Trophy hunter kills son of Cecil the lion

In 2015, a big game hunter killed a lion in Zimbabwe known as “Cecil,” sparking international outrage. Kalahari lion Xanda, a 6-year-old son of Cecil the lion, was recently killed by a trophy hunter in a similar incident.

Doc Thompson and the guys discussed the story on Friday’s “The Morning Blaze with Doc Thompson.”

The lions live in Hwange national park and are fitted with GPS tracking collars by Oxford University scientists, who have long been studying the Hwange lions, The Guardian reported. Zimbabwean private hunter Richard Cooke organized the trophy hunt where Xanda was killed, but his clients’ names have not been revealed.

Xanda was a pride male leading two adult lionesses and cubs; the Hwange lion population numbers around 550 lions total. He was shot while roaming not far outside the park’s protective boundary.

Only about 20,000 lions remain in the wild after 90 percent of the overall population has been lost in the last century. The lion is designated “vulnerable” on the list of endangered species, which puts the animal one category away from being “endangered” on the scale.

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