Visitors to the zoo from which a lynx escaped had raised concerns that the animals could get out of their enclosures just weeks before one managed to get free, it has been claimed.
Pictures obtained by the Daily Post show a lynx perched just a few feet underneath a flat mesh surface that some visitors to Borth Animal Kingdom say they feared would have been easily reached by the big cat.
One member of the public who went to the zoo, near Aberystwyth, just over a month before a lynx managed to get free said he told the zookeepers of his concerns.
He told the Daily Post: “I said to them, ‘I’m pretty sure the lynx can escape, you know’, to which he looked at me as if I had two heads and barely even bothered to respond.”
“It struck me just how easy it appeared for them to escape, so much so I took photos of it. It really unnerved me.
“The reason I was attracted to it so much was how easily the lynx walked down the branches. It actually sat on one of the branches at one stage before leaping down to the roof where it was sat when I took the photo.
“Some of the branches looked sturdy enough that if the lynx made the jump and got lucky, it would easily scrabble on to the fencing roof.
The visitor added: “What is even more staggering is the cage has a flat overhang almost inviting the animal to have a crack at escaping. I don’t know how it escaped, this may not be the route it took, but I promise you I thought the animal was doing practise runs at it.
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“It was staring in the direction of the overhang corner on the cage and made about several ‘practise walks’ up and down the branches.”
He added: “I’m no animal expert but I spent the best part of 10 years in the Royal Marines and in that time spent a lot of time in the jungle completing tracking courses, lead scout courses etc. As soon as I saw it, I thought one of them in there would escape. It just looked so easy.”
A lynx - named Lillith - managed to escape from the enclosure on October 29. It remained on the loose for nearly a fortnight and is believed to have killed seven sheep while at large.
It was shot by a marksman last Friday night after it was tracked down to near a caravan park close to the zoo.
The zoo has since been facing calls to close, heightened earlier this week when it emerged another lynx died there while being moved between cages.
The owners of the attraction said a ‘terrible handling error’ had been to blame for the death of Nilly, who became twisted in the hoop of a catchpole being used to wrangle it from one enclosure to another.
But they faced scathing criticism from the Lynx UK Trust, which said it was in “no doubt that eventually someone will be killed by an escaped and unpredictable captive-bred animal. Borth and other zoos like it must be closed down before someone gets killed.”
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The current owners took over Borth Wild Animal Kingdom less than six months ago. It has now been voluntarily closed. In an earlier statement they said they knew that there were serious issues with how some of the animals were housed and had been working hard to make “vast improvements”.
They have yet to respond to the claims by the visitor that the lynx enclosure was not secure enough to keep the animals contained.
The killing of escaped lynx Lillith widespread criticism, with many people questioning why the animal could not have been tranquilised and re-captured. The owners of the zoo were among the voices criticising the decision to shoot the animal, saying they had no part in the decision and would not have condoned it.
Today, Ceredigion council - which took the decision to destroy the animal - said the zoo’s failure to re-capture it meant the lethal action needed to be taken.
A spokesman said: “The re-capture of the animal was the responsibility of Borth Wild Animal Kingdom. The Council and Dyfed Powys Police offered as much assistance as possible but the owners were specifically responsible for the re-capture. Their failure to capture the escaped Lynx in reasonable time meant that decisive action had to be taken to protect the public.
In a statement, the council said that “based on the factors involved with this incident . . . the expert advice was that tranquilising the Lynx was not an option.”