Zimbabwe has lifted a series of restrictions on hunting only eleven days after the brutal slaying of Cecil the Lion.
The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority announced in a statement on August 10 “The suspension of wildlife hunting in all other areas outside the parks estate has been lifted with immediate effect.”
Parks spokeswoman Caroline Washaya-Moyo said the ban would remain in place on farmland where Cecil died, as well as several other farms where officials allege animals were killed illegally.
Authorities had suspended hunting in the area around Hwange National Park after Cecil, a popular black- maned lion was killed by Florida Dentist Walter Palmer. Palmer and his accompanying tour guides lured Cecil from the safety of the park by attaching a dead deer to the back of a utility vehicle before Palmer shot Cecil with a bow and arrow and left him to suffer. When Cecil’s remain were found all that was left was a headless, skinless skeleton the vultures had been picking at for about a week.
Cecil had been wearing a GPS collar since 2008 as part of an Oxford University lion study. Researchers were appalled by the manner in which he was killed.
In his first comments regarding the lion, President Mugabe told that Zimbabweans should protect their natural resources from foreign “vandals” who try to illegally acquire those resources.
“He is dead but was yours to protect, and you failed to protect him.”
A host of International airlines including Delta, American Airlines, Emirates, Qantas and Air Canada have announced an end to the transportation of all hunting kills.