Home Scandal and Gossip $52K: Cecil the Lion’s son Xanda killed by trophy hunter

$52K: Cecil the Lion’s son Xanda killed by trophy hunter

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Xanda the lion
Xanda the lion the cub of Cecil the lion who like his father (pictured) was killed during a trophy has been at Zimbabwe's
Xanda the lion
Xanda the lion, the cub son of Cecil the lion who like his father (pictured) has been killed during a trophy hunt at Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park.

Xanda the lion, the cub son of Cecil the lion who like his father has been killed during a trophy hunt at Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park. Price of death, $52, 000. 

Trophy hunters in Zimbabwe have killed the son of Cecil the Lion, Xanda, just two years after the cub’s father was killed in an illegal hunt. Xanda the lion’s death comes in what researchers believe was a highly lucrative paid mission. 

An exclusive via the UK’s telegraph tells of the six year old lion being killed just outside the Hwange National Park in north west Zimbabwe, not far from where Cecil was killed in 2015.

Xanda’s death was discovered because Xanda was wearing an an electronic collar, fitted by researchers monitoring his movements in the area. Tragically Xanda the lion was killed in his prime.

Notice of the lion’s death came after Zimbabwean professional hunter Richard Cooke from RC Safaris, who’d been part of the hunt, discovering the dead lion having a collar, where upon he handed it back to the researchers, leading to Xanda’s identification. 

Told Andrew Loveridge from the Department of Zoology at Oxford University, who’d been part of a team responsible fixing Xanda’s collar: ‘I fitted it last October. It was monitored almost daily and we were aware that Xanda and his pride was spending a lot of time out of the park in the last six months, but there is not much we can do about that.’

Adding,Richard Cooke is one of the ‘good’ guys. He is ethical and he returned the collar and communicated what had happened. His hunt was legal and Xanda was over 6 years old so it is all within the stipulated regulations.’

Loveridge said he hoped that there would soon be a 5km (3 mile) exclusion zone around the Hwange National Park so that hunters would no longer accidentally shoot collared lions that wonder outside the boundary of the Park.

Ironically, Cecil the Lion’s death came after the wild animal had wandered outside of the Park to the area of his birth, close to the boundary. 

Of note, Cooke, has continued to desist revealing the name of his client.

That said, most lion shooters are from the US, UK, Germany or South Africa.

The client may have paid about £40 000 ($52, 000) for the shoot and for Xanda’s head to be cured and mounted and sent to him wherever he lives. 

Xanda the lion’s death follows the outrage that ensued after the young lion’s father was killed during a hunt on July 1, 2015, at the hands of Walter James Palmer

The incident led to global outrage, throwing a spotlight on trophy hunting in Africa. 

At the time the UK’s telegraph reported Palmer, a 55-year-old dentist from Minnesota, having paid at the time US$65,000 (about £50,000 in today’s exchange rate) to shoot and kill the much-loved lion with a bow and arrow. At the time of his death, Cecil was 13 years old.

The deluge of scorn directed at the dentist led to the man being forced to abandon his practice in suburban Minneapolis for weeks.

While the incident led to lower numbers in big game hunting, hunters eventually returned to Zimbabwe as the US ban on the importation of trophies was lifted.

More then 70 per cent of funds to safeguard Zimbabwe’s wildlife and catch poachers comes from revenue from professional hunters. Ensuring an ever revolving episodes of angst and open outcry as yet another beloved big game animal is killed for the ’cause’.

Xanda the lion
Pictured Cecil the lion, whose son, Xanda the lion was killed during a trophy hunt at Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park.
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