(CNN)Cecil the lion is dead, killed illegally, authorities allege, by a foreign hunter or hunters who paid about $55,000 for the privilege.
Cecil was part of an Oxford University research project and wore a GPS collar.
He was lured out of a national park with food, shot with a crossbow, tracked for 40 more hours, then finished off with a gun, said Johnny Rodrigues, the head of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force.