Zimbabwean officials name local doctor in lion hunting probe

Wildlife authorities in Zimbabwe on Sunday dismissed a report of the shooting death of a male lion who was a companion of Cecil, a well-known lion killed by an American hunter in early July.

The man, named by Zimbabwe’s national parks authority as Jan Seski, a 68-year-old doctor from Murrysville, Pennsylvania, is said to have killed the unidentified lion in April.

The National Parks authority gave little information on the new case, but said on Sunday that the killing of the lion had taken place without a permit.

However they have called for the extradition of Walter Palmer from the US to face charges over Cecil’s death.

Since hunting in the Hwange National Park is not allowed, the new measures are meant to prevent instances of illegal killings of wildlife outside the park. Bow and arrow hunts were also suspended and can only be approved by the head of the wildlife authority.

Hahn stated Seski may be “quirky”, strolling round sporting a low-slung pistol “like a gunslinger”, for instance, however he appreciates that his neighbor is defending land from improvement. Last week, Cecil was killed illegally, sparking global outrage and forcing Zimbabwe to tighten restrictions on big game hunting.

Meyeridricks said PHASA has made “little demonstrable progress” in getting government and predator breeders to “clean up” the country’s lucrative but controversial captive-bred lion hunting industry.

“It appeared to me all the things he does is aboveboard”, Hahn stated.

Kenyan activist Paula Kahumba, writing in The Guardian on Thursday, said there was no ecological justification for trophy hunting. The alleged “foreign poacher” has also reportedly received multiple death threats and messages like, “Let the hunter be hunted” from some protesters. Though the kills have decreased recently, its hunting quotas for lions, among the highest in Africa, have been called unsustainable by lion biologists.

“I had to put my phone off. Hunters are using this as a way to get to me, sending insults and remarks by email and by text”, he said.

Plus, Vladeck noted about any extradition, “There might be concerns about the precedent it sets for U.S. tourists overseas”.

The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution last month calling on all countries to crack down on illegal wildlife trafficking and poaching.

“The logic is that if you keep killing them, they will become endangered”, Menendez spokesman Steven Sandberg said, according to the Associated Press.