Palmer released a statement on Tuesday saying he "had no idea" Cecil was a local favourite until the end of the hunt, which took place on July 1. The 13-year-old lion was found beheaded and skinned outside Hwange National Park, after being lured out of the borders with bait.
The lion, who had a distinctive black mane, was collared as part of an Oxford University study which has been ongoing since 1999, and was protected inside the park.
Palmer reportedly paid 50,000 US dollars (£32,000) to guides so that he could carry out the killing. The Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force said Palmer tied a dead animal to a car to lure the lion out of the national park before shooting him with a crossbow. The wounded lion was tracked down 40 hours later and shot dead by Palmer's group.
Cecil's six cubs are now expected to be killed by the next lion in the hierarchy, to prevent them mating.
In a statement released on Tuesday evening, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said:
"Hunting is a coward’s pastime. If, as has been reported, this dentist and his guides lured Cecil out of the park with food so as to shoot him on private property, because shooting him in the park would have been illegal, he needs to be extradited, charged, and, preferably, hanged.
To get a thrill at the cost of a life, this man gunned down a beloved lion, Cecil with a high-powered weapon. All wild animals are beloved by their own mates and infants, but to hunters like this overblown, over-privileged little man, who lack empathy, understanding, and respect for living creatures, they are merely targets to kill, decapitate, and hang up on a wall as a trophy.
The photograph of this dentist, smiling over the corpse of another animal, who, like Cecil, wanted only to be left in peace, will disgust every caring soul in the world."
"This was an animal species which should not have been hunted," a member of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force told BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday morning.
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