Hwange – A safari group in Zimbabwe has released a short video of what it says are Cecil the lion’s cubs alive and well, playing near elephants in Hwange in the west of the country.
The clip, posted on YouTube on Wednesday by African Bush Camps, shows a group of seven lion cubs – and at least one female – trotting down a safari track and then playing in long bleached grass. An elephant and its calf walk past.
Two safari vehicles are seen.
“Guests on a game drive… were treated with a sighting of Cecil’s cubs who are alive and well with the females of the pride,” the caption reads.
The clip of the cubs was re-posted to Facebook by a respected professional Zimbabwean guide, Bryan Orford, who played a big part in bringing Cecil’s story to world attention in mid-July.
Cecil, who was killed by a US dentist on an illegal hunt in the first week of July, has at least seven cubs. There had been fears the cubs would be killed but the state Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority says Jericho – who was Cecil’s male partner in his pride, though not his blood brother – is looking after them.
It’s not clear exactly where in Hwange the video was shot.
Cecil is understood to have been lured out of Hwange National Park (where hunting is banned) to privately-owned farmland, where he was first shot with a bow and arrow and then tracked for 40 hours before he was killed.
The CEO of African Bush Camps, Beks Ndlovu, was one of the first to call for all lion hunting to be stopped in Zimbabwe in a statement released on July 15.
Zimbabwe’s state-controlled Chroniclenewspaper said in an editorial comment on Thursday that the “circus surrounding the unfortunate incident has gone too far”.
“We request that the rest of the world leaves Zimbabwe alone as it allows due process in the case of the killing of Cecil,” said the piece.
PH
