The Berlin bear got a run for its money on Thursday as the official symbol of the German capital. Authorities said a “free-roaming lioness” in the area had sparked an extensive search with more than 100 police officers, vets and hunters, as well as drones and helicopters involved in capturing the animal.
“People are encouraged to stay at home if possible and not to let their pets outside,” said a statement from the German municipality of Kleinmachnow, in the state of Brandenburg, where the first sighting of the animal was reported. Officials from the city of 20,000, about 14 miles from central Berlin, said the lioness “caused a commotion” overnight since she was eating a wild boar by the side of the road.
The animal had not yet been captured Thursday evening local time, and Brandenburg police said in a statement that veterinarians, hunters, helicopters and drones were involved in the search. The search focused on the areas of Teltow, Kleinmachnow and Stahnsdorf, three small towns along Berlin’s southwestern border, where police had warned of the animal.
“We ask the population in the above areas to act with due vigilance and not to enter the adjacent forest areas,” the police statement said. Anyone who sees the animal must “seek shelter immediately” and call the police.
Police received reports of a sighting of a wild animal chasing and eating a wild boar in Kleinmachnow around midnight on Wednesday, they said in a statement.
A short, grainy video of that sighting, shared with police on Thursday and subsequently circulated on social media, appeared to show a large feral cat feeding on a wild boar in a grassy, wooded area along the road. Police said the animal in the video appeared to be a lioness and called the possibility “believable”.
A search for the animal was immediately launched, police said, with Berlin and Brandenburg police forces getting involved and using helicopters. Riot police were on the scene to protect local residents.
Kleinmachnow city officials said their goal was to calm and capture the animal, rather than kill it. But a hunter was on standby in case the animal put lives in danger.
After the initial sighting and video, the animal was spotted by the police themselves, a police spokeswoman in Brandenburg told The Associated Press. Kleinmachnow’s mayor and police did not immediately respond to questions about the sightings. Other sightings reported by residents cannot be confirmed, officials said.
Authorities said the animal was most likely in the wooded areas of Brandenburg.
It was unclear where the lion came from, as lions are not native to Germany. While there are zoos, animal protection centers and circuses in the area, police said none had reported a missing lioness.
Commenters online doubted the animal in the video was a lion, but police said it most likely was.
Others had fun with the chaos, and memes in abundance: the Twitter page of Deutsche Bahn, the national German railway company, tweeted a useful reminder that while domestic cats and smaller pets did not require their own tickets, larger pets, “other than companion lions”, required their own rail passes.
