The Civil Guard has suspended this Thursday the search for the supposed lion sighted in the Sierra de San Vicente, in Toledo. After two days of tracking with agents, a helicopter, and drones, the operation has ended without finding footprints or any other evidence of the presence of a large feline and without any new sightings occurring.
The operation was deactivated around 3:00 PM this Thursday, after being deployed during the days of August 19 and 20 in the municipal terms of Hinojosa de San Vicente and El Real de San Vicente.
In the last search efforts, about twenty personnel participated, including Citizen Security patrols and the Nature Protection Service (Seprona), in addition to a helicopter and a Pegaso team equipped with drones.
A delivery person claimed to have seen a lion
The search began following a single call received by 112 of Castilla-La Mancha during the morning of Wednesday.
A delivery person who was working in the area claimed to have briefly seen an animal that he identified as a large feline. The alert occurred around 10:43 AM at kilometer 9 of the TO-1375 road, which connects El Real de San Vicente and Navamorcuende, near the Piélago convent.
The Civil Guard then mobilized different units due to the possibility that there was indeed a loose lion in the mountains.
Several municipalities in the area, including those of Hinojosa de San Vicente, Navamorcuende, El Real de San Vicente, and Almendral de la Cañada, issued warnings to their residents to take extra precautions while checks continued.
Neither footprints nor new sightings
After a day and a half of searching, no evidence has been found to confirm the presence of a lion.
No new calls have been received from residents claiming to have seen the animal since the initial alert on Wednesday.
The Civil Guard maintained contacts with the affected municipalities, environmental agents of Castilla-La Mancha, ranchers, and residents of the area, but all efforts made ended without providing clues about the supposed feline.
The absence of new observations and any trace has ultimately led to the suspension of the operation.
No zoo had lost a lion
One of the first hypotheses that the agents checked was that the animal could have come from some zoo enclosure.
The investigations initially focused on the Zoo Safari Fauna Aventura de Hinojosa de San Vicente, located in the area itself, but the center assured from the very beginning that no specimen was missing from its facilities.
The checks were later extended to other zoological centers, including facilities in the Community of Madrid and others located further away. None reported the disappearance or escape of a lion.
Could it have been confused with a dog?
The investigation also considered the possibility that the observed animal was not actually a feline.
The agents checked the location of large dogs present in the area, especially specimens of Tibetan mastiff and German dog type, given the possibility that their size or appearance may have caused confusion during a fleeting sighting.
To this end, they even tracked identification chips to contact owners of this type of animals.
However, the authorities have not determined what animal the delivery person saw. The suspension of the search is due to the fact that no evidence of a large feline has been found and no new sightings have occurred, not because the animal has been definitively identified as a dog.
Other supposed large felines that ended up not appearing
The episode in Toledo is not the first of its kind in Spain.
In 2017, a supposed large feline prompted a search in the Sierra Norte de Guadalajara after a sighting in the valley of the Cañamares River. Months later, in January 2018, the Civil Guard confirmed that the animal was actually a black dog.
In Ventas de Huelma (Granada), another alarm occurred in 2020 that mobilized emergency resources until the search ended without locating the supposed animal. In Cieza (Murcia), another alert for two felines even led to traffic restrictions in 2021.
A similar episode occurred in Los Barrios (Cádiz) in 2023, after a video of a supposed white feline was circulated. Even then, the presence of an exotic animal was not ultimately confirmed.
In the Sierra de San Vicente, two days of searching have ended in the same way: without a single clue that allows confirming that there was really a lion roaming the area.