The Lion Who Would Save the World

Running along the outer perimeter of Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe is a railway line. From a lion’s perspective, the railway line is just a strange feature of the landscape—two lines of shiny metal whose occasional vibrations lead to a thunderous stampede of cube-shaped animals on spinning metal feet that appear and vanish, leaving behind only a faint scent of fossil fuels and human bodies. But when there are no trains around, there is nothing to fear from the steely tracks.

Cecil the lion often wandered up to the railway line and then turned back to the national park. But on other occasions, he felt his prospects of finding food and adventure might be better on the other side of the tracks. July 1, 2015, was one of those days.

There was something here, though, that Cecil couldn’t fathom. He could be legally shot by people from rich countries far away. At around 10 p.m., an American trophy hunter, Walter Palmer, wounded Cecil with an arrow. During the night that followed, Cecil no doubt suffered great pain. After the sun rose the next day, Palmer and his professional hunting guide tracked down Cecil and Palmer delivered a final arrow. Cecil met his death at around 9 a.m.

Palmer, a dentist from Minnesota, is unlikely to have on the world. Three weeks later, the killing of Cecil was reported in . The next day, several international celebrities, including Ricky Gervais, Sharon Osbourne, and Ricky Martin, tweeted about it. The day after, a diatribe by late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel triggered an outpouring of public outrage, leading to protests outside Palmer’s dental office.