Over 100 police officers with night-vision goggles, armed vehicles, and thermal imaging cameras were deployed on July 21 near Berlin, all to chase down a non-existent lioness. Good!
Blurry, unclear cell phone footage was analyzed and concluded to have a wild boar in the video. However, a chase was initiated for what some people thought was a lioness on the loose. After two days of searching near Berlin, officials discovered the lioness turned out to be a wild boar.
The chase started when a video showing a lion chasing a boar was sent to the police, and a search was quickly organized. The local police called a circus to see if they were missing a lion, they wanted to see where the animal came from. Many precautions were made and word got out on the internet. Officials urged people to stay inside and watch for large cats.
Nearby residents also reported having heard roars coming from the forest. It was later confirmed that teenagers were just playing animal sounds on speakers. “‘The atmosphere was quite tense,’ Uda Bastians, a resident of Kleinmachnow, said in an interview. ‘There weren’t many people in the street, and the people you met, everyone was a bit afraid.’”
The search was finally ended after someone claimed to see the missing lion. However, the police found nothing there except a family of wild boars. Heribert Hofer, the director of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, says he has seen many false alarms and pranks where people mistake passive animals for dangerous ones.
However, even wild boars have sometimes annoyed the Berlin residents. Cases of boars stealing and interfering with events have occurred before. Some people say that we should take these wild boar incidents seriously due to the consequences.
Sources: How the Hunt for a Lioness Near Berlin Turned Into a Wild Boar Chase
Blurry, unclear cell phone footage was analyzed and concluded to have a wild boar in the video. However, a chase was initiated for what some people thought was a lioness on the loose. After two days of searching near Berlin, officials discovered the lioness turned out to be a wild boar.
The chase started when a video showing a lion chasing a boar was sent to the police, and a search was quickly organized. The local police called a circus to see if they were missing a lion, they wanted to see where the animal came from. Many precautions were made and word got out on the internet. Officials urged people to stay inside and watch for large cats.
Nearby residents also reported having heard roars coming from the forest. It was later confirmed that teenagers were just playing animal sounds on speakers. “‘The atmosphere was quite tense,’ Uda Bastians, a resident of Kleinmachnow, said in an interview. ‘There weren’t many people in the street, and the people you met, everyone was a bit afraid.’”
The search was finally ended after someone claimed to see the missing lion. However, the police found nothing there except a family of wild boars. Heribert Hofer, the director of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, says he has seen many false alarms and pranks where people mistake passive animals for dangerous ones.
However, even wild boars have sometimes annoyed the Berlin residents. Cases of boars stealing and interfering with events have occurred before. Some people say that we should take these wild boar incidents seriously due to the consequences.
Sources: How the Hunt for a Lioness Near Berlin Turned Into a Wild Boar Chase
