A picture of Palmer posing with another lion he had killed on a previous hunting trip was widely circulated in the media yesterday after it emerged that he paid £32,000 to take part in a big game hunt in Zimbabwe.

During the hunt, Cecil, one of Zimbabwe’s most famous lions who was well known to tourists, was killed with a crossbow.

The news has sparked widespread outrage, including among animal rights groups, and #cecilthelion was trending on Twitter this morning with more than 300,000 tweets globally on the subject.

Strange thing, Karma, that dentist hunting and killing all those beautiful animals is finally hunted himself #CecilTheLion — susan penhaligon (@susanpenhaligon) July 29, 2015