“We will devote ourselves, supported by the incredible generosity of these donations, to working for the conservation of lions in Hwange and, with this marvellous support, the surrounding landscapes in adjoining countries,” said WildCRU’s director, Professor David Macdonald.
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Palmer’s guide in the hunt that killed Cecil, Theo Bronkhorst, told NBC News on Tuesday that he did nothing wrong. “We are monitoring them all the time and everybody is happy”.
Walter Palmer, a dentist from Minnesota, has been accused of illegally killing Cecil after the lion was lured outside a national reserve.
Bronkhorst – who said he grew up hunting and considers the practice a part of Zimbabwean culture, one that is essential for conservation – said his family has received death threats and that his business has been forever damaged.
Only the head and pelt of the animal are left, he said.
“To me it’s not just killing an animal; it’s the hunt”, she told the “Today” show Monday.
However, since Cecil’s killer has made his way back to the country of origin and as said by Zimbabwe’s environment, water and climate minister, Oppah Muchinguri, that it was “unfortunately it was too late” to see it through.
Big-game trophy hunting is controversial but legal in Zimbabwe.
The circumstances surrounding the death of the famed big cat are also under investigation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Everything he did was perfectly legal and above board and a great help to our conservation efforts”.
The moves come after an American dentist killed a well-known lion named Cecil in Zimbabwe last month in an allegedly illegal hunt, setting off a worldwide uproar.
A Zimbabwean landowner, Headman Sibanda, was arrested is assisting police in the Seski scase, the wildlife authority said.
Zimbabwe’s National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority accused Jan Casimir Seski of Murrysville, Pennsylvania, of shooting the lion with a bow and arrow in April near Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, without approval, on land where it was not allowed.
Like Seski, Palmer has since gone into hiding and has defended himself as innocent.
That’s the defense from a Pittsburgh doctor’s attorney who says claims by Zimbabwe’s government that his recent overseas trophy hunt was illegal are simply “not accurate”.
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“During this trip, Dr. Seski did lawfully hunt and take a lion”, said his Washington attorney, Gregory Linsin.
