Cecil the lion: Why a hunting ban is not the answer

By Alastair LeitheadBBC News, Zimbabwe

7 August 2015 

Three little spots on a cracked smartphone screen show Brent Stapelkamp the last known locations of Jericho the lion.

Every two hours his tracking collar pings the satellite and it's clear on the map that the lion, who was Cecil's buddy, has left the protection of Hwange National Park and ventured onto private hunting land.

It's the same place where Cecil was killed and Jericho, who led the pride with him, has spent a lot of time there recently - calling for his friend.

Brent, who is a field researcher with Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, had been following Cecil for nine years and it was he who discovered the lion had been killed.

"When he's walking it's a long line of dots on the map, but if he's been eating something it's in a big cluster," he said.

"The fact he had been eating before his collar switched off gave me that sense that he had been on a bait."

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