BERLIN (AP) – Animal-tracking experts joined the hunt Friday for an unknown and potentially dangerous animal — suspected to be a lion — that has been found on the outskirts of Berlin for a second day, officials said.
Police used helicopters, drones and infrared cameras to find the animal, and a veterinarian and rescuers were also part of the effort. The animal was first alerted to the animal in Kleinmachnow, just outside the city limits of Berlin, around midnight on Wednesday when people reported what looked like a large cat chasing a wild boar.
The informants also provided a video. Based on that, and later their own observations, the police concluded that the animal was a lion. But it became difficult on the flat, wooded terrain on the border between Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg.
Kleinmachnow Mayor Michael Grubert told the local Public Broadcasting Corporation late Thursday that officials would try to comb the forest with “professional animal trackers” on Friday.
“We have to say that this cannot go on for days,” he said Friday, adding that he expected the search to “intensify.”
Police in the Brandenburg state tweeted Friday morning that the search had been unsuccessful overnight and was continuing. People are urged to call 911 if they see the animal.
He said that none of the zoos, animal shelters, circuses or other institutions that the police visited have lost any lions. Grubert says the goal is to sedate the animal if necessary.
Not everyone was taking the search seriously. Police spokeswoman Kirsten Schroeder told the Riby that the youth played the sound of a lion roaring on a Bluetooth device at night. “This will not help the municipality or the police to find the animal,” she said.