Search for lion enters week 3

THE search for a lion which escaped from the Karoo National Park in the Western Cape will enter its third week today.

It continued yesterday with rangers and trackers up before sunrise to try to find it.

The lion was first spotted outside the park on February 15, and yesterday park manager Nico van der Walt said a team was also at the park’s fence to establish if it had not tried to regain entry to the park.

Van der Walt said the teams were searching between thicketed canyons, steep, rocky hills and mountain tops, which make finding spoor difficult.

“Farmers and farmworkers in and around the area are requested to report sightings or evidence of lion spoor to the police or the park on 0234152828 or to Van der Walt directly on 0828012109,” SANParks said.

Van der Walt said from the momentary sighting rangers had of the animal last week on top of the Nuweveld mountain range, they believed it to be a two-and-a-halfyear-old male.

“It’s believed he managed to escape underneath the park’s electrified fencing after heavy rain in the area washed away sediment along the boundary – and before rangers could get to all the areas to attend to these holes in the ground,” Van der Walt said.

Beaufort West residents were reportedly living in fear since the lion’s escape, but Van der Walt said the lion was last seen more than 12km from the north-eastern boundary of the park, in the opposite direction of the town’s location. |