A safari guide has been mauled to death by a lion in front of a group of tourists at the game park where Cecil the lion lived before he was killed by an American dentist last month.
Quinn Swales, 40, was leading six foreign tourists on a walking safari inside Hwange National Park on Monday when he was attacked. “He spotted fresh lion spoor, and decided to track a pride of lions consisting of two females, two cubs and two males,” the Zimbabwe Parks authority said.
The cubs approached the tourists and the adults retreated — before one of the males suddenly charged Mr Swales, knocking him over and mauling his throat and shoulder. He was taken by helicopter to a hospital at Victoria Falls but pronounced dead on arrival.
“Quinn did everything he could to protect his guests and ensure their safety, and that no guests were injured,” Camp Hwange, the safari lodge that employed Mr Swales, said in a statement.
A picture on Mr Swales’s Facebook page appears to show him standing metres away from an elephant, but friends said that he was a professional who would not have taken unnecessary risks.
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The 14,000 square mile Hwange reserve, on the border with Botswana, made international headlines last month over the death of Cecil. The 13-year-old black-maned male, who had been collared by researchers at Oxford University, was allegedly lured outside the park by a professional hunter, Theo Bronkhorst, before being shot by his client, Walter Palmer, with a bow and arrow. Cecil was then tracked for 40 hours before being killed with a rifle.
Mr Bronkhorst was charged with failing to prevent an illegal hunt, which carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison and a fine, and the Zimbabwean government has said it will try to have Mr Palmer extradited from the US to face charges.
Mr Palmer, from Minnesota, said he had paid US$50,000 to shoot a lion, and insisted his guides had secured all the relevant permits.
Rangers said the cat that killed Mr Swales was also wearing a radio collar, and was a male known as Nxaha. Lions that kill humans are normally tracked and put down to prevent further attacks.