

Oxford University: WildCRU Statement on the Killing of Cecil the Lion - notsony
http://www.wildcru.org/

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notsony
The project currently costs about $225,000 to operate:

> _Cecil 's apparently illegal death is tragic, but many people have asked us
> if any good can come of it...

People have asked if they can support our work through donations – the answer
is yes, urgently, and we rely entirely on philanthropy. Donations could
support the purchase of more satellite tracking collars, support of our field
vehicles and field staff, also, very importantly; we train wonderful young
Zimbabwean conservationists, bringing some of them to Oxford on scholarships
for world-class training in conservation.

It costs us approximately £150,000 pa to maintain the lion project at its
current level of excellence, and in reality we need to expand it, to study and
conserve lions over the entire landscape that spans western Zimbabwe, Botswana
and Zambia. We can do this only if we secure funds. To give you an idea, each
satellite collar costs about £1,500, with an annual fee to download the hourly
locations from the satellite of £500. We need £20,000 pa to keep our anti-
poaching team in the field, cutting illegal snare wires. To bring a Zimbabwean
student to study conservation in Oxford on our world-renowned Diploma course
costs £15,000. We need four wheel-drive vehicles, tyres for them, fuel to run
them – so no donation is too small to be helpful._

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deepnet
"A very important aspect of lion conservation is what we call the perturbation
effect: namely the cascading effects on the surviving lions of the death of
one of them – in brief, we have found that when a male lion is killed, because
of the way their society works, a likely consequence is the overthrow and
death of other adult male members of his weakened coalition (normally of
brothers), and the subsequent infanticide of his cubs by the incoming new
coalition of males. We are working hard to study the consequences of Cecil's
death on his pride and their neighbours, so that we learn as much as
possible."

Donations to support WildCRU's conservation, anti-poaching & education
projects can be made here

[https://www.campaign.ox.ac.uk/wildcru](https://www.campaign.ox.ac.uk/wildcru)

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deepnet
US donations can be made here

[https://secure.www.alumniconnections.com/olc/pub/UXF/onlineg...](https://secure.www.alumniconnections.com/olc/pub/UXF/onlinegiving/showGivingForm.jsp?form_id=382))

but you must select WildCRU from "It is my preference that be allocated to"
(pulldown) and re-enter the total amount just above.

Also a brief video interviewing Professor MacDonald about Cecil & his work.

[http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/update/2015-07-29/video-
cec...](http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/update/2015-07-29/video-cecil-the-
lion-in-the-wild-and-the-professor-who-is-furious-over-shooting/)

