In a lot of Africa’s national parks lions have become habituated to safari vehicles, but can still perceive humans on foot as a threat. Lions also have a sort of Jekyll and Hyde personality shift once the sun goes down, when they become much more dangerous. (The behaviour that Nxaha displayed when he first purposefully advanced toward Quinn’s party is exactly the same as that which a number of hunters and guides have described to me from lion encounters as the sun is setting.) A close encounter with a lion can be extremely frightening. While a lot of professionals will say that most lion charges are mock charges, that’s not really a great comfort, and there’s almost always a caveat that lion charges are the most intimidating. Because there never are any guarantees.

It’s all going to come down to a judgement call in each and every instance. That judgement, in large part, is what clients are paying for.

Trevor Lane, well‑known in Zimbabwe wildlife circles as the co-founder of Bhejane Trust, which was set up to monitor the black rhinoceros population in the Sinamatella region at Hwange said Quinn Swales “would not have taken any chances. I understand the animal went for his shoulder and probably hit the jugular. The clients ‑ I think they were from New Zealand ‑ radioed the alarm back from the vehicle which was nearby.”

He said a helicopter was sent immediately after the distress call came in, but nothing could be done. "It picked up his body. This is a highly professional company. Brilliant operation. We will find out more accurate details in the next day or two.” Both the National Parks authority and the Zimbabwe Republic Police are involved in the investigation.

An un-named source claimed “This lion had by all accounts been behaving aggressively for some time.” This is the phenomenon known as habituation and all it really means is that a wild animal will stop responding to a stimulus - in this case the repeated presence of people in its habitat - that would otherwise cause it to shy away. Aggression is something different but seems much easier for the tabloid-reading public to identify with. Reminiscent of the Cecil saga, the UK’s Daily Mail blared that Nxaha was “known to kill baby elephants”, like he strangled them in their sleep or something. Lions kill baby elephants or anything else small enough for them to feed on because it’s in their job description. But anthropomorphism sells newspapers. Cecil was all cuddly and fluffy because he was killed - nay, murdered and decapitated! - by a hunter, but Nxaha is somehow evil because he kills baby elephants, which by implication now become the cuddly and fluffy ones.

Columnist Jim Prevor writes for the produce industry as the "Perishable Pundit", and he pretty much summed up the outrage over Cecil when he observed “There is a kind of silly sentimentality that overcomes our civilization in which the public discourse gets diverted from substantive matters to the passion of the moment. So in the end, this is not about Cecil the lion, but about people wanting to feel good about themselves, so they can experience this situation as an expression of their moral superiority over the Minneapolis dentist. This has become an all too common trend in society.”

Cecil was every bit as habituated as Nxaha; there is no difference. There is no way to tell what Cecil would have done on the morning of 24 August. There never are any guarantees. Cecil wasn’t Mufasa and Nxaha isn’t Scar. Hakuna matata!

Another Hwange safari operator said he would not do game walks because he was “terrified of lions”. But that’s part and parcel of the business. As Edward Abbey once said, “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time”. Quinn understood this, and he also understood animals.

The last photo Quinn posted on his Facebook page, on 10 August, was widely reported to be of Cecil. This however, is incorrect, and a close PG colleague of Quinn’s commented “Quinn never even saw Cecil let alone took a photo of him. That lion is the dominant male lion in the area where Quinn worked. I do not agree with naming wild animals however that lion is known as Vusi to the lion research.” Elsewhere on his page, other photos of birdlife and various other wild animals define the passion he had for his chosen profession and the wild world around him. But perhaps a little sadly - even from the international hunting community and not just the mainstream press -  the world seems more fixated on the fact that the most recent events happened in “the home of Cecil the lion” than anything else.

I know a number of professionals in the business who are not interested in conducting hunting safaris but who have gone ahead and done the full PH’s licence anyway. The only real difference is that the PH accrues more hunting experience in gaining his or her licence. Bottom line? They are both professional qualifications, issued by the same government authority, to very high standards. Because the process of accreditation takes several years of hard work in either case, the also-rans don’t typically finish the course; there is no difference in knowledge or dedication between the two types of licence holder.

Both PHs and PGs have to pass the comprehensive National Parks firearms proficiency examination, and both will be armed with an appropriate calibre firearm when they are with clients in the bush. It is worth noting that while the PH is expected to be guiding clients who are assumed to be armed and reasonably proficient in their own right, the skill of the PG with his firearm, where he is the only one who is presumably going to be carrying a firearm, has to be above reproach.

But - and this can be significant - is there a difference in mindset? A number of professionals I spoke with described their scenario when dealing with potentially dangerous animals as drawing an imaginary line on the ground, and saying “ïf it crosses that line I’m going to shoot”. More PHs than guides admitted they would be more comfortable taking the shot, and virtually everyone said that the spectre of Cecil would certainly have influenced their decision. Even if wholly justified in terms of Zimbabwe legislation, taking that shot would result in a very thorough investigation and mountains of paperwork and scrutiny.  

OK, you’ve made a mental determination of what you are going to do and when you’re going to do it - really just a follow-on from Col Jeff Cooper’s colour-coded states of awareness. Any guide or hunter in the bush will be in “yellow” at the very least. The decision will be based on your knowledge of animal behaviour by species, and also that of individual animals in areas where you regularly guide or hunt.

With elephant, for example, common signs of a mock charge will be trumpeting, flared ears giving the animal a larger, more intimidating presence, throwing dust around, and generally making a loud commotion. Attempting to intimidate with a mock charge will often precede a serious charge, and that gives the hunter or guide time in which to make decisions. If the elephant’s ears are flattened against the head and it lowers its head and trunk it is more likely to be putting in a serious charge - but you have to remember that elephant are highly intelligent animals with sophisticated behavour patterns, so none of this will be cast in stone; when you are dealing with a bull in musth, it adds a whole new dimension.

The lion is a different matter altogether because firstly it is a lot smaller than an elephant - relatively speaking, though it can weigh in excess of 500 pounds - so it can be more effectively concealed in dense bush, and, most importantly, it can reach speeds of 50mph over short distances, which is a lot faster than an elephant can run. When it comes for you, it is a blur.

Hwange National Park, as wild as it gets, you don't have anything other than what you brought in with you.

At this stage the lion did not charge the group but, unusually, kept walking purposefully towards them. Once he had breached a certain point, both Quinn and his party of guests began shouting at the lion in an attempt to intimidate it. This had the desired affect and the lion stopped to watch them, allowing Quinn the opportunity to set off a “bear banger” (a very loud flash- bang) to further dissuade it. This caused the lion to move off obliquely, away from the group, in a manner which suggested it would return to the pride, but it suddenly turned and instantaneously charged and attacked Quinn who had continued to place himself between his guests and the animal.