Two residents in the Berlin suburb of Kleinmachnow in Brandenburg had claimed to have spotted a large animal on Wednesday night.
A blurry video of what appeared to be a “lioness” in some bushes quickly gained traction online.
Authorities deemed the footage to be credible and launched a large-scale response dubbed "Operation Lion Hunt" the following day. They called on local residents “to act with appropriate caution and to avoid the adjacent forests” and to keep pets and farm animals safe. Nurseries were allowed to open but were urged to avoid letting children play outdoors.
The police search included some 220 officers, assisted by helicopters and drones, thermal imaging cameras and high-powered rifles loaded with tranquillisers.
Despite numerous tips from people, including a few alleging to have heard a loud roar, none of the information had led to the animal being located.
Two experts who examined the video footage that sparked the search concluded independently of each other that in all likelihood the animal in the video was a wild boar.
So, on Friday, Michael Grubert, the Kleinmachnow mayor made the announcement: "Everyone agrees that this is not a lioness".
For good measure, Grubert added that the animal that had been spotted was thought to be "with relative certainty" a boar.
After over 30 hours, local police as well as Brandenburg state police gave the all-clear that there was no lion on the loose and called off the search.
BTW, there are around two dozen registered lions in the state of Brandenburg that borders Berlin, but all had been accounted for. This left authorities wondering if the suspected lioness had been kept illegally since nobody came forward to claim ownership.
Boars though are commonplace in Germany and this is not the first time one has made headlines in Berlin. In 2020, a video went viral after a wild boar stole a laptop from a nude sunbather who was relaxing at a Berlin lake. The sunbather was filmed chasing the boar to get back his device.
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