ANDALUCIA – The mystery of the ‘large feline’ that haunted the residential area of Benharás in the Los Barrios municipality of the Andalucian city of Cadiz has been solved.
Neighbours raised the alarm a few days ago after seeing ‘some kind of large white feline’. The animal sent the whole neighbourhood into an uproar. And speculation abounded as to whether it was a leopard, tiger or wildcat.
In the end, the large feline turned out to be just a big cat. This was confirmed by Mayor Alconchel himself during the municipality’s plenary session. The special division of the Guardia Civil, Seprona, conducted investigations. Subsequently, they confirmed the dangerous feline that the neighbours claimed to have seen had never existed. According to investigations carried out and the analysis of the images, they do not believe there was any such feline’. The mayor, therefore, made it clear there was nothing to worry about because ‘the matter was ultimately not as serious as was suggested’.
So who devoured the calf?
Alconchel also referred to the images of a calf that had been devoured by a mysterious creature. ‘The Guardia Civil will give more information, but I can tell you that there was no feline. It is true that there were calls from neighbours saying there was such a ‘predator’ roaming around. We were even sent a video in which a calf appeared to be devoured. But this was done by a fox, which also eats meat and is found in the area,’ the mayor added.
La Guardia Civil busca a un felino de gran tamaño en la zona de Benharás en Los Barrios (Cádiz).
Consulta la noticia 👇https://t.co/bFRzg2N75S pic.twitter.com/oBzwVMOJWr— PolicíaH50 (@H50Policia) January 2, 2023
More frequent confusion
This is not the first time this kind of confusion has occurred. In March 2020, local police in Molina de Segura, Murcia, received several calls from neighbours alerting them that they had seen a lion walking in an area of the municipality.
The officers combed the entire area to catch the mammal, but after several raids, they got an unexpected surprise. ‘We received several reports warning that they had seen a lion loose in the orchard area, others said it was a strange animal, but finally it turned out to be a dog,’ they posted on the Local Police Twitter account.
