A tigress that escaped from an exotic animal farm has been prowling for several days near the urban area of Johannesburg, South Africa.
The feline has already attacked a man and killed a dog and a deer in its path, local police warned on Monday.
The 39-year-old survived, law enforcement spokesman Dimakatso Sello said.
The tigress managed to get out of her enclosure on Saturday.
A stranger had cut the fence in the farm, about thirty kilometers from the economic capital of South Africa, in the most populous province of the country.
A major device deployed
Police, nature activists and neighbors: around forty people set off, equipped with drones and supported by helicopters, in a hunt for this eight-year-old Bengal tigress, who was finally spotted on Monday evening.
The animal, reappeared in the vicinity of the farm, returned to look for meat.
“We are now confident that we will manage to capture it,” said Gresham Mandy, a local community representative.
At nightfall, the search was suspended, finding themselves face to face with the big cat in the dark representing too great a risk, explained Gresham Mandy.
Increasingly widespread breeding
The endangered tiger is not endemic to South Africa but breeding has become increasingly common in recent years.
However, the country does not have an official census of its tiger population.
According to animal rights NGO Four Paws, almost 10% of the world's population (359 specimens) were exported from South Africa between 2011 and 2020, most sold to zoos.
The South African Society for the Protection of Animals (NSPCA), joined by AFP, deemed it "extremely dangerous and irresponsible to keep these animals in a residential area".
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