During Friday, the mystery surrounding the lioness who was believed to be on the run in Berlin first thickened. The hunt continued with helicopters and drones. Weapons with stun darts were ready to be fired – but despite extended search efforts, no animal was caught.
The hunt began after the police were alerted when two people on Thursday night sent in a video from a mobile phone, where an animal is seen chasing another animal. After analyzing the footage, the police determined that one of the animals was a lioness.
But on Friday, the hunt was called off, says Michael Grubert, mayor of Kleinmachnow, when the wanted animal is believed to have been a wild boar.
– Everything points to the fact that it is not a lioness, he says at a press conference on Friday afternoon.
The animal captured on the amateur film was “with relative certainty” a wild boar, he says.
A mystery
The police themselves should also have seen the animal later, according to the AFP news agency. The hunt with helicopters, an armored vehicle and armed hunters was concentrated in the areas of Kleinmachnow, Teltow and Stahnsdorf south of the German capital. The effort was reinforced on Friday when another hundred or so police officers were called in.
During the search, it was found that no lions were missing either from local zoos, circuses or shelters for animals in care. The conclusion was that if it really had been a lion, it would probably have been a lion kept by a private person, according to wildlife experts.
Not convinced
There is no law preventing private individuals from owning a lion in the German state of Brandenburg, which surrounds the state of Berlin, according to German news agency DPA. But authorities must be notified if you want the wild feline on private land.
In Berlin, however, it is illegal for private individuals to own a lion.
But not everyone was convinced that it was a lioness. Circus director Michel Rogall from Teltow, who the German newspaper Tagesspiegel has spoken to, previously said that he would be very surprised if it turned out to be true.
– If it’s a lion, I’ll eat my hat, he told the newspaper.