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.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bob_super on Friday July 21 2017, @06:23PM (2 children)
> This is Zimbabwe, the kleptocracy that runs it has to keep funding itself in some way now that they've run out of farms and businesses to confiscate.
*Sheds a tear for the poor white men chased away from the lands their brave armed ancestors saved from mismanagement by the ruthless savages*
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 21 2017, @10:28PM (1 child)
Yep, but they were farming it profitably and at scale. If they were replaced with... well anyone else who did the same you may have had a point. As it is the land is now held by government officials and squatted unproductively by their minions. A more mature nation would have just taxed anyone doing a good job, punitively or otherwise. China invites "those that can" in on the proviso that technology transfer is part of the process, and then forces them out. Zimbabwe forgot the "then profit" stage. Unfortunately for them farming is a little more that sitting around looking at cows graze.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @08:57AM
The profits are amazing in Zimbabwe. It has more quadrillionaires than any other country.