An American who shot dead a famous lion with a crossbow before skinning and beheading the creature has been slated for his actions.

Walter James Palmer, an American dentist, killed Cecil the Lion who was being studied by Oxford University.

Mr Palmer reportedly paid 50,000 US dollars (£32,000) to kill the lion in Zimbabwe earlier this month.

The Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force said Mr Palmer, a professional hunter and a farm owner, tied a dead animal to a car to lure the lion out of a national park before shooting him. The wounded lion was found 40 hours later and shot dead.

The chairman of the task force, Johnny Rodrigues, said: "The saddest part of all is that now that Cecil is dead, the next lion in the hierarchy, Jericho will most likely kill all Cecil's cubs."

Police said they had arrested two Zimbabwean men on poaching charges, and are looking for Mr Palmer in connection with the same case but said his current whereabouts were unknown. If convicted, they could face up to 15 years in prison.

Mr Palmer's actions have been widely condemned on social media.

BBC Essex broadcaster James Whale tweeted: "What has happened to #Cecil the lion is incomprehensible to anyone with a brain."

MEP Catherine Bearder wrote: "Shooting of #CecilTheLion was senseless and cruel. Both US and EU must act to #bantrophyhunting."

Another user, Spencer Tear, said: "50K paid to kill #Cecil the Lion. How sad & low can one stoop."

mfl

Comedian Ricky Gervais, a prominent animal rights campaigner, wrote: "It's not for food. It's not the shooting, or tin cans would do. It must just be the thrill of killing. Mental."

Professor David Macdonald, who founded the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford University, said the death of Cecil would lead to a "cascade" of other deaths.

"The death of one lion is not just the death of one lion - it is a cascade. It has consequences.

"Cecil was the only male so it is highly likely that the incoming males will kill his [Cecil's] offspring."

Prof Macdonald's research aims to solve practical problems with wildlife conservation and environment management to inform policy formation, and he had been observing Cecil just a few months ago.

There are reported to be 30,000 lions left across the whole African continent, but Prof Macdonald warned that this figure, despite being "startlingly low", was likely to be an overestimate.

He added that he hoped there would be a "silver-lining" to Cecil's death by an increase in support for his research.