Cecil the lion's killer illegally hunted black bear

Walter Palmer with a black bear that he killed illegally in northern Wisconsin in September 2006. Photo / Wisconsin Dept of Natural Resources

Photos from an illegal bear hunt carried out by Walter Palmer, the American dentist who shot dead Cecil the lion, have been obtained by an American television show.

In the pictures, taken in September 2006, Mr Palmer was hunting a black bear in northern Wisconsin. He shot a bear with his bow and arrow, killing it and then hanging it up from a hoist.

But Mr Palmer and his colleagues were not allowed to hunt in that area. According to court documents, obtained by The Telegraph, Mr Palmer had a permit to kill a bear in one county, but he shot the bear 40 miles away - in an area where he did not have a permit to hunt.

"As soon as the bear was killed, Palmer and the three guys he was with - guides - they agreed they would lie about it," said John Vaudreuil, a lawyer. He told ABC News's show 20/20 that he became involved in the case when Mr Palmer took the bear across state lines back to Minnesota.

"He was lying to us. He was offering to pay, it turns out, about $20,000 to keep the others who were in the hunt, to have them lie, so that's a fairly aggressive cover-up," he said.

But the bear guides didn't lie to authorities.

In 2008, Mr Palmer pleaded guilty to making false statements to the US Fish and Wildlife Service about the black bear, and paid $2,938 in fines and was sentenced to a year of probation.

He "knowingly made false statements" about where the bear was killed, "and falsely stated that he thought the bear had been killed legally."

Mr Palmer has not been seen since he was named by The Telegraph on July 28 as the killer of Cecil, one of Zimbabwe's most famous lions.

There have been calls for Mr Palmer to be extradited to face charges in Zimbabwe - something highly unlikely to happen. The professional hunter who accompanied the American, Theo Bronkhorst, is facing charges of carrying out an illegal hunt.

On Monday, President Robert Mugabe controversially blamed his own people for allowing Cecil to be killed by Mr Palmer, telling them they "failed to protect" a national resource from foreign "vandals".