By land and air. This is how the Civil Guard is searching from this Wednesday for a supposed lion spotted by a delivery man while he was traveling with his vehicle through the Sierra de San Vicente region (Toledo). The man made a call at 10:43 to the Castilla-La Mancha emergency service 112, claiming to have briefly seen a feline similar to a lion in the area of the Piélago convent, at kilometer 9 of the TO-1375 road, between the municipalities of El Real de San Vicente and Navamorcuende.
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The operation mobilized by the Civil Guard includes a helicopter from the Community of Madrid, several drones from the Toledo Command, and several citizen security patrols that are scouring the area to try to locate what this delivery man identified as a lion. The agents deployed in the area with several hypotheses: that the animal could have escaped from some nearby zoological center or from a private estate that had it illegally, or that it is a Tibetan mastiff, a dog with an appearance similar to a lion.
The possibility that the feline could have escaped from some zoo or safari in the province of Toledo or the Community of Madrid near the sighting area loses weight as there is currently no record of any missing animal. One of these centers, located in Hinojosa de San Vicente, is clear on its social networks. “No animals are missing from our facilities,” say the managers of Zoo Safari Fauna Aventura, who also warn of legal actions against those who spread this suspicion “without any proof.”
“It is about verifying the truthfulness of the sighting,” sources from the armed institute told EL PAÍS after ruling out on Thursday morning that the feline could have been confused with a Tibetan mastiff since there are no records of this animal in the area. The Civil Guard maintains a device with 20 citizen security agents and other units, such as the Pegaso Team — specialized in drone handling — and the air service. The Government Delegation in Castilla-La Mancha assures that they have not received any more calls or alerts regarding this matter.
These sources remind that a false alert of this type constitutes a crime as it forces the mobilization of priority public resources in real emergency situations. The presence, still unconfirmed, of this feline has generated, however, some concern and much astonishment among the residents of the municipalities near the supposed sighting location. Their town halls ask to take extreme precautions if going out to the countryside. “Do not approach the area and if you see anything strange, call 112,” states a notice from the Hinojosa de San Vicente Town Hall.
“People are calm,” Armando Pírez, mayor of Navamorcuende (581 inhabitants), tells this newspaper, recalling that it is a very frequented area in summer, with many cyclists. The City Council has also asked residents and visitors to avoid the possible sighting area and has suspended a night route scheduled for that area. “I understand it is something credible because of the deployed operation, but time is passing and nothing has been found to prove it is a lion. It is such a strange thing…,” he says.
