South African President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday brushed aside the killing of Zimbabwean lion Cecil, dismissing the animal’s death as “just an incident.”<\/p>\n
Describing the death of Cecil as an honest mistake, Zuma said the hunter — American Walter Palmer — was probably unaware he was shooting one of Zimbabwe’s most beloved animals.<\/p>\n
“The hunter did not know Cecil was so popular, he just saw a lion and killed a lion,” said Zuma, giggling as he spoke at a press briefing in Pretoria.<\/p>\n
“My feeling is that the fellow did not know.”<\/p>\n
Palmer, a dentist from Minnesota, paid $55,000 to shoot a lion with a bow and arrow in July 2015.<\/p>\n
The hunt provoked worldwide outrage when it emerged that Cecil was a favourite attraction among visitors to Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park and was wearing a tracking collar as part of an Oxford University research project<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe has requested that the United States extradite Palmer to face charges over the hunt.<\/p>\n
Palmer’s guide on the expedition, Theo Bronkhorst, appeared in court last week.<\/p>\n
He was granted $1,000-bail pending his trial on September 28 on charges of organising an illegal hunt.<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe introduced strict hunting restrictions earlier this month in the wake of the killing, but lifted most of them on Monday.<\/p>\n
Zuma said Zimbabwe had the appropriate legislation in place to regulate the hunting industry.<\/p>\n
“I think Zimbabwe has laws about hunting and everything, I don’t think it’s a matter we could really debate that much,” he said.<\/p>\n
Like Zimbabwe, South Africa sees a substantial amount of tourism revenue come from wealthy overseas clients who pay big money to hunt lions, elephants and buffalos.<\/p>\n
According to South Africa’s environment ministry, the hunting industry generates about 6.2 billion rand (US$485 million) a year.<\/p>\n