https://www.psychologytoday.co...o-end-trophy-hunting



Keeping Cecil the "Poster Lion" Alive to End Trophy Hunting

Eduardo Gonçalves went undercover to tell the whole story of a famous lion's death.
Posted June 21, 2025 | Reviewed by Margaret Foley


Key points

The death of Cecil the lion sparked global protests against trophy hunting for fun.
Trophy hunting remains a form of costly signaling, demonstrating wealth and power to one’s peers.
Globally, trophy hunting is largely seen as unconscionable and out of step with civilized values.
This post is in response to Cecil the Lion: His Life, Death, and Effects on Conservation By Marc Bekoff Ph.D.

Cecil was a 13-year-old male African lion who lived primarily in Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park and was part of a long-term study by researchers from the University of Oxford (UK). He was mercilessly killed on July 2, 2015, by a trophy hunter, Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer, using a compound bow. The death of this iconic lion set off global protests to ban killing for fun and recreation. Here, Eduardo Gonçalves, an expert on trophy hunting who went undercover, explains the mindset of trophy hunters and why they do what they do.1,2

Marc Bekoff: Why did you write three new books to appear on the 10th anniversary of Cecil's death?

Eduardo Gonçalves: Trophy hunters shot 20,000 endangered animals last year. The industry encourages mass killings.3 One of Safari Club International’s prizes is its Hunting Achievement Award. To hit the "Gold" level, you have to kill 100 different kinds of animals. Over 300 members have achieved this.

Appalling injuries and animals being left to die are common occurrences. Most trophy hunters are amateur shots. In the majority of cases, trophy hunters and their guides have to try and find the animals afterwards, by locating the blood trail or following pieces of intestines.

The selling of animals to shoot for sport is done in a nonchalant way. Websites sell virtually any animal—skunks and squirrels, elephants and giraffes. I was offered meerkats and pangolins. I was told “every polar bear adventure is unique,” a “cheetah hunt is cost-friendly,” that I had a “very good chance of shooting a 70-pound elephant” (i.e., an elephant with 70-pound tusks). I was also advised: “Shoot a leopard, it’s worth it!”

Source: Eduardo Gonçalves

As the world marks the 10th anniversary of Cecil’s death, I wanted to tell the whole story. I went undercover and spoke to hunters and the CEOs of hunting companies to hear what they really thought. This is the first time the general public will have heard trophy hunters talking in their own words about what they do, and how they feel about it.

MB: What is trophy hunting, and why do some people think it's perfectly OK to kill animals for fun and hang their heads on their walls or make rugs out of them?

EG: Trophy hunting is for fun, not food. The killing of animals for entertainment is a relatively modern phenomenon. It grew out of British colonialism. It provided a means by which to acquire and exhibit status.



Today, it remains a form of costly signaling—demonstrating wealth and power to one’s peers. Along with the heads and bodies of animals are the awards, the presentations at Oscars-style gala dinners, and the competition to get one’s name into the record books.

MB: Can you give some history of what happened to Cecil on July 2, 2015?

EG: On July 1, 2015, Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer shot a well-known local lion who was part of an Oxford University study into the causes of lion mortality. An elephant had been killed to use as bait to lure Cecil out of the neighbouring national park. A hide was built for Palmer to wait in.

Cecil was shot with an arrow from Palmer’s bow that evening. However, he was wounded rather than killed outright. Palmer had the option of shooting Cecil to put him out of his misery. This would have invalidated his bid to win a special Safari Club International award for bow hunters.

Palmer decided to leave Cecil to die overnight and went back to camp. The next day, Palmer managed to locate Cecil by sound. Cecil had crawled under a nearby bush. His lungs were filling with blood, and he was slowly drowning. Palmer shot him a second time with his bow.

MB: Why was his death so riveting and polarizing to the point that people who had never heard of trophy hunting or who hadn't ever spoken out against it came out publicly and strongly criticized what the Minnesota dentist and others do as if it's business as usual?

EG: People were shocked that trophy hunting still went on. They thought it had died out with colonialism. The idea of killing a defenceless, innocent animal for self-aggrandisement and vanity is something most people find shocking.

For me, there are a couple of things that stand out: The first is the thrill of the kill, and the recognition by many hunters that they are addicted to it. One described how “the adrenaline starts coursing through my blood.” A hunter who shoots an elephant says, “The exhilaration is complete.” Another compares it to “mainlining on heroin.”

The second is the expressions of joy at causing harm and death to sentient creatures. Hunters describe how “the lion’s head snaps backwards and explodes with smoke.” They talk of how “the arrow entered beneath the lioness’s chin and took out her heart.” Another says, “I shot it through its left eye, blowing out the back of the skull.” These aren’t regretful confessions. These are celebratory statements.


MB: Why is it important to keep Cecil's death in the news and the public eye?

EG: There are people today killing animals in extraordinary numbers. One hunter in my books has killed over 4,000 animals—but says he only hunts “in moderation.” Another has killed so many animals he has lost count, but says it is “in the thousands.”

Aside from the moral and ethical considerations, there are the conservation implications. We are in the midst of a global conservation crisis. WWF tells us wildlife populations have fallen by 70 percent since the 1970s.

Trophy hunters have shot 10,000 lions since 2015, the year Cecil was killed. There are just 20,000 lions left in the wild. In the 1970s, there were an estimated 200,000 lions.

MB: What sort of progress has been made "in the name of Cecil" and other magnificent animals who have been killed for fun as trophies?

EG: France followed Australia in banning lion trophies. Several European countries have introduced bans. Even the U.S. introduced restrictions.

MB: Are you optimistic that trophy hunting will soon be a thing of the past as politicians, conservationists, other scientists, and lay people speak out against this heartless pastime?

EG: Trophy hunting is a dying industry. The number of hunting trophies of endangered animals imported into the U.S. fell by 50 percent between 2013 and 2023.

The level of opposition to trophy hunting is almost uniform everywhere in the world, whether it be the U.S., Europe, or Africa. It is seen as unconscionable, indefensible, and out of step with the values of a modern civilized society.

References

In conversation with writer and researcher Eduardo Gonçalves, who is currently leading an international campaign to close a loophole in CITES wildlife trade laws, which controversially allow trophy hunters to shoot critically endangered animals. His wide-ranging career includes spells as a House of Commons researcher, radio presenter, investigative journalist, and the director of a government department in the Middle East. In the run-up to the Paris Climate Summit, Eduardo was International Communications Director at The Climate Group, an influential organisation set up with the support of the then Prime Minister Tony Blair, as well as business and political leaders from around the world. In an editorial, The Times of London wrote of his previous book Trophy Leaks, “Mr Gonçalves has done the government and the world a service.”

1) Also see: Compassionate Conservation Meets Cecil the Slain Lion; Cecil the Lion: His Life, Death, and Effects on Conservation; Trophy Hunting, Ageism, and the Loss of Animal Cultures; The Muddled Mindset of Ethical Hunting Versus Trophy Hunting; Do Some People Simply Like to Kill Other Animals?; "How Come People Say They Love Animals and Kill Them?"; Why Men Trophy Hunt: Showing Off and the Psychology of Shame; Why People Hunt: The Psychology of Killing Other Animals; Trophy Hunters' Smiles Show How Much They Like to Kill ("pleasure smiles" are greater when hunters pose with large "dangerous" corpses); Trophy Hunters Pay More to Kill Larger-Bodied Carnivores; Trophy Hunters: A Rare Inside View of What Makes Them Tick; Trophy Hunter Boasts: The More You Hate, the More I Kill.

2) My other conversations with Eduardo can be read in Trophy Leaks: A Behind the Scenes Exposé of Killing for Fun, Trophy Hunting: A Detailed Exposé of the Extinction Industry, and Trophy Hunters Exposed: Inside the Big Game Industry.

3) Twenty Elephants in Seventy-Five Minutes; Shoot One Lion—Get One FREE: Inside the Trophy Hunting Holiday Industry.

The ignorance of these stupid idiots is incredible!

The truth means nothing to them.

Just plain SICK individuals and organizations living on the ignorance of idiots living in cities.

Who have absolutely no idea what it means to live in the bush in Africa!

The venom is obvious, fuelled by quotes from one margin of our sport, but I am concerned with the numbers.

Juxtaposing the claimed number of lions shot over 10 years with the supposed number remaining is misleading, even if true. Over 10 years animals will have been born and others died of natural causes (including being killed by other lions) but 10,000 divided by 10 suggests about 1000 lions were killed by trophy hunters each year, just 5% of the supposed 20,000 remaining. That is not a large percentage in ecological terms.

And, if trophy hunting is declining, as one dude said, any lion-population problem should be reducing.

No mention is made of the real cause of the declining game numbers, loss of habitat and predation by the rapidly increasing human population of Africa. Nothing is said of the tremendous economic value of the extra-length safaris required to hunt lions, or trophy fees distributed to local communities and the governments that can safeguard (or not) wilderness areas needed for hunting.

If those antis' claims were legitimate, 'no-hunting' Kenya would be lousy with lions - but I bet it's not.

quote:

Originally posted by sambarman338:
The venom is obvious, fuelled by quotes from one margin of our sport, but I am concerned with the numbers.

Juxtaposing the claimed number of lions shot over 10 years with the supposed number remaining is misleading, even if true. Over 10 years animals will have been born and others died of natural causes (including being killed by other lions) but 10,000 divided by 10 suggests about 1000 lions were killed by trophy hunters each year, just 5% of the supposed 20,000 remaining. That is not a large percentage in ecological terms.

And, if trophy hunting is declining, as one dude said, any lion population problem should be reducing.

No mention is made of the real cause of the declining game numbers, loss of habitat and predation by the rapidly increasing human population of Africa. Nothing is said of the tremendous economic value of the extra-length safaris required to hunt lions, trophy fees distributed to local communities and the governments that can safeguard (or not) wilderness areas needed for hunting.

If those antis' claims were legitimate, 'no-hunting' Kenya would be lousy with lions - but I bet it's not.

Don't believe a word of it.

WE know lions are not threatened in any way.

Yeah, I think I'll order up a skunk and a squirrel. Who do I send that order to by the way?