Cecil ( 2002 – 2 July 2015) was a male African lion (Panthera leo leo) who lived primarily in the Hwange National Park in Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe. He was being studied and tracked by a research team of the University of Oxford as part of a long-term study.

On the night of 1 July 2015, Cecil was wounded with an arrow by Walter Palmer, an American recreational big-game trophy hunter, then tracked and killed with a compound bow the following morning, between 10 and 12 hours later. Cecil was 13 years old when killed. Palmer had purchased a hunting permit and was not charged legally with any crime; authorities in Zimbabwe have said he is still free to visit the country as a tourist, but not as a hunter. Two Zimbabweans (the hunting guide and the owner of the farm where the hunt took place) were briefly arrested, but the charges were eventually dismissed by courts.

The killing was first reported by South African wildlife investigative reporter Adam Cruise writing for Conservation Action Trust. It resulted in international media attention and caused outrage among animal conservationists, criticism by politicians and celebrities, and a strong denunciation of Palmer. Five months after the killing of Cecil, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added lions in India and West and Central Africa to the endangered species list, making it more difficult for United States citizens to kill them legally on safaris. Wayne Pacelle, then President of the HSUS, argued that Cecil had "changed the atmospherics on the issue of trophy hunting around the world", adding, "I think it gave less wiggle room to regulators."

Because of the high level of media attention and condemnation surrounding the killing of Cecil, significantly fewer hunters came to Zimbabwe in the months that followed. This led to the country suffering financial losses and a lion overpopulation in the Bubye Valley Conservancy.

Background Cecil was named after the British businessman, politician and mining magnate Cecil Rhodes, the namesake also of Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. Another lion thought to be Cecil's brother was noticed in Hwange National Park in 2008. During 2009, the two lions encountered an established pride, which resulted in a fight in which Cecil's brother was killed, and both Cecil and the pride leader were seriously wounded; the previous leader was subsequently mercy-killed by park rangers because of the wounds sustained during the fight with Cecil. Cecil retreated to another part of the park where he eventually established his own pride with as many as 22 members. During 2013, Cecil was forced out from the area by two young male lions and into the eastern border of the park. There, he created a coalition with another male lion named Jericho to establish two prides that consisted of Cecil, Jericho, half a dozen females and up to a dozen cubs sired by either Cecil or Jericho.

The lions in the park, including Cecil, have been studied by scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at the University of Oxford as part of a scientific project that has run since 1999, and his movements had been followed since 2008. Of the 62 lions tagged during the study period, 34 have died, including 24 through sport hunting. Of adult male lions that were tagged inside the park, 72% were killed through sport hunting on areas near the park. During 2013, 49 hunted lion carcasses were exported from Zimbabwe as trophies; the 2005–2008 Zimbabwe hunt "off-take" (licensed kills) average was 42 lions per year. The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) found that the African lion population had decreased by forty-three percent from 1997 to 2017. The African Lion now has a conservation status of "vulnerable" with humans being its only co-predator.

Cecil was identifiable by his black-fringed mane and a GPS tracking collar, and was Hwange Park's main attraction. One of the researchers on the project suggested that Cecil had become so popular because he was accustomed to people, allowing vehicles to approach sometimes as close as , making it easy for tourists and researchers to photograph and observe him. According to Alex Magaisa, an advisor to Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Cecil was known only to a segment of society; some sources claimed 99.99 percent of Zimbabweans had never heard of Cecil.

Death During June 2015, Walter J. Palmer, an American dentist and recreational game hunter, reportedly paid to a Zimbabwean professional hunter-guide, Theo Bronkhorst, to enable him to kill a lion. In the late afternoon of 1 July, Bronkhorst and wildlife tracker Cornelius Ncube built a hunting blind in Atoinette Farm, a private property owned by Honest Ndlovu just across a railway track from the park. Between 9:00 and 11:00p.m., Palmer shot from concealment and critically wounded Cecil with an arrow from his compound bow. The hunters tracked Cecil and killed him with a second arrow the next morning (about 10 to 12 hours later) at a location less than from the initial shot. Cecil's body was then skinned and his head was removed. When the lion's headless skeleton, already scavenged by vultures, was eventually found by park investigators, his tracking collar was also missing and later found dumped kilometers away. The hunt took place outside the protected Hwange National Park, but within the lion's normal home range. Biologist Andrew Loveridge alleged that Palmer's companions (Bronkhorst and Ncube) dragged the carcass of an African elephant killed earlier in the week to roughly from the park to bait Cecil out of the protected area.

The lion was equipped with a satellite tracking device from which location data were recorded every 2 hours. Subsequently, location data was pieced together (depicted in the map herein on the right). This interpretation of events was corroborated by the subsequent investigation by Zimbabwe National Parks and wildlife management and is consistent with the satellite data.

Two Zimbabweans (Bronkhorst and Ndlovu) were later arrested by Zimbabwe police. Bronkhorst said during July, 2015, "We had obtained the permit for bowhunting, we had obtained the permit for the lion from the council." Palmer had already returned to the United States, where he issued a statement that he had "relied on the expertise of my local professional guides to ensure a legal hunt" and "deeply regret that my pursuit of an activity I love and practice responsibly and legally resulted in the taking of this lion".

Reactions In Zimbabwe Cecil's killing went largely unnoticed in the animal's native Zimbabwe. The country's The Chronicle newspaper wrote: "It is not an overstatement that almost 99.99 percent of Zimbabweans didn't know about this animal until Monday. Now we have just learnt, thanks to the British media, that we had Africa's most famous lion all along, an icon!" The BBC's Farai Sevenzo wrote: "The lion's death has not registered much with the locals".

On the other hand, Zimbabwean officials stated that the killing of Cecil had already caused a decrease in tourism revenues. A significant decrease was noted in Hwange, where the lion had lived. Many international tourists who had planned to see the lion had cancelled their trips. "This killing is a huge loss to our tourism sector that was contributing immensely to the national wealth", said Emanuel Fundira, the president of the Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe. "We had a lot of people, in terms of visitors, coming in to the country to enjoy and view Cecil, so really this was a great loss," Fundira said, calling Cecil's presence "a draw card" and comparing his death to "the demise of an icon". The director of the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, Karikoga Kaseke, said that tourism had been booming, but that Zimbabwe was now perceived as a country which was not interested in protecting and promoting animal rights, and this view had also hindered tourism.

Bryan Orford, a professional wildlife guide who worked in Hwange, calculated that with tourists from a nearby lodge collectively paying per day, the revenue generated from photography of Cecil taken over a five day trip would have been greater than someone paying a one-off fee of to hunt and kill the lion, with no hope of future revenue.

On 1 August 2015, in response to Cecil's killing, the hunting of lions, leopards and elephants along with all bow-hunting was immediately suspended in areas outside of Hwange National Park by Zimbabwe's environment minister, Opa Muchinguri, who said, "All such hunts will only be conducted if confirmed and authorized in writing by the Director-general of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, and only if accompanied by parks staff whose costs will be met by the landowner". The moratorium was lifted after 10 days.

Zimbabwe's acting information minister, Prisca Mupfumira, when questioned about Cecil's killing, asked, "What lion?".

At a press conference on 31 July 2015, Zimbabwe's environment minister, Opa Muchinguri, said the hunter violated Zimbabwean law and needs to be held accountable. "We are appealing to the responsible authorities for his extradition to Zimbabwe". Muchinguri said in a press release that Palmer's actions had tarnished the image of Zimbabwe and placed further strain on the relationship between Zimbabwe and the U.S. She suggested conservationists and animal lovers provide resources to help decrease poaching and other environmental concerns in Zimbabwe.

In Africa Under the premise that profits from trophy hunts help animal conservation efforts, Pohamba Shifeta, the Namibian environment and tourism minister, said that these measures by foreigners to curtail prize hunting would "be the end of conservation in Namibia."

Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa at the time, declared on 11 August 2015: "What it sounds like from a distance [is] that the hunter did not know that Cecil was so popular, just saw a lion, and killed a lion, and it's Cecil, and Cecil is very well loved and it caused a problem, because everyone wants to go and see Cecil. I think it's just an incident."

Jean Kapata, Zambia's minister of tourism, said that "the West seemed more concerned with the welfare of a lion in Zimbabwe than of Africans themselves", and added, "In Africa, a human being is more important than an animal. I don't know about the Western world."

Overseas Non-governmental

Cecil's killing created an outrage among animal conservationists, and prompted responses from politicians and many other people. A number of celebrities publicly condemned Cecil's killing. Palmer received a large number of death threats and hate messages, and activists posted his private details online. The words "Lion Killer" were also spray-painted on the garage door at Palmer's Florida vacation home. In addition, at least seven pickled pigs feet were left at the residence. Artists from around the world dedicated art to Cecil, including Aaron Blaise, a former artist of Walt Disney Feature Animation. Musicians composed original works to honor Cecil. After Mia Farrow received criticism for tweeting Palmer's office address, Bob Barker defended her action, saying, "The animal rights movement has just made humongous strides. Why? Awareness. That is what it takes, we have to make people aware," he told ET. "They don't realize how much suffering is going on in the animal world."Bob Barker Defends Mia Farrow Tweeting Lion Killer's Address: 'He Deserves All the Misery He Receives', Entertainment Tonight, Jackie Willis, July 30, 2015. Retrieved July 20, 2020.

Not all overseas reactions were sympathetic to Cecil. Goodwell Nzou, an African PhD student in the U.S., wrote in The New York Times: "In my village in Zimbabwe, surrounded by wildlife conservation areas, no lion has ever been beloved, or granted an affectionate nickname. They are objects of terror. [...] Americans care more about African animals than about African people."