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By Travis Smola via wideopenspaces.com

Amidst the global uproar over the killing of “Cecil” the lion by Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer, the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority has announced the suspension of hunting for lions, leopards and elephants in close proximity to Hwange National Parks in a release on their website Saturday. Effective immediately, the announcement says: “Hunting of lions, leopards and elephant in areas outside of Hwange National Parks has been suspended with immediate effect. 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.” . . .

In addition, bowhunting has also been suspended except with the same written permission. The Parks and Wildlife Management authority used the opportunity to remind hunters that the transfer of hunting quotas from one area to another will be considered poaching.

Online rumors have run rampant that Palmer and his guides claimed they had a quota to take the lion in an area Zimbabwe officials claim they did not. “The Authority will not hesitate to arrest, prosecute, and ban for life any persons including professional hunters, clients and land owners who are caught on the wrong side of the law,” the release states.

The release says that the suspension is a part of a “crackdown to weed out any undesirable elements.” The Parks and Wildlife Authority also announced the arrest of Headman Sibanda who is alleged to have violated unspecified hunting regulations.

The news of the suspension came as a new bit of outrage about lion hunting was just starting. On Saturday, conflicting reports claimed that another lion named Jericho, who was often seen with Cecil, was also killed by a poacher on Saturday.

Oxford University posted a photo taken early this morning that confirmed the animal was still alive and well.

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38 COMMENTS

  1. “and only if accompanied by parks staff whose costs will be met by the landowner”

    Translation:,Only allowed with appropriate bribes to government officials.
    No change in policy just adjusting the bribe structure.

    • Yep. This entire case is mostly useful for highlighting the danger of doing business with corrupt, poorly governed nations with little respect for the rule of law (which is, unfortunately, virtually all African nations).

      • “…corrupt, poorly governed nations with little respect for the rule of law.”

        I know of no nations that do not fit that description. Matter of degree right now.

    • “Translation:,Only allowed with appropriate bribes to government officials.
      No change in policy just adjusting the bribe structure.”

      Wow, that fits so well. Not just for this story, but for a lot of stuff going on here at home as well.

  3. Now they just need some “No Poaching” signs and all the animals will be completely safe.

  4. But seriously, Zimbabwe does seem to have a real poaching problem and I hope they will pull themselves up out of the corruption and Marxism long enough to do something about it.

  5. just my two cents, but i dont care about this lion thing. its a distraction, not news.

    also, “crackdown to weed out any undesirable elements.” foreboding motivation, indeed.

  6. This seems really odd to me, why does Zimbabwe care about American media outrage?

    • People care about things. Arbitrarily drawn borders (Zimbabwe) don’t.

      Whomever is talking, is angling to bilk some funds out of gullible Americans or Anti-Americans or whatnot. And can be relied on to care just as little about “Zimbabwe”, as he does about lions or the goings on in the US.

  7. As expected, a heavy handed knee jerk reaction to public outrage that completely ingnores the legitimate conservation goals of responsible hunters and opens yet another avenue of corruption that will likely only attract more of the Walter Palmers of the world.

    • When saying “we,” you must mean the Brits and their South African buddies. Aside from a handful of Vietnam vets who joined the RLI proper and the usual gaggle of mercenaries, the U.S. never staked a claim in any part of Rhodesia. Sorry, historical accuracy gripe, can’t resist.

        • When I started posting here around 2011, the European/Commonwealth commentators were few and far between. I seem to have forgotten how much the audience has grown since then. Apologies for any feathers ruffled.

    • They’ll make money on them. They just have to share a bit more generously. Noone down there in any position of power, is served by lions going extinct. So they won’t, even if means (resurrecting?) the old policy of paying more per poacher, than the Chinese and Americans pay per Lion. Being well aware of who their paymasters are, they won’t even extend it to paying more per dentist….

  11. Good Jorb Zimbabwe.

    Good luck to your corrupt president-for-life in dealing with the utter destruction of your wildlife resources through un-controlled poaching.

    • Yup.
      Not sure if it’s true or not, but it was reported that baby elephant was served at Mugabe’s last birthday.
      I guess it’s more tender for the teeth impaired?

  12. We are talking about a country that has 80% unemployment. It seems like they would be rolling out the red carpet for hunters who are willing to hire a guide and his crew. Well, as mentioned earlier, if you can afford the extra bribes you can afford to hire a guide and plenty of porters. Times have really changed. After serving as president the Smithsonian institute paid for Theodore Roosevelt to spend a year in Africa in 1909. The expedition collected around 11,400 animal specimens which took Smithsonian naturalists eight years to catalog. Now people go into a fit over a single lion.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smithsonian%E2%80%93Roosevelt_African_Expedition

  13. I wonder if Boone and Crockett could create a Palmer Award. For the best cat taken each year.

    • “…I wonder if Boone and Crockett could create a Palmer Award. For the best cat taken each year…”

      Check Pope and Young- this man hunts with a bow/arrow.

  14. In my humble opinion hunting is probably the only thing keeping these animals alive. Zimbabwe doesn’t need lions. If anything they are competition for the locals. Hunters paying big bucks to kill them gives a lot of incentive to keep them around. If the hunters cant pay and hunt there will be no incentive to save and the poachers will clean house and sell to the Asian market.

  15. Zimbabwe: going full retard circa August, 2015. That country taking the “moral high ground” over the killing of a charismatic cat has got to be one of the most significant circle-jerks in human history.

    • They’ve been going full retard since when Mugabe drove the white landowners out, parceled out the seized lands to his political cronies, who knew jack-all about farming, and then their food production cratered.

      As a result, Zimbabwe (or the country that used to be called Rhodesia) went from a next exporter of foodstuffs to an importer.

      Once again we see that modern civilization is an invention of white males. Take away the white males, and you get something other than modern civilization. Zimbabwe currently exists at the confluence of tribal kleptocracy and marxist economic theory Zimbabwe is what Venezuela now intends to become.

    • I would be very surprised if his Wheelie bow fit the terms for pope and young. Most of them do not.

  16. G.K. Chesterton wrote about 100 years ago “Wherever there is animal worship, there is human sacrifice.”

    Pithy observation, that. Sad that it is also about to be prescient.

  17. Next these 3rd worlders will be banning our slavery-by-proxy offshored manufacturing. Guess we’ll just have to stay home and kill stuff. Hey, like buy American, we can…kill American. I’m getting a shirt printed up right now.

  18. They made a call to try and satisfy the howler monkeys. Not banned, just a little more red tape and cost.

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