The first laboratory analyzes to determine the nature of the animal hunted at the end of last week in Berlin have almost definitively dismissed the thesis of the lioness and confirmed that of the boar, the authorities said on Monday.
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“It was found that the only hair found has none of the known properties of cat hair,” said the small town of Kleinmachnow, south-west of Berlin, where the beast had been reported.
This hair “possesses basic stiffness,” has “a frayed end,” and happens to be “dark, almost black, at the root,” City detailed in a statement.
A “profoundly different” structure from that of cat hair which is similar to that of lions.
“Visually, a lot is therefore in the direction of a boar’s hair,” adds the city, revealing the first elements of the laboratory of the Leibnitz Institute for Zoological and Animal Research, in charge of the analysis.
A lioness alert had been issued in south Berlin on the strength of a video filmed by two passers-by during the night from Wednesday to Thursday. Police then believed they also saw the animal during the same night.
An unprecedented hunt followed, with more than a hundred police officers, supported by veterinarians and hunters. Helicopters, drones and thermal imaging cameras were also used.
The alert was finally lifted on Friday when independent experts concluded it was likely a wild boar after detailed analysis of the poor quality video.
However, the Leibnitz Institute is not yet “absolutely sure” that the animal filmed was one of the many wild boars that swarm in the forests of the German capital.
“The analyzes (of the hair) therefore continue, as well as those of the excrement found”, according to the press release. Regarding the latter, the first samples show a high proportion of vegetable matter, “contradicting the fact that it could be a mainly carnivorous animal.”