Arthur Crewe, on behalf of Strategic Response and Rescue Unit (SRU), said the lion stays on the loose, and there has actually not been verification of from where it left.
“What happened is that at 2 o’clock yesterday morning, a security officer that was patrolling the area had spotted the lion on the 511 in the Hennops area. He (security officer) posted on the local group for everybody to be cautious,” Crewe informed IOL.
“At around 7am yesterday, I dispatched our search and rescue team to try and locate the lion and to bring it back safely. We had not known where she has come from. People in the area would really be keen on shooting the animal, so we dispatched our search and rescue teams.
“A second gentleman said he had seen the same lion. With that in mind, we had two sightings of the same animal, and we have been on the search ever since. At around 2.30pm yesterday, we received another sighting in the same area, and that is where most of our attention has been focused, and we believe she is still in that area at the moment,” said Crewe.
He said some individuals have actually declared to have actually spotted the animal overnight, however there is no brand-new details on the huge cat.
Crewe said the sightings have actually been near the Hartbeespoort location “on the border of Gauteng and North West close to the Hennops Hiking Trail”.
He said centers in North West have actually shown that they are not missing out on a lion, and the search is likewise on to develop from where the feline left.
“It is only Gauteng at the moment. There is apparently a lot of facilities that have these animals with permits. Authorities are visiting those facilities to see if anybody is missing their animal,” said Crewe.
He said it had actually been declared that the lion had actually killed a donkey, however it has actually been confirmed that the donkey was killed in a mishap – not by the huge cat.
In January, a tigress called Sheba was fatally shot after it had actually been on the loose for days in Walkerville, south of Joburg.
Gresham Mandy, from the Walkerville CPF who has actually been on the cutting edge of the enormous search targeted at catching the huge cat, validated the sad advancement to IOL.
He said the feline was killed after it had actually gotten in a farm with 6 homes of households living there. It assaulted and killed a domestic animal.
IOL
