Zimbabwe’s wildlife minister says extradition is being sought for Walter Palmer, the American dentist who killed a Cecil.
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“We are absolutely heart broken”, the Task Force added on the Facebook posting. I’m heartbroken, ‘. Walter James Palmer, last month.
“Following the killing of iconic lion Cecil outside Hwange National Park … on July 1, 2015, it is necessary for the ZPWMA to toughen regulations in all areas outside national parks”, Chidziya said.
Meanwhile, Zimparks dismissed rumours that a brother of Cecil, known as Jericho, had been slain at the weekend.
But a few hours later, Hwange lion researcher Brent Stapelkamp said a Global Positioning System signal could still be traced and that Jericho appeared “alive and well”.
He said: “When I heard that report, I had a look on the computer and his movements seem regular”.
“I think this was just the final straw”, Stapelkamp told the Associated Press in a phone interview from the Hwange reserve.
However, the Zimbabwean conservation group Bhejane Trust posted a statement to Facebook disputing the reports.
On Sunday 2nd August, the Zimbabwe National Parks and Untamed life Administration Power discharged a photo of Jericho that it said was taken that morning.
A government statement said a crackdown on illegal hunting since Cecil’s killing had led to the arrest of safari organiser Headman Sibanda. The authority said it only received information this week about the possibly illegal killing of a lion in April.
The nation’s wildlife authority announced Saturday that it has suspended the hunting of lions, leopards and elephants outside the park. Lion counts in West Africa fell 66 per cent in the same time period; lions there “are on the brink of extinction, they are desperately rare”, said famed Duke University conservation biologist Stuart Pimm.
Meanwhile, another hunter, an American named Jan Casmir Sieski, is suspected of killing a lion in Zimbabwe when he was there in April, said the parks authority. How heartbreaking. Cecil was coaxed out of Hwange National Park and shot with a bow and arrow by the Minnesota hunter and dentist.
Experts anxious that Jericho and Cecil’s cubs might be killed or run off by rival lions, but until now, Jericho had been defending the pride in the absence of his brother.
Jericho had been mentioned in an update by the WCRU unit earlier Saturday, in which Dr. David Macdonald wrote that Jericho, who had previously been mentioned as a potential threat to Cecil’s cubs, was in fact helping to protect them.
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For those wanting proof… here’s #Jericho’s GPS position tracked this evening. He’s REALLY NOT DEAD, folks!
