UPDATE
A cheetah escaped from its enclosure in Safari Park Beekse Bergen for a while on Wednesday. The park in Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands, was not yet open when caretakers discovered that the animal had disappeared. The predator has now been captured and the park is open to the public.
Source: AD.nl
A veterinarian waited for the right moment to sedate the female animal with a tranquilizer gun, Omroep Brabant reports. “It’s difficult to get a good shot because it’s woody,” the spokesman said. “You want to do it right and cause the animal as little stress as possible.”
Safari Park Beekse Bergen was actually supposed to open at 9:30 am, but remained closed when it turned out that the cheetah was not present in its enclosure. It is not clear how the animal managed to escape. That will be investigated later.
According to a spokesperson for owner Libéma, the cheetah was located in a wooded area where no visitors normally come. That made catching a difficult operation. Ultimately, stunning the cheetah, which is pregnant, was quite quick. The animal was returned to her indoor enclosure at the beginning of the afternoon, where she was put aside because she was expecting cubs.
While the cheetah walked around the park, Speelland Beekse Bergen was open. That park is located next to the zoo, but is shielded from it. As compensation, visitors to the safari park were temporarily allowed to visit Speelland.
