A tigress escaped from an exotic animal farm, which has been prowling for two days near the Johannesburg metropolitan area, has already attacked a man and killed a dog and a deer in its path, warned Monday 16 January the South African police.
The 39-year-old man survived, spokesman Dimakatso Sello told AFP.
The tigress managed to get out of her enclosure on Saturday after an unknown person cut the fence in the farm, about thirty kilometers from the economic capital of South Africa, in the most populous province of the country.
Police, nature activists and neighbors: around 40 people embarked, equipped with drones and supported by helicopters, on a hunt for this eight-year-old Bengal tigress, which was finally spotted on Monday evening.
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Threatened species
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.
As night fell, the search was suspended, as coming face to face with the big cat in the dark was too great a risk, said Gresham Mandy.
The endangered tiger is not endemic to South Africa but breeding has become increasingly common in recent years.
The country does not, however, 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
".