Hunting lions legal in parts of Africa

JOHANNESBURG — It is, for some well-heeled foreign visitors, the ultimate African experience: the thrill of hunting a lion, one of the “Big Five” animals whose habitats are under increasing pressure from human encroachment. Now an American dentist’s killing of a celebrity lion in Zimbabwe has triggered global revulsion, highlighting what critics say is an industry of trophy hunting that threatens vulnerable species.

Hunting is banned in Kenya and Botswana, which depend heavily on income from tourists who flock to see wildlife on tours that often combine a sense of adventure with luxury lodging in the bush. Many more countries, including South Africa, Namibia and Tanzania, allow it, arguing it benefits communities and funnels high-priced fees from hunters back into conservation. Opponents, however, warn regulations are often poorly enforced or overlooked by unscrupulous operators.

Such suspicions are swirling in Zimbabwe, where a professional hunter, Theo Bronkhorst, was charged with failing to “prevent an unlawful hunt” while working for Minnesota resident Walter James Palmer, who killed Cecil, a well-known lion with a distinctive black mane, in early July. Conservationists say a dead animal was tied to a car to draw the lion out of a national park, and that Palmer wounded Cecil with a bow before fatally shooting him with a gun after 40 hours of tracking.

Palmer, who said he relied on his professional guides to ensure a legal hunt, has been vilified globally on social media and talk shows and has closed his dental practice for now.

“Cecil is not the first lion that has been lured,” said Ian Michler, a South African conservationist. “It goes on all the time. Unethical hunting is rife across the continent.”