Harare - Jericho, the lion that had formed a bond with Cecil - a lion killed in an illegal hunt in 2015 - has been found dead in the Hwange National Park, a wildlife official said on Monday.
Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority spokesperson Caroline Washaya-Moyo told Xinhua that Jericho's carcass was found on Saturday.
"Jericho was found dead in the Kennedy area which was his territory. It is suspected that he could have died on October 27. 2016," she said. The death has been attributed to natural causes.
Although widely reputed to have been Cecil's brother, wildlife experts said Jericho was not, but had formed a co-operative coalition with Cecil in order to better compete with other males for both territories and prides.
Cecil, 13, was a major attraction in Hwange and was being studied and tracked by the University of Oxford. He was killed with bow and arrow in July 2015 by an American dentist in an incident that provoked international outrage and raised debate on trophy hunting.
US authorities later added two subspecies of lion, in India and western and central Africa, to the endangered species list, including Cecil's species, thus making it more difficult for US citizens to kill these lions.
A report by Andrew Loveridge and Jane Hunt of Hwange Lion Research said Jericho's carcass had been discovered at about 5pm local time during routine monitoring of collared lions by the Hwange Lion Research Project. Jericho had been fitted with a GPS collar on July 5, 2016.
The team did not see any evidence to suggest that the lion had died due to any kind of traumatic injury such as gunshot, snare and wounds from fighting and did not appear to have struggled prior to death.
A post-mortem was done and it is believed that the death was due to natural causes.
"This is very feasible because the lion was 12 and-a-half years of age (born June 2004) at the time of death, which is old for a male lion living in the wild," the report said.
The skull was removed from the carcass for safekeeping while the remains were buried at the site.
Xinhua