By Nicole McCain.
The search for an 8-year-old female tiger that escaped from its enclosure on a smallholding in the south of Johannesburg over the weekend will continue on Tuesday.
Sheba has been returning to its home, giving tracking teams hope they will be able to recapture it on Tuesday.
It escaped on Saturday evening after the fence to its enclosure was tampered with and cut.
Local community policing forum representative Gresham Mandy said the tiger returned to its enclosure but left before anyone could “close the gate behind her”. Mandy added that the behaviour was expected because tigers are territorial, so it isn’t likely that Sheba will move far away from the enclosure.
He added that the tracking team intended to put a bait carcass in the area in the hope of drugging Sheba while ground teams “close the net in”.
On Monday, Sheba was spotted near a waterhole in the Walker’s Fruit Farms area, close to Midvaal.
Social media users have been stunned by the escape, with many making light of the situation with typical South African humour.
Once captured, Sheba will be relocated to a big cat sanctuary nearby. The tiger’s male partner was darted and relocated to the shelter on Sunday.
Since its escape, Sheba has attacked a 39-year-old man, a pig and two dogs. Both dogs had to be put down due to the severity of their injuries, Mandy said.
The 39-year-old man, William Mokoena is expected to make a full recovery.
He has since appointed high-profile lawyer Zola Majavu to investigate suing the wild cat’s owners.
Majavu said his instruction “is to investigate the potential of a legal suit. You don’t just rush off suing someone, you have to determine the extent of the negligence”.
“We also have to look at the extent of the injuries so that we are able to quantify the claim. It is still early days,” Majavu said.