Billionaire to donate matching funds for Cecil research

[Anthea]

Independent

WildCru conservation project that was studying Cecil the lion gets £320,000 in donations



The conservation project which was studying Cecil the lion has received more than £320,000 in donations since his death at the hands of US hunter Walter Palmer.

Cecil was shot with a crossbow and then a rifle for £35,000 in Zimbabwe earlier this month in a hunt led by the American.

The much-loved animal was a local favourite and was found skinned near the Hwange National Park where he lived.

Researchers at Oxford University had fitted Cecil with a GPS collar as part of its conservation study to understand the lives of lions in the wild, WildCru – the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit.

They had studied Zimbabwe’s most famous lion since 2008 and said his death was “deeply reprehensible”.

A spokeswoman said it had been “overwhelmed” by the amount of money it has received since Cecil’s untimely death.

“So far more than £230,000 has been raised, enough to fund the research for at least 18 months, and gifts are continuing to come in," she said.

“We’re immensely grateful to all those who have already given and to all those who continue to support our research in this way.”



In a statement on its website, Professor David Macdonald, director of WildCru, said the hundreds of messages of support and the “value people attach to lions and wildlife conservation inspires us”.

He said many people have asked about the fate of Cecil’s cubs and that the late lion's brother is currently looking after them.

“The natural law in lion society is that when a male dies and his weakened coalition is usurped, the new incoming males kill their predecessors’ cubs," he said.

“This may not happen because Cecil’s brother is still holding the fort.”

Professor Macdonald said Cecil was a “glorious male lion with a fascinating family history”.

Meanwhile, Mr Palmer – who is still in hiding after a global backlash against the lion’s killing – has apologised to patients of his River Bluff Dental practice for the disruption caused to his work.

In a letter sent to patients on Tuesday, he said he had made headlines “for reasons that have nothing to do with my profession or the care I provide for you,” the BBC reports.

He said he had been a “life-long hunter” but did not like to discuss this with his patients as the issue could be a “divisive and emotionally charged” one.

To donate to WildCru visit http://www.campaign.ox.ac.uk/wildcru.

Link to Article:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 29667.html

[Anthea]

Forbes

Billionaire Who Funds Cecil The Lion's Researchers Speaks Out, Offers Matching Grant

The killing of Zimbabwe’s beloved Cecil the lion by American dentist Walter J. Palmer sparked an international outcry against hunting big cats and created a wave of support for their conservation.

Researchers at Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Unit, or WildCRU, who had been tracking Cecil since 2008, say on their website that they have received almost $470,000 since his death. Aiming to increase this number even further, billionaire philanthropist Tom Kaplan and his wife Daphne, longtime supporters of Big Cat conservation, announced on Friday that they would pledge to match donations up to $100,000.

In a statement on the WildCRU website, Kaplan said the pledge would go towards helping the organization reach their target of half a million pounds.

A longtime supporter of animal conservation, Kaplan created his charity Panthera in 2006 to help protect the world’s largest and most endangered cats including tigers, lions, jaguars and snow leopards. The study that WildCRU is doing, of which Cecil was a part, is actually being done in partnership with Panthera, which endowed it, according to Kaplan. It’s part of their ‘Leonardo Project.’

“We have to seize this moment where we can all make a difference. Jimmy Kimmel nailed it: If the tragic, illegal, death of Cecil can lead to the saving of many more lions, then some good can come from tragedy,” said Kaplan. (Talk show host Kimmel had lambasted the hunter Palmer and suggested viewers donate to WildCRU as a way to have some good come out of the “vomitous: act.”)

Kaplan told Forbes that while he doesn’t like to think of Cecil’s death as a sacrifice, the level of awareness for lion conservation far exceeds where it was a few weeks ago.

“For us, Cecil was like part of the family, so we don’t take this lightly,” Kaplan said. “Cecil became a symbol while he was alive, but in death, he may very well have become the iconic representation of the precarious plight of his species.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/janeroberts ... ing-grant/