Feds open investigation into dentist Dr Walter Palmer who killed Cecil the lion

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US Fish and Wildlife Service says it wants Dr. Walter Palmer to contact them immediately
No sign of Dr. Palmer at his homes in Minnesota, Florida or his Minneapolis dental practice
More than 140,000 people have signed petition to extradite the dentist
Zimbabwe has charged one of his two guides with poaching and requested to speak with Dr. Palmer
The Minnesota dental practitioner killed Cecil the lion on July 1 and has become a worldwide hate figure since

Published: 13:24 EST, 30 July 2015 | Updated: 19:33 EST, 30 July 2015

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Ruling nothing out: White House press secretary Josh Earnest (pictured on July 23) said that the Obama administration will review a petition to extradite Dr. Walter Palmer (right) to Zimbabwe after it garnered more than the 100,000 signatures it needed

He was already the most hated man in America for killing Cecil the lion and now Dr. Walter Palmer is fast on his way to becoming one of the most wanted.

The Minnesota dentist has not been seen since he was identified as the killer of Africa's most famous lion and now the US Fish and Wildlife Service has begun its own hunt for the elusive Dr. Palmer after announcing it has opened an investigation into him.

The federal agency confirmed it has not spoken to him since he was identified as Cecil's killer on Tuesday and demanded the reviled hunter pick up the phone and contact them as a matter of urgency.

Indeed, since he was catapulted to global notoriety, married father-of-two Dr. Palmer has not been seen at his Minneapolis home and closed his Bloomington surgery at which he is the sole practitioner.

Dr. Palmer has not even been caught escaping the international outcry by relaxing in the Sunshine State at his Naples, Florida mansion.

Nor has he made a television appearance in an effort to limit the damage to his own livelihood and safety and the PR firm he hired to deal with the fallout split with him.

He has made only one terse public statement on the matter since Tuesday and in it effectively threw his two Zimbabwean guides under the bus.

Which begs the question the world wants to know. Just where is Dr. Walter Palmer?

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Nobody home: Since he was identified as the killer of Cecil the lion on Tuesday, Dr. Walter Palmer or his family have not been seen at his Eden Prarie, Minneapolis home

House sitting? A unidentified man arrives at Dr. Palmer's Minneapolis home on Thursday as the wait continues for the reviled dentist to surface

The man collects the mail from the Palmer residence. It was the first sign of life at the Minneapolis mansion since the identity of Cecil's killer was confirmed on Tuesday

Closed for business: Dr. Palmer's dental practice abruptly closed on Tuesday morning - patients were even turned away so sudden was the decision

Quiet: The Marco Island home of Dr. Walter Palmer is unoccupied in Florida. The dentist is facing calls from federal agencies to contact them immediately

A news crew with WINK news of Fort Myers wraps up a live shoot outside a house owned by dentist Dr. Walter Palmer on Marco Island, Florida, on Wednesday

It is a question the Fish and Wildlife Service would very much like answered and soon, as it emerged they were investigating whether the killing of Cecil was part of a conspiracy to violate a U.S. law against illegal wildlife trading.

The service said they are investigating the hunt under the Lacey Act, a U.S. law that bars trading in wildlife that has been illegally killed, transported or sold.

Fish and Wildlife Service director Dan Ashe took to Twitter on Thursday and called the slaughter tragic and said his agency will 'go where facts lead' in its investigation.

Edward Grace, deputy chief of law enforcement for the service, followed this up by issuing a statement urging Palmer to contact the agency immediately.

COULD DR. PALMER BE EXTRADITED?

Despite its poor human rights record under President Robert Mugabe, the United States and Zimbabwe have had a bilateral extradition treaty in effect since April 2000.

Under the terms, a crime committed in Zimbabwe must be illegal in the United States and vice-versa for an extradition to be considered. This principal is called 'dual criminality'.

Legal expert, Eric Freyfogle, a law professor at the University of Illinois told the Huffington Post he believes unlawful poaching of big-game is a crime in both Zimbabwe and the United States.

Freyfogle also says that Dr. Palmer may have contravened the Lacey Act, which makes it a federal crime to transport any wildlife taken in violation of a foreign country's law.

Even though there appears to be a legal case, Herbert V. Larson, a professor of international law at Tulane, says that he thinks Zimbabwe will not go through with a request because it is too time consuming.

His advice to Dr. Palmer is 'plead guilty, pay a huge fine and publicly apologize'.

Indeed, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said on Thursday that they cannot contact the dentist, who has not been seen at his homes in Minnesota or Florida since the news first broke on Tuesday.

The reviled dentist has also failed to open the doors of his private practice in Minneapolis since he was identified as Cecil's killer.

This comes as the petition to extradite Dr, Palmer to Zimbabwe exceeded the required 100,000 signatures, and the White House confirmed it will respond to all petitions that meet that level.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said it is up to the Justice Department to respond to an extradition order, raising the possibility that Dr. Palmer would be sent to Zimbabwe, should the African nation make a formal request.

And while Dr. Palmer is adamant he knowingly acted within the law and paid $55,000 for a legal permit to kill a lion, Zimbabwe has charged one of his two guides with poaching.

Local hunter Theo Bronkhorst appeared in a courthouse in Hwange on Wednesday and was charged with 'failing to supervise, control and take reasonable steps to prevent an unlawful hunt'.

He pleaded not guilty to the charge and was set free after posting $1,000 bail and depositing his passport with the court. He will return to court on August 5 for trial.

Game park owner Honest Ndlovu, who is also accused of assisting Palmer, was not charged on Wednesday and parks officials said he would first testify for the state and be charged later.

The death of the famous lion has sparked international outrage. Protesters gathered outside Palmer's dental practice on Wednesday, calling for him to be extradited to Zimbabwe to face charges of taking part in an illegal hunt.

Damning: More than 140,000 have signed up to a White House petition to get Minneapolis dentist, Dr. Walter Palmer extradited

White House says will review 'Cecil the Lion' petition

Hunter: Dr Palmer had is now under investigation after he admitted killing the lion in Zimbabwe earlier this month

Walter Palmer (pictured left with a bear and right with a leopard) is a specialist bow and arrow hunter who has admitted killing Cecil the lion

This is the last known photograph of Cecil the lion (bottom) taken by Brent Stapelkamp in May before he was killed by the American dentist. Cecil is pictured with Jericho, a male lion who it is feared could kill the cubs of the pride fathered by Cecil

Palmer, 55, wrote about the situation in a note to his patients. 'I understand and respect that not everyone shares the same views on hunting,' he wrote in the letter, which added that he would 'resume normal operations as soon as possible.'

Social media were filled with condemnation of the killing and on Twitter, the hashtag cecilthelion was in wide use.

A couple of hundred protesters gathered Wednesday outside Palmer's office with signs, including one that said, 'Let the hunter be hunted!'

According to U.S. court records, Palmer pleaded guilty in 2008 to making false statements to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about a black bear he fatally shot in western Wisconsin.

Cecil is believed to have been killed July 1 and his carcass discovered days later.