. Dangerous game such as a Lion is especially difficult to track as wounded animals are far more dangerous at that time. Some large game such as Water Buffalo as well as many predators can do sometimes to turn and attack the hunters, sometimes killing them. It is unclear if Palmer was slow to track and finish the lion or if the guides hesitated and instead waited, hoping the lion would die to avoid the high risk of tracking a wounded lion. In either case, the accepted rule of hunting is that you track and finish off the wounded animal as soon as possible.
News of the illegal killing of Cecil quickly spread via the Internet and news broadcast and quickly, calls for Palmer to the killed by various means including skinning him alive or having him decapitated became an accepted punishment in Internet forums. While Palmer has not been formerly charged with a crime thus far, a petition was sent the US government demanding his extradition even though no extradition has been requested by Zimbabwe.
Palmer has closed his dental practice and his employees are out of work, with approval also voiced in internet forums and elsewhere. Many participating in the discussion thinks Palmer losing his livelihood is appropriate prior to a trial for which no charges have yet been made. Palmer has went into hiding.
The illegal killing of Cecil has ignited calls for the end to lion hunting which is legal in Zimbabwe.
Unfortunately, lions can't read the signs that declare the park is a protected area and Cecil simply followed the truck, as he has done so often until he life was ended by a trophy hunter.
That Palmer shot the lion illegally is not a question. Until he tells his story and it can be verified or otherwise corroborated or accepted, no one knows if he was aware the lion was protected.
That Zimbabwe allows lions to be hunted is a question that is just now being asked yet, the events leading to Cecils quasi domestication remain as just a side note.
Treated like a large pet rather than left in a protected area safe from all human contact, Cecil was denied natures defensive mechanism and thus easy prey itself.
Note: Approximately 60 or so lions are legally hunted in Africa each year. Cecil was one of these lions but was he more important than the other 59 lions that are killed? That question also remains a side note and there is virtually no interest on the part of Zimbabwe to cease allowing lion hunting.
That is a much better summary.
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Zimbabweans baffled by foreign concern for killed lion
