Video shows how Cecil the lion would have been killed by Walter Palmer

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'Isn't it nice to put four arrows into an animal charging like that?': Shocking footage shows how Cecil the lion would have been killed by the bow hunting dentist
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WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
American dentist Walter Palmer shot Zimbabwe's favourite lion with bow and arrow
He ran, bleeding from his hunters for 40 hours until, tired he was cornered and shot dead
Bowhunters like Dr Palmer like to pose for ghoulish photos of themselves with their 'trophies' and post footage of the hunts online
A shocking video shows an American hunter, armed with high-tech bow and arrow, kill lioness
They stalk the frightened animal before hunter shoots her with four arrows

Published: 06:54 EST, 30 July 2015 | Updated: 14:06 EST, 30 July 2015

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Cecil the lion suffered a slow and painful death in which he was coaxed out of the safe confines of the national park with a piece of meat.

He was then shot in the dark with a bow and arrow almost certainly fired by Minnesota dentist Dr Walter Palmer.

Bleeding and injured, he outran his hunters for 40 hours before, fatigued, hungry and cornered he was shot dead by a professional hunter before he was skinned and had his head cut off.

Shocking videos show how bow hunters stalk their prey with the help of armed guides and shoot them with an arrow - in a 'full metal jacket - and share the sickening footage online.

'Shoot it': A shocking video found online shows a bowhunter stalking an African lioness before shooting her in the neck

One such video - filmed over the shoulder of an American hunter - shows him creeping to within a few metres of an African lioness before raising a hightech bow to his chin, drawing the bow and firing a razor-sharp arrow into her neck.

The hunter, known only as Matt, peers down the length of the arrow at the beast staring back at him, someone whispers: 'If you get the shot, shoot it.'

It emerged as Dr Palmer became the most hated man on the internet and people staged protests outside his dentist surgery in Minnesota.

Dr Palmer - who paid £35,000 to hunt Cecil - has insisted he did nothing wrong because he purchased the correct permits.

In Zimbabwe professional hunter Theo Bronkhorst and Honest Ndlovu, a farm owner appeared in court yesterday accused of not having the correct permits and face up to ten years in jail and a fine.

They are accused of coaxing Cecil out of his home in the Hwange national park and shooting him in the dark, which is illegal under the terms of the hunting permit.

Final blow: As the lioness lies motionless from the three razor-sharp arrows that have already been unleashed into her body, the hunter, named Matt, fires another one into her

The sickening video posted online starts with the lioness - unused to being the prey - looking intently at the hunter and lower her body as if she were about to pounce. But the man with the bow and arrow hiding in the bushes cannot get a clear shot of her.

The footage, which was uploaded in 2011, shows Matt, another man armed with a rifle and two professional guides, moving around the bush to get an unobstructed view.

His first arrow grazes the lioness, who growls angrily - mouth opened to reveal her massive white incisors.

The hunter breathes and grunts heavily before taking the second shot, which strikes her on the front of her right leg and sends her into a mad frenzy.

'Holy s**t, shoot her,' a man calls out in an American accent as a faint outline of her camouflaged body darts through the bushes.

Once the furious lioness comes back into view, crouched into attack position, a calm South African voice instructs Matt to his next move.

He says: 'Come, come, take it again... Right her on my side, [Shoot her] right on the left side of the neck.'

The hunter takes a second shot and the heavy growling which overpowered the footage falls silent as she falls onto her side - blood oozing out of where the first arrow struck.

Trouble: The footage of a bowhunt in progress emerges as Walter Palmer (left), the man who shot a beloved lion called Cecil in Zimbabwe (not pictured), faces prosecution back home in the United States

'Good shot, good shot,' the South African says as the camera zooms out to show her relieved, sweaty killer. He is flanked by the man with the rifle who still has the gun pointed at the lioness.

Matt nervously loads another arrow into the bow and approaches the lioness who lies motionless on her side but appears to be breathing heavily.

He shoots another arrow into her stomach before he is congratulated by the rifle-wielding guide who takes Matt's bow and hands him a gun like his instead.

Isn't it nice to put four arrows into an animal charging like that? That was a very exciting hunt

Armed guide after lioness hunt

He is about to shoot the fallen lioness when a voice intervenes: 'Give her a minute and kill her with the bow.'

'Are you happy?' one guide asks Matt, to which he replies, 'Yeah.'

As the hunter laughs, the guide continues: 'Isn't it nice to put four arrows into an animal charging like that? That was a very exciting hunt.'

Matt cannot contain his laughing as he holds out his hand which is shaking heavily. He thanks the men right at the end of the four minute-long video.

The comments underneath the video are mixed, with some like Alan Wilke describing it as an 'awesome hunt'.

He continues: 'If it were not for sport hunting, these animals would have all been wiped out by poachers.'

But the video made others furious. An unnamed commenter wrote: 'If i would see you I would hunt you... Damn how can you be such a p***y and shoot down a royal animal like that... F**k you.'

Cecil the Lion filmed playing with family by British tourist

Family: Heartbreaking footage showed Cecil (right) the lion happily playing with his pride before he was killed with a bow and arrow

Big game hunters like the one in the video tend to use expensive, specialist bows. In another video hunter Ricky Valdez is believed to use a PSE Compound bow.

PSE's most expensive bow, called Dominator Max, costs over £800 and propels an arrow at up to 323ft in a second.

PSE Archery's description of the weapon reads: 'PSE knows that tournament archers want to do more than just win... You want to dominate!

'Designed on a shoot-through riser with X-Technology, it's got the pinpoint precision, stability and vibration control you need to be a champion.'

PSE also sells Carbon Force Black Mamba arrows, which the company claims is 'the perfect big game arrow'.

At just over £80 each, an arrow is equipped with something a QuietCoat 'which allows the arrow to slide over virtually any type of rest with very little noise. It also makes removing the arrows from the target much easier.

A different bowhunting video filmed on a mobile phone shows a man placing a heavy metal-ripped arrow known as a Full Metal Jacket in a powerful, high-tech bow before firing at a nearby lion.

Another one, compiled by investigators, shows a group of five men shooting down a male lion in a barrage of bullet fire.