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Cecil was an icon of Zimbabwe, a much loved and much photographed lion. A resident of the “free roam” Hwange National Park where killing wild animals is illegal, Cecil was a collared lion who had been part of an Oxford University research project since 1999.

Reports that Cecil’s body was found skinned and headless outside the park in early July had led to much grief and shock. This has grown into a worldwide outrage once news emerged that an American dentist from Minnesota, keen on a hunt while in Zimbabwe, had hired professional guides to help lure and trap Cecil.

They are supposed to have strapped an animal carcass to the back of a car and parked it just outside the national park to draw Cecil out. By some accounts, once Cecil left the park, the restrictions on killing did not apply. Palmer is supposed to have first shot the lion with a crossbow, wounding him and then chasing and tracking him down after 40 hours before shooting him with a rifle, this time killing him.

Palmer is supposed to have paid $50,000 for the hunting experience, according to news reports.

The outrage, which is evident online, stems from the brutality of Cecil’s killing and that fact that Zimbabwe’s wildlife protection laws were bypassed with seeming ease. Palmer claims that he didn’t know that Cecil was a famous lion, that he had the necessary hunting permits and that he accepted what his guides told him about hunting in the country.

The two local men have been arrested on poaching charges.