Berlin and Brandenburg
Trackers should find suspected lioness
Police officers are standing at the entrance to a forest area where the big cat is said to be. photo
© Annette Riedl/dpa
Helicopters and drones are in the air, police officers and firefighters are searching the streets and forests. The complex mission is for an animal. is it a lioness
The search for a free-roaming big cat in Berlin and Brandenburg will be intensified today. Professional animal trackers will search the forest, as the mayor of Kleinmachnow, Michael Grubert (SPD), announced in the RBB.
Among other things, the animal – presumably a lioness – is said to have been sighted in his community. “It can’t go on like this for days,” says Grubert, referring to the large-scale police operation.
According to the Berlin police, around 100 emergency services are currently searching. During the night, there were therefore no new findings about the whereabouts. There were also no indications of a lion’s roar in Berlin-Zehlendorf.
According to a spokeswoman in Berlin, the search is still focused on the southern districts.
Notes are received
The police said there were repeated reports from citizens to the police and the responsible regulatory office. These would be systematically checked. “So far, none of the clues have led to the identification of the wild animal we are looking for.”
The warning reached the population south of Berlin on Thursday night: A free-roaming big cat is said to have been sighted in Kleinmachnow in Brandenburg. A few seconds of cell phone video from a witness shows an animal sneaking around between bushes and trees. The investigating authorities consider the video to be genuine. Police officers also saw the cat “secured” during the night, said a spokeswoman for the authorities.
Residents urged to be vigilant
There were other possible sightings in the afternoon and evening in the Berlin city area, near the southern border with Brandenburg. The Berlin police therefore concentrated their search on the area in Zehlendorf around the long Königsweg. Potsdam also called on residents to be vigilant: “Open your eyes! Potsdam is not far away,” the city said on Twitter.
At first, however, there was no trace: neither blood, nor faeces, nor paw prints indicated the presence of the animal in the region. From the point of view of the veterinarian Achim Gruber from the Free University of Berlin, doubts remain as to whether it is really a lioness. “I think it’s possible that it’s a lioness, but I’m not convinced,” said Gruber in the RBB special. He bet on the hunting dogs that were looking for the animal. If they don’t find any traces, this is “a strong piece of the puzzle” against the hypothesis that you are dealing with a lioness.
Wildlife expert recognizes only two wild boars
Berlin’s wildlife expert Derk Ehlert is also skeptical as to whether a big cat is actually running free through Berlin and Brandenburg. On the well-known video, he could only see two wild boars running from left to right, he says on RBB Inforadio. “But of course I believe the witnesses, the colleagues from the police in Berlin, who actually saw such an animal,” says Ehlert. Nevertheless, it makes him suspicious that no traces have been found so far.
“Basically, a lion can’t just be gone, neither can a lioness. She leaves traces,” says the wildlife expert. “It is very striking that at the point where the animal was seen and filmed, not even a footprint can be seen.” Nevertheless, it could be that the animal runs around in Berlin and Brandenburg.
And if it really is a lioness, then the question remains: where does she come from? At least not from the zoos, animal parks and circuses in this region, as the police found out during the night. Nobody missed a big cat there. According to Mayor Grubert, private owners are not known in Kleinmachnow.