Date Published: 16/09/2020
ARCHIVED - Search for the black panther of Granada intensifies after further sighting
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
Environmental agents believe that if indeed this is a panther, it may have escaped from a private collection, but there appears to be growing evidence that it actually exists
There’s a panther on the loose in Ventas de Huelma in Granada.
A few days ago it was a black shadow caught between moving grass, the subject of speculation and whispered fear that it might or might not be a dog, residents sceptical that the first sighting before the weekend was just a figment of the imagination, but it appears to be real. The panther exists, says the local council. A cyclist has managed to photograph the animal clearly and the image has spread across the media.
Through its Facebook page, the local council has released a message in which it confirms that another resident sighted the animal on Tuesday at approximately 2:00 pm, "just 20 meters from his vehicle in the vicinity of the Cortijo de Noniles, located between Ácula and Chimeneas ", they said.
A few hours later, the council confirmed that the search was continuing "in the Barranco Hondo area betwen Ventas de Huelma and Chimeneas, where “the Panther has been sighted.”
The Nature Protection Service of the Guardia Civíl, (Seprona), which is directing the operation, is working with local hunters to ensure that it prepares the best possible ambush for the animal in its most likely hunting grounds, and hopes that the heightened presence of agents, a helicopter and hunting dogs won´t push their prey away into another area.
The Civil Guard has been searching for the animal since last Saturday, both on the ground on foot and using motorcycles and in the air by helicopter.
Based on the hypothesis that this is indeed a big cat, and that these animals hunt mainly in the evening and at night, the Guardia Civíl is using thermal imaging cameras to try and find it. Appropriate arrangements have been made to have a trap cage and an anesthetic rifle on hand, as their top priority is to try and capture the animal in the “least harmful way possible”.
The authorities have warned that due to the speed of the animal, which is very elusive, the panther can constantly change its location and have asked residents to avoid going out into the countryside around the town, until the Civil Guard manages to capture it.
Tonight the hunt intensifies, residents wait inside their homes for news and the media is on a high state of alert; will this turn out to be another crocodile fake or is there really a black panther on the loose in Granada.