Authorities Call Off Berlin Lioness Alarm, Saying They’ve Found No Evidence of a Predator

AP

14:06 JST, July 22, 2023

BERLIN (AP) — Authorities determined on Friday that there is “no acute danger” to people in an area on the edge of Berlin where a potentially dangerous animal was spotted, saying they no longer believe that a lioness is at large and calling off the hunt.

A search turned up no sign of such a predator and experts who analyzed a video have concluded that it was likely a wild boar, they said.

Police were first alerted to the animal in Kleinmachnow, just outside Berlin’s city limits, around midnight on Wednesday when people reported what appeared to be a big cat chasing a wild boar. The informants also provided the video.

Based on that and a subsequent sighting of their own, police initially concluded that the animal was apparently a lioness. But it proved elusive in searches Thursday and Friday in the flat, wooded area on the boundary between Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg. Several reported sightings went unconfirmed; in one case on Friday, police only found a family of wild boars.

On Friday, police thoroughly combed woodland on both sides of the state boundary and found no indication at all of a lioness, any wild animal other than wild boars — which are common in the area — or an animal that had been killed, Kleinmachnow Mayor Michael Grubert told reporters.

Officials also had experts analyze the video and compare the animal that was depicted with the body structure of a lioness, Grubert added.

Two experts concluded independently of each other that “this isn’t a lioness or a wild animal” and that the creature “tends toward a wild boar,” he said, adding that the rounded back and thick legs of the animal shown in the poorly lit video did not fit with it being a lioness.

“We will return to the usual vigilant program and we think there is no acute danger for Kleinmachnow or for the south of Berlin,” the mayor said, adding that police would be able to step back up straight away if the situation changes.

Grubert defended the large, 36-hour deployment, in which helicopters, drones and infrared cameras were used and vets and hunters participated, as “appropriate.”

“The danger of a wild animal in Kleinmachnow justifies the deployment,” he said, adding that he would act the same way “if I were in the situation today.”

There was no immediate word on the cost of the operation.