page_title: Killing of Cecil the lion
section_title: Death
hierarchical_section_title: Killing of Cecil the lion / Death
caption_attribution_description: English: map of lion movement as captured by GPS collar
context_page_description: Cecil was a lion who lived primarily in the Hwange National Park in Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe. He was being studied and tracked by a research team of the University of Oxford as part of a long-term study.
  On the night of 1 July 2015, Cecil was wounded with an arrow by Walter Palmer, an American recreational big-game hunter, then tracked and killed with a bow and arrow the following morning, between 10 and 12 hours later. Cecil was 13 years old when killed. Palmer had a permit and was not charged with any crime. Two Zimbabweans, the owner of the farm where the hunt took place, and the hunting guide, were briefly arrested but the charges were eventually dismissed by courts.
  The killing resulted in international media attention, caused outrage among animal conservationists, criticism by politicians and celebrities and a strong negative response against Palmer. Five months after the killing of Cecil, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added lions in India and West and Central Africa to the endangered species list, making it more difficult for United States citizens to legally kill lions.
context_section_description: During June 2015, Walter J. Palmer, an American recreational game hunter, reportedly paid US$50,000 to a Zimbabwean professional hunter-guide, Theo Bronkhorst, to enable him to kill a lion. In the late afternoon of 1 July, Bronkhorst and tracker Cornelius Ncube built a hunting blind in Atoinette Farm, a private property owned by Honest Ndlovu.  Between 9 pm and 11 pm, Palmer shot and wounded Cecil with an arrow. The hunters tracked the wounded lion and killed him with a second arrow the next morning (about 10 to 12 hours later) at a location less than 250 metres from the initial shot. The hunt took place outside Hwange National Park, a protected area, but within the lion's normal range. Cecil's body was then skinned and his head removed. When the lion's headless skeleton was found by park investigators, his tracking collar was missing.
  The lion was equipped with a satellite tracking device from which locational data were recorded every 2 hours. Subsequently, location data was pieced together and is depicted in the map herein. This interpretation of events was corroborated by the subsequent investigation by Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife management and is consistent with the satellite data.
  Bronkhorst said during July, "We had obtained the permit for bow hunting, we had obtained the permit for the lion from the council." Two Zimbabweans (Bronkhorst and Ndlovu) were arrested by Zimbabwe police. Palmer had already returned to the United States, where he issued a statement that he had "relied on the expertise of my local professional guides to ensure a legal hunt" and "deeply regret that my pursuit of an activity I love and practice responsibly and legally resulted in the taking of this lion".
caption: Map of Cecil's movement
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