Bedlam as Berlin hunts escaped lion!

NEWS AND VIEWS: Have you read this story? Have you seen the video? When you see the video, you'll see the most appalling quality and you are reliant upon your imagination. That's dangerous. When you have to imagine what an animal is because the image quality is so bad, your mind can run riot and this is what appears to have happened in Berlin, Germany.

Suggestion: if this is a genuine sighting it is likely to be a large dog. That's the common-sense assessment. Wait and see. My expectation is that they won't find any animal let alone a lion! In fact, my most recent thought about this video is that it might have been deliberately created to be fuzzy and to try and attract a lot of attention. Clickbait basically. UPDATE: it was a WILD BOAR. It is an area where there are wild boar in their thousands! Same old story. New media exaggerations and scaremongering.

The video is above and so is a screenshot below and I think that you will agree that, as usual, the quality is very poor. Every time we have a big cat roaming around an urban environment or in the countryside, the image quality is abysmal. That, I think, tells you something about these so-called big cat sightings in places where they shouldn't be.

Bedlam as Berlin hunts escaped lion! Screenshot.

In this instance, helicopters, SWAT teams and wildlife hunters have participated in an extensive police search in Germany last night after, it is alleged, a lioness was spotted roaming the suburbs on the outskirts of Berlin, according to The Times newspaper from which I have borrowed some of their words.

Apparently, witnesses first saw the lion chasing a wild boar down a street in Kleinmachnow which is less than 3 miles from the capital. The sighting occurred in the morning. More sightings followed. Someone made a video and posted it online.

At the time of reporting this the 'beast' is still at large. It was believed to be in a local wood feeding. Residents have been advised to stay indoors and not to let their pets out. More than 200 officers and specialists searched the region using infrared cameras. Drones were also used. Armoured vehicles were in attendance. The police were carrying submachineguns!

There have been no reports of lions escaping zoos or circuses. But the sightings have been in double figures according to the police. The police believe the witness evidence including this incredibly poor-quality video. The mayor of the aforesaid district sought to reassure the public by saying: "To any mockers out there, no this is not our new system of tackling wild boar using lions. We won't be setting up a Serengeti Park here. It's a serious situation and I can only say we still haven't found her." He believes it too!

The district is on the fringes of Berlin and is frequented by wild boar. Entire herds have been seen there. It has been suggested that this is why the lion is in these woods. Kindergartens have remained open but children have been kept indoors. Local traders have been advised to keep their stalls inside.

A local resident who lives in a house close to the woods said: "A colleague sent me a message this morning asking if I was still alive!"

He went out into the streets and cycled to work but he said that his wife had driven their two children to a nearby woodwork class rather than letting them cycle.

The lioness is a mystery. That's the point. It doesn't exist! If this is a large cat it is more likely to be a pet sub adult mountain lion (Puma) in my view. The coloration is correct. Sometimes people keep pumas as pets as they can be somewhat domesticated (correction: the head is too large in the video to be a puma). Or it is a large sandy coloured dog.

Video shows how lions escaped Taronga Zoo, in Sydney, Australia

The security camera video shows how a family of lions escaped from an Australian zoo. It wasn't particularly amazing as they just crawled (walked) through what appears to be a fence with a hole in it! The interesting thing is that they all came back of their own volition bar one who was tranquillized and brought back. It seems that they are all conditioned to feel safe in the zoo and returned to experience that safety.

The lions involved were lion cubs Luzuko, Zuri, Khari and Malika and adult male Ato.
    

As you can see this is a BBC video taken from the security camera footage. The video is 'embedded' in this website using code. If the BBC deletes the video on their website, it will disappear here. Just so you know. I can't control what the BBC do.

Video shows how lions escaped Taronga Zoo, in Sydney, Australia. Screenshot.

The video was released by the zoo which surprises me a bit because it shows us that the zoo management were allegedly negligent in allowing a hole to develop in the wire mesh fence. How did it develop? Weird. Perhaps it was faulty manufacturing and the lions gradually, over time, enlarged the hole.

Evi a small female bobcat who escaped from captivity under strange circumstances

A bobcat named Evi lived at the Reflection Riding nature preserve located at 400 Garden Road Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA. A young man whose name is Cayden Melia was kayaking on Lookout Creek after drinking alcohol (and perhaps during his kayaking).

Evi a small female bobcat who escaped from captivity under strange circumstances. Screenshot.

When he got to Reflection Riding, he got out and walked to the area where a bobcat and an eagle were kept in cages. I will have to presume that the reason why he broke into the cages with a rock was because of his inebriated state. He then broke into the bobcat's cage.

Once he was inside the bobcat's captive area, he decided the play with the bobcat. He was playing with a ball when the animal decided to escape. He tried to get the cat back inside the cage but failed so he returned to his kayak. Evi is domesticated and behaves like a domestic cat to a large extent.

He admitted that he knew the area was off-limits. A person had come forward who suspected that Cayden was the culprit. A city officer went to his home in North Chattanooga, read him his Miranda rights and took a statement. This brief article is based upon the statement and comes via The Chattanoogan.com.

He had his first court appearance on August 6 2020 before General Sessions Court Judge Alex McVeagh. The "crime" took place on June 11, 2019.  Melia is charged with vandalism and criminal trespassing. I expect he received a nominal sentence.

Evi was spotted numerous times on the side of Lookout Mountain. $4000 was donated by the public to cover the cost of the search. The police have decided that Cayden did not try and steal the bobcat and has been charged with vandalism and criminal trespassing. 

Evi was recovered 5 days later according to the video below. Evi is quite small, not much larger than a domestic cat.