Just two years after Cecil the lion was shot dead by a trophy hunter, the animal's eldest son has met the same fate.
Cecil's son, six-year-old Xanda, was recently killed not far from where Cecil died, just outside the Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, People magazine reported.
And like Cecil's demise, trophy hunters are to blame for the shooting, according to the New York Times.
Cecil was lured out of the Hwange animal reserve by Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer during a game hunt, and the incident caused global outcry and temporarily shut down Palmer’s dental practice.
Xanda died as part of a game hunt organized by private hunter Richard Cooke. The identity of the hunter who pulled the trigger has not been released.
Because Xanda was killed outside the animal reserve, there will likely be no repercussions for the perpetrators.
"Richard Cooke is one of the 'good' guys," Andrew Loveridge, the Oxford University scientist who fitted Xanda with a tracking collar, said according to The Telegraph. "He is ethical and he returned the collar and communicated what had happened. His hunt was legal and Xanda was over six years old so it is all within the stipulated regulations."
Cecil was 13 when he was killed.
“The killing of Xanda just goes to show that trophy hunters have learned nothing from the international outcry that followed Cecil’s death,” Masha Kalinina, an international trade policy specialist for Humane Society International, said according to the New York Times.
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