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Two years after Cecil the lion was killed by a trophy-hunter in Zimbabwe, prompting global outrage, his son may have met a similar sad end. Xanda, a six-year-old lion with several young cubs, was reportedly shot on a trophy hunt. He is said to have died outside the Hwange National Park in northern Zimbabwe. The lion had been fitted with an electronic tracking collar by Oxford University researchers.
The BBC's Africa Correspondent, Andrew Harding, reports that at the age of six, Xanda was old enough to be legally targeted by big game hunters. These individuals, many from the US, UK and South Africa, pay tens of thousands of pounds for the deadly pursuit - thereby funding the staff who protect other wildlife in the National Park.
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Cecil the Lion's Son Shot and Killed (Legally)
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* m2 stares at the monitor... it looks like a hamburger...
m2 - that's a bad sign
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Friday July 21 2017, @12:04PM (11 children)
Save your tears to a more deserving species.
Lions kill for fun: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surplus_killing [wikipedia.org]
Kill their fellows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA8YiZrYBg0 [youtube.com]
Kill their fellows' infants: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8cnEXIwjWA [youtube.com]
And eat their pray alive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VECtHHQjCqg [youtube.com]
Cruelty wise, they're only second to humans. Which might be why we think they're lovable and cute...
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(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Friday July 21 2017, @12:24PM (9 children)
Oh shut up. Everything you listed is practised by just about every other predator. Either a lion killed your family or you're a complete idiot. Guess which one sounds more plausible?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 21 2017, @12:35PM (3 children)
Uh, yes.
That doesn't take away from his point -- big cats (and yes, predators in general) can be said to have it coming, in a live-by-the-sword,-die-by-the-sword sort of way, whereas e.g. herbivores don't. Thus, crying over Bambi's Mom makes a lot more sense than crying over some asshole cat, or pretty much any other asshole predator.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 21 2017, @01:01PM (1 child)
Man, how bad would that be. There you are, hanging at the waterhole with all the other predators, and some smug prick of a lion starts with "well, I mostly hunt gazelles, I prefer the young ones. Easier to catch and to chew, you know". Cheetah pipes up with "I eat anything I can catch, and as the fastest animal on earth I catch whatever I want" . Tiger turns to you and says "what do you eat?". Embarassed pause, followed by a quiet "assholes. I eat assholes."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 21 2017, @10:56PM
Come on, you know Mr. Possum doesn't dare show up at the waterhole when the gang's around. If he did, they'd be too busy mocking his tail to even start with the prey-bragging.
(Seriously, the only thing uglier than a possum's looks is his dinner habits. Possums really do eat assholes -- they start there and work their way through the guts and other internal organs.)
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Friday July 21 2017, @07:04PM
RamiK said:
So yes, this behavior being common in predators does take away from his point. Your point seems more general than Ramik's.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Friday July 21 2017, @02:34PM (4 children)
Let me ELI5 it for you: If lions hunt for sport, they don't deserve your tears, sympathy and donation to conservation efforts when "every other predator", including humans, does the same to them.
If you want to tearjerk about non-humans, go hug a tree or raise a pet goat or something... There plenty of endangers critters out there that actually contribute to the ecology that are losing funding over these idiotic predators conservation efforts.
What's next?! The Ebola conservation society? Save the tapeworm? Blood drive for mosquitoes?
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(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 21 2017, @02:45PM (1 child)
If X hunts for sport it doesn't deserve sympathy?
The person who killed Xanda was hunting for sport.
If that person is killed I shouldn't be sad about that.
You know what... I won't be.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:43AM
It's ridiculous you're actually equating the life of lions and humans under a single variable. You're applying social contracts, norms and emotions meant for humans to interact with each other, to form a functioning society, to other animals with the criteria being how cute they look. With the exception of dogs who form packs with humans, crying over cats is not only irrational, it's disservice to other conservation efforts as it diverts necessary funds.
It seems "What's next?! The Ebola conservation society?" was prophetic... Tragic.
(Score: 3, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Friday July 21 2017, @07:38PM (1 child)
Let me ELI5 it for you: If lions hunt for sport
Ok, that's easy then! They don't.
The link you provided does not support the claim they do. Large cats can feed off a corpse for months after the kill.
Additionally "for sport" is claiming intent a.k.a anthropomorphism.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:24AM
It says they "can". But they won't. It mentioned in the wikipedia link from earlier (the big cat predation one) that when given the chance they kill, get bored, and move to the next prey without finishing or, sometimes, even beginning to eat the body.
It's bizarre how detached from reality people are to try justify in human morals how cats behave. Cats (big or small) are notorious for trying to sink their teeth and claws in anything moving. Anyone raising a cat knows their "playfulness" is them getting off on hunting. You can try explain the instinct as a memory capacity issue and a hardwired instinct that mean they keep killing without getting bored until they tired. And when they're hungry, they don't necessarily remember the previous corpses so they turn to find new prey... But the end result is the same.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday July 21 2017, @02:54PM
I dunno...aren't dolphins [deepseanews.com] supposed to be huge assholes, too?
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"