Police are warning residents of an alleged lioness in a wooded area south of Berlin

German authorities have asked residents of Berlin’s southwestern suburbs to stay home and keep their pets away while they search for a “loose and dangerous” animal that could be a runaway lioness. The animal was seen during the night attacking a wild boar, according to testimonies collected by the local press.

Brandenburg police advised residents of the districts of Kleinmachau, Stehnsdorf and Teltow, on the outskirts of the German capital, early Thursday morning to refrain from walking in the woods and to be careful to keep people safe at home. Your pets or farm animals.

Authorities are using helicopters and thermal cameras to try to locate the animal, which was seen in a wooded area on the border between the states of Berlin and Brandenburg. In addition to police officers, a veterinarian and two armed hunters are in the area with orders to stun or shoot the animal, according to Potsdam-Mitelmark district authorities.

The police activated the search for the animal after two people saw the wild animal and recorded it with their mobile phones. “Around midnight, we received a notification that we could not believe. One was a wild boar and the other was a predatory cat, a lioness, as confirmed by our most experienced clients,” police spokesman Daniel Cape told RBB television.

Residents of Kleinmachnau, a town of about 20,000 residents, told television that early in the morning they saw flashes of floodlights with which police were illuminating the wooded area to try to spot the animal. It is not known where he fled from. “Neither in zoos nor in circuses does an animal like this go missing,” a police spokesman said. There is also no record of anyone ever having a large cat in their home.

As this source explained, when the animal is sighted, the protocol will be modified according to the circumstances. Ideally, it’s about sedating him and taking him to an animal protection center. If there is a threat to anyone’s life or physical safety, Cape said, “we will have to consider other possibilities.”

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Brandenburg firefighters also confirmed that the huge animal was “presumed to be a lioness”. However, the director of the circus in the Tilto district, Michel Rugal, told local media that he was not aware of lions in circuses or private zoos in the area and that there could be confusion with another type of animal. . “We’re not in the ’80s anymore, and you can’t even do it illegally anymore. Something like that would be known right away,” said Michel Rogal. Daily The Daily Mirror.

After watching the video, Rugal confirms that the animal is too skinny and small to be a lioness. “I bet this is not a lion,” he told the newspaper. In his opinion, the Caucasian Shepherd Dog, a breed of dog widely used in Russia as a watchdog, could be a specimen. These animals have necks like lions and legs the size of a man’s hand, according to the circus director: “I have one myself, but it is at home.”

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