Net widens as search for lion enters week two

SPECIALISED trackers and rangers from the Karoo National Park outside Beaufort West in the Western Cape have now expanded the search area, hoping to track the lion that escaped from the park almost two weeks ago.

“Today’s 10-man team have split into three smaller teams in an attempt to cover a larger area of farmland,” said park manager Nico van der Walt.

According to a statement by South African National Parks (SANParks), the police stock theft unit from Beaufort West helped in the search.

The lion is believed to have escaped from the park on February 15.

By midday on Tuesday, the team reported it had still not found any fresh tracks, nor had there been any recent sightings of the lion.

“The team comprises four trackers and four rangers, led by Karoo National Park’s Senior Section Ranger. They will remain in the area where they suspect the lion to be until nightfall, making full use of the daylight hours available to them,” said SANParks.

Van der Walt said from the momentary sighting rangers had of the animal last week, they believe it to be a twoand-a-half year 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.

Landowners on the farm Highlands, to the north-east of the Karoo National Park, were asked to be on the lookout for the lion’s tracks.

This came after two search teams lost the track in the rocky harsh terrain that they were operating in over the past weekend.

Van der Walt reassured fearful Beaufort West residents that the lion was last seen more than 12km from the north-eastern boundary of the park and that this is in the opposite direction of the town’s location to the park.