Outrage has erupted after a trophy hunter killed a lion named Blondie who was part of an Oxford University study after allegedly luring it out of a wildlife reserve.

The killing of a collared lion involved in a research project in Zimbabwe by a trophy hunter has been condemned by wildlife groups, echoing the infamous case of a lion called Cecil whose death at the hands of an American tourist in the same country a decade ago was met with international outrage.

A lion that was being tracked by Oxford University researchers in western Zimbabwe has been killed by a trophy hunter, in what one wildlife campaigner called a ‘harrowing echo’ of Cecil the Lion’s dea