Walter Palmer, the Minnesota dentist who shot dead Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe, is a wanted man.
According to BBC Zimbabwe’s Environment Minister Oppah Muchinguri, says that Palmer should be held accountable for his illegal action.
Zimbabwe’s government now wants Palmer extradited to Zimbabwe for killing Zimbabwes most beloved Lion, Cecil the lion.
On Tuesday, The Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force said in a statement that Walter James Palmer, paid at least $50,000 to track and kill the animal.
Palmer says he thought the hunt was legal and was unaware Cecil was protected.
The conservation group and Zimbabwean authorities said that Palmer ultimately killed, Cecil, a protected lion and one of the most famous animals at the Hwange National Park.
Cecil was fitted with a GPS collar and tracked by the Oxford University research program, according to a statement from Johnny Rodrigues, the chairman for Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force.
On Tuesday, Palmer said in a statement, “I relied on the expertise of my local professional guides to ensure a legal hunt,”
He is reported to have said that he had not been contacted by authorities but would work with them.
Meanwhile the United States has said it would review a public petition to extradite Walter Palmer following the killing of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe, noting it had exceeded the required 100,000 signatures.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said it would be up to the U.S. Justice Department to respond to an extradition order.
The killing of Cecil the lion by the American dentist and trophy hunter is also being investigated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to see if it was part of a conspiracy to violate U.S. laws against illegal wildlife trading.
The service is probing the killing under the Lacey Act, which bars trading in wildlife that has been illegally killed, transported or sold
Professional hunter Theo Bronkhorst, and Honest Ndlovu, a local landowner, appeared in court in Victoria Falls on Wednesday.
Cecil, a popular attraction among international visitors to Hwange national park, was lured outside the reserve’s boundaries by bait and killed earlier this month.
Speaking for the first time since this newspaper revealed that Dr Palmer had fired the arrow that felled the much-loved lion, Theo Bronkhorst has given a detailed account of the July 1 hunt which, he said, went wrong from the start.
On Wednesday, Mr Bronkhorst appeared before magistrates in Hwange, north-western Zimbabwe, and was remanded on bail.
He is forbidden from continuing with his hunting business, which he has run since 1992, and has been left devastated by the international fury directed at him since Cecil’s death.
