(Berlin) A wild animal hunt began Thursday on the outskirts of Berlin, mobilizing drones and helicopters, after a wild animal, apparently a lioness, was reported prowling in the woods not far from homes.
The alert was launched by a phone call, around midnight, “from two passers-by who had seen an animal chasing another”, a spokesman for the police of Brandenburg (region which surrounds the German capital) Daniel Keip told AFP.
“One was a wild boar and the other was obviously a beast, a lioness. The two men also recorded a video on their mobile phones and experienced police officers confirmed that it was probably a lioness,” said Mr Keip.
The police first asked the inhabitants of the south-western districts of the German capital not to leave their homes, before extending the alert zone to peripheral municipalities between Berlin and Potsdam, the former city of the kings of Prussia.
“The wild animal that escaped has not yet been found! We ask you not to leave your homes,” the Brandenburg police wrote on Twitter.
Large police forces, assisted in particular by a veterinarian and two hunters, take part in the search. Two helicopters and drones are also mobilized, noted an AFP photographer.
The inhabitants of the area are called upon to reduce their outdoor activities and not to let their pets out. The mayor of Kleinmachow, one of the municipalities concerned, thus advised against “forest walks and jogging”.
“I was arrested during my jogging morning by police […] “, told AFPTV Thorsten Thaddey, a resident of this town of some 20,000 inhabitants.
“I have to say I was a little freaked out. It is an animal of a different caliber than a normal dog. I will go home,” he added.
Another resident, Lutz Peters, was worried about his “two dachshunds”. “It’s probably the ideal food for a lion,” he told AFP. “Throughout the night we heard the helicopters […] I have never experienced such a thing,” he added.
“Caucasian Shepherd”
The origin of the possible lioness on the run is for the moment unknown. Asked about RBB radio, Brandenburg police spokesman Daniel Keip said that “no animal park, zoo and circus had reported any disappearances”.
In an interview with the Berlin daily Tagesspiegelthe circus director Michel Rogall, based in Teltow, another adjoining locality in the south-west of Berlin, told how he had been woken up at two o’clock in the morning by the police to find out if he was missing a feline.
He expressed doubts about this wild animal alert.
“No circus in the whole of Germany has a lion or a tiger anymore,” he told the German newspaper.
After seeing the video shown by the police, Mr. Rogall said: “If that’s a lion, I eat my hat”. “The animal is far too slender and too small,” he said.
According to him, it could be a “Caucasian Shepherd”. “I have a similar dog at home, but he’s still there,” he said.
Two weeks ago, a serval, held by an individual who had not reported it to the authorities, escaped from its owner’s home in Bad Kreuznach (near Frankfurt) causing panic in the locality, said the German association for animal protection, Vier Pfoten.
Among the fugitive felines that made headlines in Europe, a panther, stolen from the Maubeuge zoo in September 2019, escaped through the roof of a building in Armentières (northern France) before being captured by firefighters.