There is news out of Caracas, Venezuela, of a mystery felid, being heard and evidence of its presence being found.

Roars from the unidentified feline have scared residents of a mountainous Caracas suburb and triggered a hunt for the capture of what neighbours are convinced is a lion.

But Venezuelan authorities, who have scoured on horseback the woods where the bellowing comes from, could only confirm the presence of some type of feline after finding the carcasses of small animals including a half-eaten armadillo.

“One of the people that saw this animal talks about a lion,” said Juan Fernandez, mayor of the affected Las Salias municipality, in an interview with local radio on Monday, September 3, 2007.

“We cannot say if (the animal) is a lion, a tiger, a puma or a little spotted cat,” he said.

As the media there notes, Venezuelan jungles and mountains are teeming with exotic fauna but encounters with dangerous wild animals are rare around the South American nation’s crowded capital that is typically clogged with noisy traffic.

In the wake of my recent posting on the use of the “circus train myth,” I’m not surprised by what the papers there mentioned next. To wit, local media reported two lions had escaped years ago from a nearby zoo, but Mayor Fernandez said the institution has denied any of the predators were missing.

Source: “‘Lion’ roars spook Caracas residents, spark hunt,” Tuesday, September 4, 2007, Caribbean News Net. Thanks to The Anomalist for bringing this to Cryptomundo’s attention.