OUTRAGE AS LILLITH THE LYNX IS KILLED
AN ESCAPED lynx deemed a “severe” risk to the public was “hunted down and shot dead” by marksmen, according to the “devastated” owner of the zoo the animal escaped from.
Eurasian lynx Lillith was “humanely destroyed” on Friday around a fortnight after she escaped from her enclosure at Borth Wild Animal Kingdom.
A Ceredigion council spokesman said the 17-month-old female had been killed on veterinary advice following an exhaustive search after “the risk to public well-being... increased from moderate to severe”.
But yesterday the zoo, near Aberystwyth, released a lengthy statement on Facebook claiming the big cat was shot dead by “marksmen who had used state-of-the-art night scopes and thermal imaging cameras”.
They said: “We are truly devastated by the hunting and killing of Lillith last night. For the past three weeks we have been tracking and attempting to catch her in a safe way.
“We have employed 24-hour, onsite help from expert trackers and animal recovery specialists who have been aiding us in our efforts but she proved to be quite elusive. We have spared no expense or effort in our search.
“The only options available to us were live-catching with nets or luring her into one of the many bait traps that we built and placed in areas she was frequenting.”
At first, the statement said, Lillith escaped to the hill behind the zoo before she “moved across the bog to a remote, dense woodland”.
The statement continued: “We were advised by the governmentappointed vet that darting was not possible due to the terrain.
“We had been pressured from the start to allow marksmen to hunt her with live ammo but we categorically refused that option. All the time she remained in the woods we could argue that she was a danger to no-one and we fought for more time to capture her alive.
“Two days ago in the early evening we had a call saying that Lillith had been spotted less than a mile away at a local caravan park.
“The park was closed and empty for the winter period and Lillith was discovered asleep under one of the caravans.
“When the call came in we were in the middle of a council inspection and the council officials insisted on accompanying us to the location where she was seen.
“When we got there the caravan was boarded in on three sides with decking and all we had to do was sling a net across the back and we would have had her trapped.
“Unfortunately one of the officials insisted that he needed to photograph her and make a positive ID before we were allowed close.
“He slipped and fell going up the bank which startled her causing her to run past him and off across the fields.
“After a fruitless search we were informed that due to her being in a heavily populated area they would be issuing a shoot to kill order and we had run out of time.
“We made one final effort yesterday to lay traps for her and we were out all day looking for her with catch nets but the shocking call came in late last night that they had killed her.
“In just 24 hours they had called in marksmen who had used state-ofthe-art night scopes and thermal imaging cameras to hunt her down and shoot her dead. To say we were devastated was an understatement.”
Zoo owner Tracy Tweedy said she had been left “disgusted” by the outcome and said a request for Lillith’s body to be returned to the zoo had been denied by officials from Ceredigion council.
She also revealed she had asked for photographic evidence that the lynx – believed to be worth around £5,000 – has been killed but she claimed this had also been refused.
Lillith was born at the Ceredigion attraction in the spring of 2016, three days after her mother had moved there.
Announcing the death of Lillith, who was around twice the size of a domestic cat, on Friday, a council spokesman said: “It is with deep regret that Ceredigion County Council reports on the humane destruction of the Eurasian lynx that recently escaped from Borth Wild Animal Kingdom.
“Despite exhaustive multi-agency efforts to recapture the Class A animal, the multi-agency group responding to the incident received additional advice late on Friday afternoon, November 10, from a specialist veterinary surgeon that the risk to public well-being had increased from moderate to severe due to the continued failure of the Wild Animal Kingdom to recapture the lynx.
“The safety of the public was paramount and therefore once the lynx had strayed over to a populated area of the community it was necessary to act decisively.”
When Lillith was first reported missing on October 29 it was said she may have been gone for as long as five days, meaning she could have been free for up to three weeks.
There were several sightings of the cat during an operation by keepers, assisted at times by a police helicopter, to return the animal to the park around six miles from Aberystwyth.
Investigators tracking her spotted her washing and relaxing in woodland near the zoo just days after she escaped but she was not caught despite bait traps being laid.
Borth Wild Animal Kingdom has been closed since Lillith escaped. On Friday it was announced that the attraction would face a council inspection later this month.
After Lillith disappeared the zoo released a statement in a bid to clarify why it took five days to report the big cat as missing.
“The lynx enclosure is old and very badly designed and we are in the process of building a much larger, modern enclosure on the side of the hill.”
The statement added: “It is a mystery as to how she escaped. Experts have examined the enclosure and it is believed she climbed some slender tree branches and made a giant leap to the perimeter fence, possibly chasing a bird. The fence is electrified so she would have got a shock.”
In their statement yesterday the zoo’s owners added: “The zoo will remain closed until further notice. When we took over this business just six months ago we knew it was in a terrible state. It had been neglected and run down for quite a while with many of the enclosures rotting and not fit for purpose.”
But Tracy and husband Dean intend to get the attraction up and running again in the future.
“It is our intention to reopen after inspection and carry on the work here to give these animals the decent home that they so richly deserve with new enclosures and better amenities.”
A Ceredigion council spokesman said: “The lynx in question did not necessarily display the characteristics of a wild lynx in that it was used to humans being in close proximity to it.
“In this respect it presented an even greater danger to the general public once it had strayed into a populated area. The council passed on the news of Lynx’s death to her owners at approximately 10.45pm on Friday night at which time the owner requested that its body be returned to them. It was explained to the owner that this was unfortunately not possible and that a post-mortem would be conducted on the body.”
TODAY marks a fortnight since it was discovered that a lynx had gone missing from a Welsh zoo. The animal, named Lillith, was first reported as missing from Borth Wild Animal Kingdom, near Aberystwyth, on October 29.
At some point in the preceding five days she is believed to have escaped from her enclosure. On Friday it was revealed she had been “humanely destroyed” after being designated a “severe” risk to the public.
But Lillith is not the only big cat to have disappeared in Wales.
It became illegal in 1977 for people to keep big cats as pets after the Dangerous and Wild Animals Act was introduced.
But that hasn’t stopped alleged sightings of the animals.
Between 2010 and 2015 there were 455 sightings across the UK, according to police data.
Most are hoaxes or misidentifications but that doesn’t stop around 2,000 sightings being reported every year.
And some have been seen in Wales.
In April 2016 a sighting of a “big cat” was reported near a quarry in Pentre Halkyn, Flintshire, where a video team had been filming with a drone.
The person claimed the animal – which they believed may have been a tiger, lion or puma – was roaming near Llanberis, with the Rough Cuts team posting on its YouTube channel: “I was editing this on a bigger screen than it was filmed on and noticed during playback a large animal. There was one dog owner earlier but her dog was white.
“This looks more cat-like. Will return and investigate later on this month and see if I can see it again.”
Writing on social media at the time Sergeant Rob Taylor, from North Wales Police’s Rural Crime Team, said: “Hmm, we have a report of a ‘big cat’ spotted near Llanberis.
“We’ve disproved previous reports however! #nofurtherleads”
From 2011 to 2014 there were more than a dozen sightings in the Gwent Police and South Wales Police force areas.
Police were alerted to 17 sightings of the animals roaming, with one expert saying it was just the tip of the iceberg.
In 2014, Danny Bamping, who founded the British Big Cats Society, said: “The real figure is a lot different if you look at the data we have collected.
“[Across the UK] we are into the hundreds, if not thousands, of big cat sightings.”
He added: “A lot of people don’t phone the police because they do not want to be ridiculed.
“Wales is one of the more prominent hotspots in Britain for big cats – the borders and Pembrokeshire and key places like that.”
Mr Bamping claimed there was “substantial evidence of big cats in Wales”.
He cited “a situation in Carmarthenshire in the early 2000s where they got a helicopter and a police marksman”.
“They should not be going in with guns but tranquilliser darts with the right drugs and someone from a wildlife park,” he said.
Some of the animals could have escaped from captivity into the wild.
“Some years ago a scrap dealer in part of West Wales had two big cats which he used as guard cats at his scrapyard,” Mr Bamping said.
A friend had kept his pets until he was “scratched” by them.
“So he let them go,” Mr Bamping said.
Data from the government and police published in 2009 revealed how two bus drivers spotted a big black cat prowling along a Dyfed road, a tiger-like animal was spotted lurking on an M4 bridge by a passing motorist and there was a sighting of a black panther with two cubs in Troedyrhiw.
There were also reports of a child who watched a large black cat bounding around in a field through his home window, a cat the size of a Labrador with “lynx-like” ears seen by the light of a Carmarthen street lamp and a shiny black animal the size of a sheep with a long tail spotted burying an unknown object.
The data also shed light on the moment a terrified puppy came face to face with a big black cat in his owner’s garden and reports of a puma in a garden in Bonvilston, in the Vale of Glamorgan, as well as a big cat spotted lurking on the Taff Trail by two young mums.
One of the most disturbing big cat incidents reported was in 2000 when Josh Hopkins, then aged 11, was slashed across the face by what he described as a black leopard as he searched for his lost pet cat.
Gwent Police dispatched marksmen equipped with infrared lights and mounted a helicopter search but the creature, which left vivid claw marks on the boy’s right cheek, was never found.
The report also found eight rare lambs had been killed, found with two puncture marks to the neck, in the space of two nights in rural Powys.
In Llandysul a farmer found the remains of a dead fox killed by what he believed to be a big cat.
And in Carmarthen another farmer described discovering large panther-like paw prints on a cycle path, saying he had “never seen anything like it” in his life.
In 2008 the British Big Cats Society (BBCS) recorded 86 sightings across Wales, with 80% of those black cats. Hotspots such as Anglesey and an area to the west of the Forest of Dean were found to have a huge number of sightings, with cats spotted in the Brecon Beacons and South Wales too. Wales was ranked number four in the UK’s top 10 for big cat sightings, according to BBCS statistics. Scotland ranked first, followed by Kent and Yorkshire.