Before his death, Cecil the lion was the leader of his pride. | Christopher Scott/Alamy
On July 4, the signal from Cecil the lion’s satellite collar went dark. Oxford University’s WildCRU (Wildlife Conservation Research Unit) had been following his every move for eight years as part of a study of his pride. As rumors of a dead lion near Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park spread, WildCRU founder David Macdonald and colleague Andrew Loveridge feared the 13-year-old patriarch had been killed.
