On a Thursday near midnight, two men captured a short, low-quality video of what they thought was a lion chasing a wild boar. They reported it to the police. A search began soon after, escalating rapidly.
This was the beginning of the frenzied hunt for the “lion” that prompted a two-day search, leading to the deployment of police equipped with night-vision-goggles, drones, and even helicopters. Alerts popped up on several social media platforms and local news stations, warning everyone to stay inside. Then after two days and nights of searching and trampling wooded lands, authorities announced that it was probably a case of mistaken identity.
At first, the police attempted to determine where the animal came from, calling local zoos, circuses, and animal rescue facilities. But no one was missing a lion, which puzzled the police.
Police officers scoured forested areas, searching for the “lion”, but came up empty. As night fell on the first day of the search, some residents told the police that they heard roars from nearby. However, it was only teenagers playing animal noises loudly on a speaker.
“Following another convincing tip this morning, police and hunters visited a small area of forest,” Klienmachnow Mayor Michael Grubert told the reporters. “We only found a family of wild boar.”
A computer analysis of the footage revealed that the creature lacked the long, curving neck characteristic of big cats, Reuters reported. The long-bobbed tail? Just a shadow. And the animal’s light coloring is found in wild boars as well.
Other experts also independently came to the same conclusion. Dr. Hofer, the director of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, said that a local official reached out to him on Friday morning, asking him to analyze the blurry video of the “lion”. He said that some characteristics of the animal were cat-like, but other pieces of evidence proved otherwise, like the glimpse of a young boar running through the frame.
“I can see some of the reasons for confusion,” he said.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/22/world/europe/berlin-lioness-boar.html
https://www.gpb.org/news/2023/07/21/the-lioness-sparked-massive-search-near-berlin-may-have-just-been-boar
This was the beginning of the frenzied hunt for the “lion” that prompted a two-day search, leading to the deployment of police equipped with night-vision-goggles, drones, and even helicopters. Alerts popped up on several social media platforms and local news stations, warning everyone to stay inside. Then after two days and nights of searching and trampling wooded lands, authorities announced that it was probably a case of mistaken identity.
At first, the police attempted to determine where the animal came from, calling local zoos, circuses, and animal rescue facilities. But no one was missing a lion, which puzzled the police.
Police officers scoured forested areas, searching for the “lion”, but came up empty. As night fell on the first day of the search, some residents told the police that they heard roars from nearby. However, it was only teenagers playing animal noises loudly on a speaker.
“Following another convincing tip this morning, police and hunters visited a small area of forest,” Klienmachnow Mayor Michael Grubert told the reporters. “We only found a family of wild boar.”
A computer analysis of the footage revealed that the creature lacked the long, curving neck characteristic of big cats, Reuters reported. The long-bobbed tail? Just a shadow. And the animal’s light coloring is found in wild boars as well.
Other experts also independently came to the same conclusion. Dr. Hofer, the director of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, said that a local official reached out to him on Friday morning, asking him to analyze the blurry video of the “lion”. He said that some characteristics of the animal were cat-like, but other pieces of evidence proved otherwise, like the glimpse of a young boar running through the frame.
“I can see some of the reasons for confusion,” he said.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/22/world/europe/berlin-lioness-boar.html
https://www.gpb.org/news/2023/07/21/the-lioness-sparked-massive-search-near-berlin-may-have-just-been-boar