A young Carpathian lynx called Chapo, which is Spanish for Shorty, has won his freedom after repeated escape attempts and is now roaming the wilds of Saxony in search of rabbits, foxes and deer.
The one-year-old wildcat, which was born in Nuremberg Zoo, had been intended for a breeding programme for the species which was hunted almost to extinction in Germany by the early 1900s.
However, he had other plans and jumped over the fence of his enclosure shortly after his arrival at a breeding station in the Harz Mountains in early June.
He was quickly caught but his wanderlust was evident. “He kept looking for ways out of the enclosure and found it difficult to settle down,” Saxony’s wildlife authority said in a statement.
Do you happen to have any stats on the percentage of animals in zoos where the goal is to release them into the wild, and maybe the percentage of ones too injured to ever be able to release?
Did you even read the article? He was bred in captivity and was going to be used as part of a breeding program to enhance the numbers of this species which is endangered in Germany. Maybe don't release them before breeding unless they are better suited to being immediately released to the wild like this young Chapo is.
Breeding and release programs for endangered wildlife are good things.