Cecil the lion was friendly with visitors to Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park, where he had a pride with six lionesses and about 24 cubs. (Photo by Brian Orford/YouTube)

Tragically, the last shots of the 13-year-old lion were with a bow and arrow , and, to finish the job after Cecil suffered for 40 hours, a gun.

Cecil the lion was pretty much the king of a Zimbabwe national park, striking a magnificent pose for and socializing with photographers as he swaggered across the savannas of his home range.

Initial reports said Cecil was killed by a Spaniard, but on Tuesday, The Telegraph said it was Dr. Walter Palmer, a dentist from Minnesota who is believed to have paid about $55,000 for the privilege.

Conservationists angrily denounced not only the regulations that allowed Cecil to be hunted at all, but the manner in which he was killed in early July: with a compound bow, after being lured by the scent of a dead animal tied to a truck about a mile out of Hwange National Park.

"He never bothered anybody ," Johnny Rodrigues, the head of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, told BBC. "He was one of the most beautiful animals to look at."

"All persons implicated in this case are due to appear in court facing poaching charges. "Both the professional hunter and land owner had no permit or quota to justify the offtake of the lion and therefore are liable for the illegal hunt."

Palmer was part of a hunting party arranged by Bushman Safaris. Theo Bronkhorst, a professional hunter, said he wasn't aware of Cecil's fame, according to The Telegraph report.

"It was a magnificent, mature lion. We did not know it was a well-known lion. I had a license for my client to shoot a lion with a bow and arrow in the area where it was shot," Bronkhorst said.

Patch attempted to contact Palmer, but he apparently is not taking calls. His office phone number signaled busy during several attempts to reach him.

The Telegraph reported that his website, now inactive, stated: "Anything allowing him to stay active and observe and photograph wildlife is where you will find Dr. Palmer when he's not in the office."

In a statement, Palmer said he regretted killing the lion, CBS News reported.

"I had no idea that the lion I took was a known, local favorite, was collared and part of a study until the end of the hunt. I relied on the expertise of my local professional guides to ensure a legal hunt. I deeply regret that my pursuit of an activity I love and practice responsibly and legally resulted in the taking of this lion."

Documented Big-Game Hunter

It's well-documented that Palmer likes killing big game.

In a 2009 profile in The New York Times, Palmer said that he could skewer a playing card from 100 yards with his compound bow, which he learned to shoot at age 5, and joked that "I don't have a golf game."

The Times reported Palmer had spent $45,000 at an auction for a tag to shoot an elk in 2009, and had previously killed polar bears, bison, grizzly bears and cougars.

In 2008, Palmer was fined more than $2,900 by federal wildlife officials and served a year probation for lying about where he'd shot a black bear in Wisconsin.

Guiseppe Carrizosa, a professional hunter in Madrid, lists Palmer as a client on his website. He told The Telegraph Palmer had traveled to Europe to shoot chamois, fallow deer and ibex.

It's unclear if Palmer will be charged, but Rodrigues thinks tourists who come to Zimbabwe should face the same penalties as others who illegally hunt protected species.

"There's considerable embarrassment about this – the Americans have banned the import of elephant trophies," Rodrigues said. "We believe the head and pelt are still in Bulawayo.

"They should be charged with poaching," he said. "If you're a local and you kill an animal without a license you get between two and five years in prison."

Fear for Safety of Cecil's Cubs

Cecil, who wore a GPS collar, was part of a research project at Oxford University, where researchers are grieving the lion's death.

"It's not many months ago that I watched Cecil with my hand on my heart as he strayed toward a hunting concession," professor David Macdonald, founding director of Oxford's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, told CNN. "On that occasion he turned back into the protection of the park, but this time he made a fatal mistake and I feel deeply sad, personally."

According to local legend, Cecil was rejected by his pride and wandered alone for some time before meeting another solitary lion, Jericho. Together they led two prides. Cecil regularly mated with six lionesses, who survive, as do about 24 cubs, Rodrigues said.

Researchers worry Cecil's cubs won't be protected by the pride, and say they will most likely be killed.

"Jericho as a single male will be unable to defend the two prides and cubs from new males that invade the territory," Dr. Andrew Loveridge, one of the principal researchers of the project told National Geographic. "This is what we most often see happening in these cases. Infanticide is the most likely outcome."