Three years gone, lest we forget Cecil the Lion

Regan Arts published a memoir, LION HEARTED: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF CECIL AND THE FUTURE OF AFRICA’S ICONIC CATS. Cecil, the lion was killed in July 2015 by Walter Palmer, the Minnesota dentist and avid trophy hunter in the Gwayi Wildlife Conservancy.

Cecil, become popular to locals in death, than in life, however he had made a name in the international world especially tourism. Zimbabwe has been unfortunate like any other African country in wildlife hunting and poaching, targeted by foreign hunters. Cecil was attracting thousands of dollars per annum in private and public funds, it was one of the known lion, not in this southern part of Africa only but the whole Africa.

Poaching and trophy hunting has existed since time immemorial. Almost every country has its forest treasures in dangerous and protected animals. Lion being among the big five, it means Cecil, besides its international acclaim it was recognized in the wildlife community by being just a lion. Many stories were published on Cecil’s death.

According to the memoir, researcher Andrew Loveridge reveals previously unreported details about Walter Palmer’s killing of Cecil. Loveridge, an Oxford University biologist, was studying Cecil for eight years prior to his death and had last seen him a month and half before he was killed.

According to Loveridge, 42 of their collared male study animals, including Cecil, have been trophy hunted since the research began in 1999. An investigation and analysis of the location data collected via satellite from the GPS collar Cecil wore at the time he died shows that he died in an incredible pain for about 12 hours. He was mortally wounded and moved for 300 metres in those 12 hours.

“Our research project staff only became aware that something was amiss six days later in the Gwai Conservancy, a privately owned wildlife adjacent to Hwange National Park, where we study lions,” Loveridge wrote.

The memoir revealed that there was no paperwork for a lion hunt in the areas concerned which prompted the senior wildlife officer to order an investigation. The investigation resulted in a park ranger obtaining signed statements from tracker Cornelius Ncube, who had assisted with the hunt, and camp skinner Ndabezihle Ndebele, who had skinned the dead lion.

On 1 July 2015 Cornelius was instructed to prepare for a lion hunt. Guiding Palmer would be Zimbabwean professional hunter Theo Bronkhorst and his son Zane. According to the memoir, the scent of a dead elephant drew the lion forward. He had often fed on elephants. But there was something different about this carcass, something beyond this cat’s experience of things to avoid. He could sense the presence of humans. Humans did not worry him. But these were not the humans he

knew. To minimize the scent and sound that would drift across the clearing; these humans were hiding in a tree platform downwind of the carcass. Couched in a small platform was an American with a broad, white smile, a powerful compound bow, and a quiver full of lethally sharp arrows. He was flanked by a stocky Zimbabwean guide.

This was an easy lion to hunt, a park lion, well fed and habituated to people. The draw of the elephant meat overcame the lion’s caution, and he approached the carcass. He fed for a few minutes, oblivious to the hunter taking up the tension on his bow. After killing the lion, according to both Cornelius and Ndabezihle, Bronkhorst and Palmer then drove off heading for Matetsi.

It seems likely that Bronkhorst, well aware that there was no quota for lion to be hunted on Antoinette Farm which belongs to Honest Ndlovu, was removing evidence of the hunt. He intended to report the lion as having being hunted in Matetsi Safari area or areas northwest of Hwange, where there were lions on the hunting quota. This administrative sleight of hand is known as “quota swapping” and is unfortunately common in the hunting industry.

Walter Palmer allegedly paid US$50 000 to shoot Cecil with his bow. Cecil, the 12- year-old male lion, was the undisputed king of this part of Savanna. Cecil was bringing more than that amount per annum and deserved to be protected by even professional hunters themselves.

The death of an animal is not so touchy in the African community, but of late, I was touched when I saw the events on the death of Sudan, a rhino on 19 March 2018 at OI Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.

His death was not unexpected, yet it has resonated around the world. As the planet’s last male northern white rhinoceros, Sudan found stardom as the so-called “last man standing.”

Some affectionately called him, “the most eligible bachelor in the world.” What makes a big difference between Cecil and Sudan is not of being a lion and a rhino but is, moments before he died, Sudan was surrounded by love, together with people who committed their lives to protecting him and giving him the good life he enjoyed.

These were the directors and people from DvїrKrӓlovẽ Zoo, staffers and his six dedicated keepers from OI Pejeta, who spent more time with him than their own children. Veterinarians and other people from Kenya wildlife services were present as well. Ami Vitale, a Nikon ambassador, filmmaker and photographer for National Geographic was present. Most of them had been crying for days. Sudan’s death could mean the extinction of his species. Sudan lived 45 years from 1973-2018; he was more than just a rhino. The reality is Sudan passed away of old age and not at the hands of poachers or as a result of man’s actions, in fact quite the opposite.

Meanwhile, Uganda’s oldest chimpanzee Zakayo died on 26 April 2018 at the age of 54 years. Speaking to Daily Monitor, James Musinguzi the Uganda Wildlife

Education Centre (UWEC) executive director said “Zakayo started feeling unwell about three weeks ago and has been on treatment. Due to his old age, he was highly susceptible to opportunistic infections. Please join us as we celebrate the life of this legendary chimpanzee that once lived as a dominant male and brought up the chimpanzee family at UWEC.”

Chimp Zakayo breaks record in death as in life. Zakayo was the oldest of captive chimpanzees in East Africa

People gathered like at any other funeral and bade farewell to Zakayo, but Cecil was killed, hurried for the processing of the trophy and his killers went happy. Bronkhorst was later on called by the law and the case was eventually thrown out. He lost his license and hunting business.

American media uncovered Palmer’s participation in a similar incident nine years earlier. On that occasion Palmer shot, again with a hunting bow, a large black bear in Wisconsin. He had a permit to hunt a bear, but he reportedly shot it 40 miles from his permit’s stipulated hunting area.

Cecil, the lion died slowly and painfully to allow a hunter the ultimate vanity of claiming he had killed a huge lion with a bow and arrow. Two years later, Xanda, a son of Cecil was legally shot by a trophy hunter in Zimbabwe on 20 July 2017. On killing Cecil, the lion, Palmer had his dental surgery picketed by demonstrators and his house vandalized