Remembering Cecil the Lion

For the last decade, Brent Stapelkamp has been studying and photographing lions with Oxford University's Hwange Lion Research Project. The Zimbabwe group's work gained international attention after Cecil, a 13-year-old local favorite, was shot and killed by a Minnesota dentist last year. “Thousands of hours in the company of lions meant I got a unique perspective of their lives and the threats that they face,” Stapelkamp said. His images, which are currently on display at the Anastasia Gallery, are perhaps the best way to understand the world that Cecil inhabited. Within the 5,657-square-mile national park, the lions in Cecil’s pride can be found hunting, playing, and resting within close proximity to human visitors. It was this exposure to tourists, Stapelkamp said, that made Cecil vulnerable to the hunters who were waiting just beyond the railroad that serves as a border to the park. “He was the biggest on the block,” Stapelkamp said, “that gave him a real confidence that people found mesmerizing.” The final photo in this series was taken the last time Stapelkamp saw him, a little more than a month before Cecil was killed.

Read more
Hints: View this page full screen. Skip to the next and previous photo by typing j/k or ←/→.

Most Recent

  • Kyodo / Reuters
    • In Focus
    • Sep 5, 2018
    • 21 Photos

    Images of the Destruction Left by Typhoon Jebi in Japan

    Yesterday, the most powerful typhoon to hit Japan in 25 years tore through the western part of the country with heavy rain and violent winds.

  • Leo Correa / AP
    • In Focus
    • Sep 4, 2018
    • 28 Photos

    In Photos: The Smoldering Remains of Brazil's National Museum

    Photos from the scene of a fire that burned through the 200-year-old National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, destroying countless artifacts.

  • Ahn Young-joon / AP
    • In Focus
    • Aug 31, 2018
    • 35 Photos

    Photos of the Week: Bog Snorkeling, Air Guitar, Canadian Calf

    Competition in the 2018 Asian Games, the new tallest statue in the world under construction in India, memorials for both Aretha Franklin and Senator John McCain, and much more

  • Lukas Bischoff Photograph / Shutterstock
    • In Focus
    • Aug 30, 2018
    • 24 Photos

    Photos: Along the Namibian Coast

    Namibia has nearly a thousand miles of coastline, shaped by the winds and largely unpopulated, where the Namib Desert meets the Atlantic Ocean.

Most Popular on The Atlantic

  1. This Is a Constitutional Crisis
  2. We're Watching an Antidemocratic Coup Unfold
  3. How Well-Intentioned White Families Can Perpetuate Racism
  4. Congressional Republicans Are the Real Authors of the Anonymous Op-Ed
  5. Why Does the School Day End Two Hours Before the Workday?
  6. The Woodward Book Puts a Target on Mattis's Back
  7. Why Technology Favors Tyranny
  8. Woodward’s Account of Trump’s Mock Interview With Prosecutors Isn’t Pretty
  9. It’s Time for the Press to Stop Complaining—And to Start Fighting Back
  10. The Absurdist Spectacle of the Nike Boycotts
Back to Top