Video of a Grizzly bear being shot several times by hunters has sparked anger from wildlife campaigners.
Footage of the fatal shooting was posted by the Wildlife Defence League, a group seeking the complete ban of trophy hunting across Canada.
The debate over trophy hunting, as highlighted by the killing of Cecil the lion, looks set to be reignited after the conservationists posted this video in full on Facebook.
Warning: Graphic images of a bear being shot and wounded
The moment when the hunters spotted the Grizzly bear
Image of when the Grizzly bear was first wounded
The Grizzly bear is shot again and tumbles down the hill
The two trophy hunters can be seen firing several shots at the bear before they are heard celebrating its death.
The animal appears to be in distress following the first shot, before it slides down the blood-stained snow in an attempt to escape.
As the bear’s body comes to rest at the bottom of a slope, the pair cheer and laugh.
Tommy Knowles, Campaign Director for Wildlife Defence League said the group had obtained the video around a year ago but only recently decided to release it.
“You can see photos of people posing with dead bears, but to actually see how they are killed is a different thing,” he said.
“We wanted to make that public.”
When Cecil the lion was shot by Walter Palmer back in June, the business and ethics of big-game hunting came under great scrutiny. The American dentist broke his media silence this week before announcing he would return to work.
Although many social media users have expressed anger about the footage of the grizzly bear being killed by the hunters, the species is not endangered and doing so is not illegal in Canada.
One post left underneath the video said: “I’m an outdoorsman and love fishing and hunting.
"But these guys aren’t hunters. A hunter honours the animal in which they kill. They use it for the purpose of providing themselves and their families with food.
"But to kill for the point of killing is utterly wrong and gives those who do this for the purpose in which we as humans were given is appalling."
