After a fortnight on the run pursued by two teams of rangers, trackers and volunteer farmers, an escaped lion from the Karoo National Park is still at large.
SANParks spokesperson Fayroush Ludick on Monday called on landowners bordering the farm Highlands, to the northeast of the park, to be on the lookout for spoor or sightings of the big cat.
“Should they see anything which could lead to its safe recapture, they are requested to report it immediately.
“This comes after two search teams lost the animal’s spoor in the rocky, harsh terrain that they were operating in over the weekend.”
The lion has been spotted just once since it escaped from the park, a 750km² protected area in the Great Karoo region of the Western Cape near Beaufort West and the Eastern Cape border, on February 15.
Lion spoor was picked up about 7km outside the northeastern boundary of the park and a team of 14 rangers and six volunteer farmers began their pursuit.
An eland kill was discovered on a farm in the area and the elated thinking was that the satiated predator would now hole up for a long sleep.
Capture seemed imminent as the pursuers under the leadership of park manager Nico van der Walt followed the spoor into a deep gorge.
But though they discovered where the lion had apparently slept – it had given them the slip. Still in the gorge on February 21, the trackers followed fresh spoor and hit the jackpot, Ludick said.
“The lion was briefly spotted at midday and a helicopter with a veterinarian on board assisted in the search from then until late afternoon.
“The ground team swept the thick bush area for most of the afternoon where they found fresh running spoor. But the lion escaped the area.”
Ludick said on Monday the lion had apparently escaped through a hole under the park’s perimeter fence which formed after run-off from rains in the Nuweveld Mountains caused erosion.
Little else was known about the animal or its part in the lion hierarchy in the park, home to about 20 lions, she said.
“We don’t know what the drivers were that prompted it to go through the hole.
“We don’t even know which pride it is from or even if it’s a male or a female.”
In a similar case in June 2015, a young male lion escaped, also through a hole caused by a washaway.
He was recaptured after three weeks, having killed 26 sheep.
Experts subsequently determined that he had been chased out by older lions, and he was relocated to Kuzuku, a private contractual area within the Addo Elephant National Park, where he settled in well.
Ludick said no decisions had been made yet on what to do with the new escapee once they had captured it.
“We will put it into a boma in the Karoo National Park and then with the help of a team of experts we will make a decision from there,” she said.
The northeast boundary fence of the park is a long way from Beaufort West on its southeast border where townsfolk last week were voicing some apprehension about another lion on the loose.
The lion should not be approached and any sightings or spoor should be reported either to the police or to Van der Walt on 082-801-2109 or the park on 023-415-2828.