Shocking New Photos Show Cecil’s Killer Posing With A Dead Black Bear

His signature jet-black mane was dusted by dirt, his large paws embedded in the ground – and the crossbow that was used to kill him was propped up at his side.

State media has been using Cecil the lion as a comparison. Most were not even aware that Hwange National Park housed Africa’s most famous lion.

PHOTO: In 2008, Dr. Walter Palmer pleaded guilty to making false statements to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about a black bear he shot and killed in Wisconsin outside of an authorized hunting zone. He was then skinned and beheaded.

Researchers have an unusual quantity of knowledge about the behavior of the lions in Hwange National Park because many, including Cecil, were fitted with high-tech collars that allowed Oxford University scientists to closely track their activities.

Despised dentist Walter Palmer showed off his killer smile in newly-released photos of another illegal hunt – this one a bear slaying from 2006.

“I relied on the expertise of my local professional guides to ensure a legal hunt”, Palmer said in the statement.

Palmer eventually had to pay $2,938 in fines and was sentenced to a year of probation.

But, he said, at 13 Cecil was “nearing the end of his tenure in lion society”.

Courtenay said: “I’m not going to discuss the legalities [of Cecil being hunted]”.

“Any other lion, I don’t think it would have been a problem”.

He told journalists he believed he had the right hunting permit and that the charges he faced were “frivolous”.

“(Hunting) is an integral part of our country and it’s got to continue.

“That was the last time we handled him”, said Courtenay. They have their own lives and families and should be permitted to live as such. Other animals-elephants, rhinoceros, apes-are in equal, sometimes greater, danger.

Since then he has kept a low public profile.

The killing of Cecil did not go down well with animal rights activists world-wide, with thousands signing a petition entitled ‘Demand Justice for Cecil the Lion in Zimbabwe’. “They could hurt you seriously, very quickly”.

“That upset me because no animal on earth deserves that treatment”. I pray your cubs will be safe since you can no longer protect them.

So, lawyers said, prosecutors would have a tough job to make the charges of an illegal hunt stick.

I also have doubts about how hunting fees benefits the local economy. According to the Program on African Protected Areas & Conservation, as of 2009 South Africa had made about $100 million per year from big game hunting safaris.

What will happen if the lions and animals continued to disappear?