I've been following this closely and there is so much conflicting information, deliberately media manipulated to keep the story running. The recurring theme that I have found is that to even the pro-hunting locals, he is such an emblem/totem, that he has always been off limits in the past. The theory is that they got wind through the local grapevine of a group of out of city toffs on the way down for a stag hunt, and so they concocted and spread the story about to throw them off the scent.