Cecil the celebrity lion’s killer was an American dentist

THE killer of Cecil, Zimbabwe’s iconic lion, has been named as Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer. Palmer is a prolific hunter, and British paper the Daily Telegraph says two sources have confirmed with them that he was the man who killed Cecil.
A spokesperson for the US citizen has told the Guardian newspaper: “As far as I understand, Walter believes that he might have shot that lion that has been referred to as Cecil.”
He added: “What he’ll tell you is that he had the proper legal permits and he had hired several professional guides, so he’s not denying that he may be the person who shot this lion. He is a big-game hunter; he hunts the world over.”
Palmer is believed to have paid around €49,000 to guides who helped him to hunt Cecil.
Two people will appear in court in Zimbabwe on August 6 over the killing – professional hunter and guide Theo Bronkhorst and the landowner of the farm where Cecil was eventually killed.
Speculation that the hunter may have been Spanish could have emanated from the fact that Palmer has hunted regularly in Spain with a crossbow hunting specialist group.