Cecil the lion’s brother, Jericho, killed illegally

The Zimbabwean government has requested the extradition of the US dentist Walter Palmer, who killed the southern African country’s most celebrated lion, Cecil.

Jericho had been caring for Cecil’s cubs after he was shot last month, but now park workers in Zimbabwe believe he has suffered the same fate as his brother.

“We are absolutely heart broken”, the Task Force added on the Facebook posting.

“It has become necessary that the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority further tightens hunting regulations in all areas outside the Parks Estate”, Edson Chidziya, director general of Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority, said in an e-mailed statement on Saturday.

According to officials, the hunt was illegal as it violated a number of provisions of the Parks and Wildlife Act such as Section 66 which regulates the manner in which trophy hunts are conducted and Section 123 which controls the use of bow and arrow for hunting. Another conservation worker said the lion had been seen with a female earlier in the day, “probably mating”.

Oppah Muchinguri, Zimbabwe’s environment minister, said at a press conference on Friday that she hoped the U.S. would cooperate and send Palmer, whom she called a “foreign poacher”, back to the country.

Dr Palmer maintains what he did was legal, and has hired a public relations firm to help handle the fallout over his hunt.

“The Authority will not hesitate to arrest, prosecute, and ban for life any persons including professional hunters, clients and land owners who are caught on the wrong side of the law”, he said.

Chidziya said that his organization had joined forces with police “to weed out any undesirable elements”.

Cecil was a wild lion in Zimbabwe popular with locals and tourists. About a dozen lions in the region were killed illegally in recent years, Stapelkamp said, and no one was caught.

Immediately following the CNN report, Reuters Africa issued a statement saying Jericho may be alright. Emmanuel Fundira, chairman of Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe, told reporters at a news conference. Right now, Jericho is in good health and he (and the lionesses) will defend the cubs. However, an Oxford University researcher tracking Jericho told the outlet the lion was alive and moving as of 8 p.m. local time Saturday.