By Niklas Bröckl, Monika Wendel and Fabian Nitschmann, dpa
BERLIN – There are no indications of a lioness on the loose south-west of Berlin, authorities said on Friday. Police have given the all clear for the area.
Search efforts had not yielded any clues. After analysis of the video purporting to show the animal, experts assume it is not a lioness but probably a wild boar.
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“As far as any human can judge, we assume that it is not a lioness,” Michael Grubert, the mayor of the municipality of Kleinmachnow in the state of Brandenburg next to Berlin, said at a press conference.
There is no longer any danger, he added. Doubts about the lion theory had been mounting before. Several experts had expressed scepticism, including Berlin wildlife expert Derk Ehlert. He told regional radio station RBB that he only saw two wild boar running from left to right on the video.
Earlier, the chairman of the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU), Rainer Altenkamp, said he was convinced that the wanted predator was a wild boar.
There were compelling signs that the animal was not a lioness, Achim Gruber, executive director of the Institute of Veterinary Pathology, told dpa earlier on Friday.
Despite the many unanswered questions, Gruber said the search effort was justified. “The measures are justified given the reasonable initial suspicion. You have to make the effort,” he said.
The search for the presumed predator began in the early hours of Thursday after a video showing an animal in the bushes circulated on social media. The investigating authorities assessed the video as genuine.
According to a spokeswoman for the authorities, police officers also said they had seen the wild animal.
On Friday, police continued their search with drones, helicopters and thermal imaging cameras, supported by veterinarians and hunters.
