The son of Cecil the lion — Zimbabwe’s beloved big cat, whose death at the hands of an American trophy hunter triggered widespread outrage two summers ago — has been killed as well.
The Facebook group Lions of Hwange National Park said Thursday that Xanda, who was 6 and had several cubs, had been fatally shot several days ago by another trophy hunter in Zimbabwe. Andrew Loveridge, an Oxford University researcher who studies the park’s lions, said in an e-mail that the shooting took place on July 7 during a “legally sanctioned hunt.”
“We can’t believe that now, 2 years since Cecil was killed, that his oldest Cub Xanda has met the same fate,” the Lions of Hwange post said. “When will the Lions of Hwange National Park be left to live out their years as wild born free lions should?”
The group said Xanda was killed during a hunt organized by Richard Cooke Safaris, which did not respond to a request for comment. Officials at the Hwange National Park have not yet confirmed the reports.
Cecil the lion was killed in nearly the same location in 2015. The Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force said the 13-year-old black-maned lion was lured out of the national park and shot with a compound bow before being finished off with a rifle. His slaying provoked international outrage and intensified calls for bringing an end to trophy hunting in Africa.
Cecil was one of hundreds of Hwange National Park lions whose lives have been meticulously monitored by Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit. His movements had been followed in “minute detail” from 2008 until his death in 2015, biologist David Macdonald wrote on the unit’s website.
But Cecil was hardly the first big cat to have been shot by hunters in the area: Two other lions well known to researchers had been killed before him in 2015, and more than 60 others had met the same fate in the preceding 15 years.
What made Cecil’s death generate global outrage, the researchers later said, was a combination of unusual factors, including his dark and majestic mane, his English nickname and the dubious circumstances of his killing at the hands of a white, wealthy American.
They said they hoped the attention would lead to improved conservation science — including the purchase of additional satellite collars.
Xanda, Cecil’s son, was first collared in July 2015, and he was fitted with…
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