More Experts Join Police in 2nd-day Search for Elusive Berlin Animal

Police officers look at a sign as the search continues after police warned the public that a suspected lioness was on the loose, in Zehlendorf, Berlin, Germany July 20, 2023. The sign reads: "Enter at your own risk when it is snowy or icy". REUTERS/Annegret Hilse
Police officers look at a sign as the search continues after police warned the public that a suspected lioness was on the loose, in Zehlendorf, Berlin, Germany July 20, 2023. The sign reads: "Enter at your own risk when it is snowy or icy". REUTERS/Annegret Hilse
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More Experts Join Police in 2nd-day Search for Elusive Berlin Animal

Police officers look at a sign as the search continues after police warned the public that a suspected lioness was on the loose, in Zehlendorf, Berlin, Germany July 20, 2023. The sign reads: "Enter at your own risk when it is snowy or icy". REUTERS/Annegret Hilse
Police officers look at a sign as the search continues after police warned the public that a suspected lioness was on the loose, in Zehlendorf, Berlin, Germany July 20, 2023. The sign reads: "Enter at your own risk when it is snowy or icy". REUTERS/Annegret Hilse

Experts on animal tracks joined the hunt Friday for an elusive and potentially dangerous animal — suspected to be a lioness — spotted on the edge of Berlin as the search stretched into a second day, authorities said.

Police used helicopters, drones and infrared cameras to search for the animal, with a vet and hunters also part of the effort, The Associated Press reported. They were first alerted to the animal in Kleinmachnow, just outside Berlin's city limits, around midnight on Wednesday when people reported what appeared to be a big cat chasing a wild boar.

The informants also provided a video. Based on that and a subsequent sighting of their own, the police concluded that the animal was apparently a lioness. But it proved elusive in the flat, wooded area on the boundary between Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg.

Kleinmachnow Mayor Michael Grubert told local public broadcaster rbb late Thursday that authorities would try to comb the forest on Friday with “professional animal track searchers.”

“We have to say that this can't carry on for days,” he said, adding that he expected the search to “intensify” on Friday.

Police in Brandenburg state tweeted Friday morning that the search was unsuccessful during the night and was continuing. They urged people to call an emergency number if they see the animal.

Police have said that none of the zoos, animal shelters, circuses or other facilities they checked was missing a lioness, and authorities say they have no information on one being privately owned in the area. Grubert says the aim is to catch the animal, if necessary by tranquilizing it.



Tiny Caribbean Territory Offers Cash, Plane Tickets and a Hotel Stay to Fight Brain Drain

An airplane approaches the island of St. Maarten. (AFP file)
An airplane approaches the island of St. Maarten. (AFP file)
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Tiny Caribbean Territory Offers Cash, Plane Tickets and a Hotel Stay to Fight Brain Drain

An airplane approaches the island of St. Maarten. (AFP file)
An airplane approaches the island of St. Maarten. (AFP file)

The Dutch Caribbean territory of St. Maarten is offering cash, plane tickets and an extended hotel stay to attract professionals and students back home.

Prime Minister Luc Mercelina announced this week that married couples would get $2,000 and single people $1,100 for a relocation allowance, as well as economy-class plane tickets, a six-week stay at a hotel and large containers to transport their belongings.

Families also would get $140 per child, he said Wednesday evening.

Mercelina also said the government would offer a salary adjustment allowance in certain cases and help cover a portion of student loans for those who move back to the territory.

The offers aim to reduce a shortage of skilled professionals on St. Maarten, a territory of some 46,000 people with a net migration rate of 5.7 migrants per 1,000 persons, ranking 16th worldwide.