African lion caught near Ottawa May 02 2008 at 02:28PM
Ottawa - Police have captured a young pet lion on the loose in Canada's backwoods near the nation's capital for nearly two days, without incident, officials said on Thursday.
Boomer had escaped late on Tuesday from an Indian reservation and was last seen near the tiny village of Maniwaki, north of Ottawa, prompting area schools and daycares to keep children indoors.
Police and wildlife officers had also set up a perimeter around its last known location and sent in a helicopter with heat sensors to try to track the lion.
At the onset, it was believed the male African lion was two years old and 70kg, and although it was said by his owner to be harmless, police were taking no chances.
In the end, it was a local resident who alerted authorities that she had spotted Boomer in her yard, Quebec provincial police spokesperson Melanie Larouche said.
Officials then tracked the lion, actually only six months old and about 45kg, to a ditch on the side of nearby highway.
"After realising the lion wasn't aggressive, an officer managed to get a rope around its neck and put it in the back of a patrol car equipped with a cage in order to transport it to a cell for the night," said Larouche.
Wildlife officials picked up the lion on Thursday morning, she said, adding the owner, would be probed for keeping an unlicensed exotic animal chained in his backyard.
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