DThe police have given the all-clear in search of a suspected lioness. There is no evidence of a lioness in the tested area, said Kleinmachnow’s Mayor Michael Grubert (SPD) on Friday. Even after analyzing the images, experts no longer assumed it was a predator.
The chairman of the Nature Conservation Union (Nabu) Berlin, Rainer Altenkamp, is convinced that the wanted predator southwest of Berlin is a wild boar. “Even the short, hanging tail with a loosely hairy tassel about ten centimeters long excludes a lioness,” said the wildlife expert on Friday, looking at the video recordings viewed.
“Behaviour typical of wild boar”
The other recognizable features, for example the round back and the elongated head, fit very well with a wild boar and speak against a predator, said Altenkamp. “The entire behavior is completely typical for wild boars in urban areas.”
The search for a free-roaming predator continued in Berlin and Brandenburg on Friday. According to the Berlin police, a good 100 emergency services were busy searching in the morning. During the night there was therefore no new evidence of the whereabouts of the animal, which was initially supposed to be a lioness. The municipality of Kleinmachnow in Brandenburg asked professional animal trackers for help.
According to the police, there were also no indications of a lion’s roar during the night – instead, the noise turned out to be a joke by young people with a loudspeaker. “That helps neither the community nor the police,” said a police spokesman.
Police officers said they saw the animal “secured”.
The search for the predator began Thursday night. The animal is said to have been sighted and filmed in Kleinmachnow on the border with Berlin, and the video snippet made the rounds of social networks on Thursday. The investigating authorities consider the video to be genuine. According to a spokeswoman for the authorities, police officers said they had seen the animal “secured”. There were other possible sightings on Thursday afternoon and evening in the Berlin city area, near the southern border with Brandenburg.
In the meantime, it was unclear whether the animal being looked for was a lioness, another big cat or a predator at all. A hair that was shown by the community hunter on RBB television on Thursday is to be analyzed in the laboratory. “We don’t know what it is yet,” said the spokeswoman for the Kleinmachnow community. Wild boar also liked to rub themselves against trees.
Berlin’s wildlife expert Derk Ehlert said on the RBB Inforadio that he only recognized two wild boars running from left to right on the well-known video. “But of course I believe the witnesses, the colleagues from the police in Berlin, who actually saw such an animal,” added Ehlert. Nevertheless, it makes him suspicious that no traces have been found so far.
In addition to numerous police officers, veterinarians and the Berlin city hunter were also involved in the search. Police officers with submachine guns and protective shields were out and about in the forest. During the night, the operation on the Berlin side concentrated on an area in the Zehlendorf district. At the same time, the police in Brandenburg continued their search at night, the officers were traveling in several groups.
Concrete traces are missing so far
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.”
Because concrete traces were missing: Neither blood nor faeces or paw prints indicate the presence of a predator in the region. From the point of view of the veterinarian Achim Gruber from the Free University of Berlin, doubts remained as to whether it was really a lioness. “I think it’s possible that it’s a lioness, but I’m not convinced,” Gruber said on Thursday evening in an RBB special. He bet on the hunting dogs that were looking for the animal. If they find no traces, this is “a strong piece of the puzzle” against the hypothesis that you are dealing with a lioness.
“Basically, a lion can’t just be gone, neither can a lioness. It leaves traces,” said wildlife expert Ehlert on RBB Inforadio. “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 is walking around in Berlin and Brandenburg.
According to the police, a private pet owner was also checked as part of the search. The animal that this person is holding is still there, said the spokesman for the West Police Department, Daniel Keip, on Friday morning. He did not want to give any further information about where the animal was being kept. The State Office for the Environment announced that 23 lions from three circus companies, two zoos and a private attitude in Brandenburg were recorded in the animal inventory. Contact details have been sent to the police.
