 HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe intends to seek the extradition of an American dentist who killed a lion that was lured out of a national park and shot with a bow and a gun, and the process has already begun, a Cabinet minister said Friday. Oppah Muchinguri told a news conference that Walter Palmer, 55, was a “foreign poacher” and said she understood Zimbabwe’s prosecutor general had started the process to have him extradited. "Unfortunately it was too late to apprehend the foreign poacher as he had already absconded to his country of origin," Oppah Muchinguri, Zimbabwe's environment, water and climate minister, told a news conference. “We are appealing to the responsible authorities for his extradition to Zimbabwe so that he be made accountable.” 
 
 Muchinguri’s remarks come as the White House faces mounting pressure to address a petition for Palmer’s extradition to Zimbabwe. The killing of Cecil – which had been tagged with a collar as part of a research project run by Oxford University – has caused an international outcry that has forced the dentist into hiding. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Cecil the lion at Zimbabwe’s Hwange national park – archive video footage 
 
 Edward Grace, the USFWS deputy chief of law enforcement, said the service was investigating the circumstances surrounding the killing of Cecil. Article 1 obligates the Contracting States to extradite to the other, pursuant to the provisions of the Treaty, any person charged with or convicted of an extraditable offense in the Requesting State. A White House spokesman said on Thursday that the Obama administration will respond to the petition, which it must to do within 60 days.
– Walter Palmer, the Minnesota dentist who has incited the ire of people around the world for killing Cecil the lion, may soon be making a return trip to Africa if Zimbabwe has its say. The Zimbabwean environment minister said today that the country is seeking Palmer's extradition "so that he be made accountable" for what it says was illegal poaching, the AP reports. "We want him tried in Zimbabwe because he violated our laws. Police should take the first step to approach the prosecutor general who will approach the Americans. The processes have already started." A 2000 treaty between the US and Zimbabwe would allow Palmer's extradition to happen, as long as Palmer is charged with what would be considered a criminal offense in both countries, and as long as that crime carries a minimum one-year sentence in both countries, the Guardian and Minneapolis Star Tribune report. But while the US Fish and Wildlife Service says it's investigating just that, the Star Tribune points out extradition could prove tricky: African lions aren't listed as an endangered species here, and Palmer didn't try to bring the lion's carcass back to the US (which would violate a wildlife importing law). One law that could factor into things: the illegal bribing of foreign officials by Americans overseas, which the president of Zimbabwe’s Safari Operators Association suspects may have happened. "There had to be [bribes]," he tells the Star Tribune. "The documents which they used for carrying out the hunt were all illegal and fraudulently obtained." Meanwhile, Theo Bronkhorst, the hunting guide who's facing charges back in Zimbabwe, says right after Cecil was killed, Palmer wanted to take down an elephant next—but he bid adieu to his guide after Bronkhorst said he couldn't find an elephant big enough for Palmer's tastes, per the Telegraph.