Residents of settlements in eastern Slovakia near the Ukrainian border have been warned to be vigilant after a tiger that fled Ukraine was seen stalking the area over the weekend.
The authorities have called on residents of Utkas (Yulik), located directly on the border, to limit their movement in the open air and to report immediately if they see wild animals.
Poloniac National Park in the region announced Sunday that photo traps have spotted a tiger near three settlements in eastern Slovakia, which escaped from a wildlife park on the Ukrainian side. The Slovak Environment Ministry has since announced that no more tigers have been spotted.
According to the announcement for the national park, the big kitten escaped from a private breeder in Eszterág (Sztricsava), located on the other side of the border. The Ukrainian authorities notified their Slovak colleagues of Nimr’s release on Saturday evening.
Illustration: Sylvain Cordier/Biosphoto
The tiger was living as a cub in a zoo in eastern Ukraine, and came to the west at the beginning of the Russian invasion, national park director Miroslav Boral told the Slovak news agency TASR. The seven-month-old tiger has already returned to Ukraine. He said that the animal got used to the presence of people, so many people took pictures with him in captivity. (MTI)
