Cecil the Lion’s Wikipedia Page Not Created Until After His Death
The Internet has been set ablaze by news that a U.S. dentist on safari shot and killed Zimbabwe’s Cecil the lion, apparently a beloved figure in that African country.
Already more than 800,000 people have signed an online petition demanding “justice” for Cecil, but how well-known was Cecil before his death? The Daily Caller News Foundation found that Cecil’s Wikipedia page had only been created July 29, 2015 — after news of Cecil’s death had been reported in the news.
According to Wikipedia’s edit history, an editor “created [the] article with material from Hwange National Park.” Hwange is the national park where Cecil was lured out of by American dentist Dr. Walter Palmer and his hunting guides.
Palmer reportedly paid two guides $50,000 for the hunt. Palmer and his guides were able to lure Cecil out of the wildlife sanctuary where he was wounded with a crossbow and then killed with a gun hours later. Zimbabwe allows people to pay to hunt lions, elephants and other animals as a way to raise money for conservation.
“In early July, I was in Zimbabwe on a bow hunting trip for big game,” Palmer said in a statement to NBC News. “I hired several professional guides and they secured all proper permits. To my knowledge, everything about this trip was legal and properly handled and conducted.”
“I had no idea that the lion I took was a known, local favorite, was collared and part of a study until the end of the hunt. I relied on the expertise of my local professional guides to ensure a legal hunt,” he said.
NBC reported that “Cecil was a popular attraction at the Hwange National Park and had featured in many photographic shoots.” But a recent Reuters article found that many Zimbabweans themselves had never heard of Cecil and really didn’t care that a lion was killed.
“For most people in the southern African nation, where unemployment tops 80 percent and the economy continues to feel the after-effects of billion percent hyperinflation a decade ago, the uproar had all the hallmarks of a ‘First World Problem,’” Reuters reported.
“Are you saying that all this noise is about a dead lion? Lions are killed all the time in this country,” Tryphina Kaseke, a Zimbabwean living in Harare told Reuters. “What is so special about this one?”
The Obama administration announced it was investigating Cecil’s death.
Copyright 2015 The Daily Caller News Foundation
