Another illegal lion hunt

Photo: Contributed - Will Burrard-Lucas / Barcroft

Another American illegally hunted and killed a lion in Zimbabwe several months ago, authorities said Sunday amid an international outcry over the U.S. hunter accused of illegally killing a well-known lion named Cecil in early July.

This American was identified as Jan Casimir Seski of Murrysville, Pennsylvania, by Zimbabwe's National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority. It's statement said Seski killed the lion with a bow and arrow in April around Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park.

A Zimbabwean landowner, Headman Sibanda, was arrested is assisting police in the Seski scase, the wildlife authority said.

Seski is a gynecological oncologist who directs the Center for Bloodless Medicine and Surgery at Allegheny General Hospital.

He's also an active big-game hunter, according to safari outfitters and bow-hunting sites that have posted pictures of kills identifying "Dr. Jan Seski" as the man standing next to slain animals including elephants, an impala, a kudu, a Nyala, a hippo and an ostrich.

Those images match the doctor's appearance in pictures on his medical practice's website, where Seski's information in turn matches that of Jan Seski in Murrysville.

The Associated Press called and knocked on the door at Seski's home, which is secluded from neighbours and set back among woods in a rural area outside Pittsburgh. The AP also left a message with an answering service for his medical practice, with no immediate response.

National Parks spokeswoman Caroline Washaya Moyo said Seski had provided his name and other identifying information for a government database when he came for the hunt.

"When hunters come into the country they fill a document stating their personal details, the amount they have paid for the hunt, the number of animals to be hunted, the species to be hunted and the area and period where that hunt is supposed to take place," she said. "The American conducted his hunt in an area where lion hunting is outlawed. The landowner who helped him with the hunt also did not have a have a quota for lion hunting."

Stewart Dorrington, who owns a game reserve in neighbouring South Africa where Seski hunted several years ago, said the American seemed like a "perfect gentleman" and came on his own. Dorrington, who operates Melorani Safaris in North West province, said he had not had any contact with Seski since 2012.

"He was a great guy," Dorrington said. "Everything he did was perfectly legal and above board and a great help to our conservation efforts."

Dorrington said he had converted his cattle ranch into a game reserve in the 1980s, and that funds from the trophy hunting of antelope were essential to conserving the wildlife population.

Two illegal lion hunts also were recorded last year in Zimbabwe, said Geoffrey Matipano, conservation director for the wildlife authority. He did not provide details on those cases.

Zimbabwean authorities earlier said they will seek the extradition of Minnesota dentist Walter James Palmer, alleging he did not have authorization to kill the lion named Cecil a month ago. The lion was lured out of Hwange park and first wounded with a bow and arrow before being tracked down and shot, according to conservationists in Zimbabwe. Palmer has said he relied on his professional guides to ensure his hunt was legal.

Two Zimbabwean citizens were arrested and face charges in the case in which Palmer has been implicated.

On Saturday, Zimbabwe's wildlife authority said it had suspended the hunting of lions, leopards and elephants in the Hwange area. Bow and arrow hunts were also suspended and can only be approved by the head of the wildlife authority.