OXFORD University’s Cecil appeal has reached a figure of more than £550,000.

The University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit had appealed to people across the world so it could boost its big cat research work.

It is now hoped by professors at the university that their research work can now be extended beyond Zimbabwe.

The appeal follows the death of Cecil the lion, who was tragically killed in Zimbabwe last month as a hunting trophy.

WildCRU Director Professor David Macdonald said: “This is amazing news and we hope to keep the momentum.

“We are hugely graceful to all the donors, large and small, who have achieved this incredible memorial to the illegal death of Cecil.”