Search for missing Karoo lion to continue this week

The discovery of dead livestock on a Northern Cape farm on Sunday has given renewed vigour to the search for a lion that escaped from a national park nearly a month ago.

The lion escaped from the Karoo National Park on February 15.

SA National Parks (SANParks) launched an intensive search at the weekend. The animal's spoor were last spotted on Sunday - and subsequently followed by rangers and tracked to about 42km northeast of Sutherland in the Northern Cape. 

Reports were also received on Sunday of four sheep and two goats killed on a farm in the vicinity.

It was from here that the search party continued its activities on Monday morning, SANParks said in a statement.

The Bidvest Protea Coin team, which joined up with the search party on Friday to offer their assistance, put its infrared technology to work at night in an attempt to find the animal. 

"They have unfortunately not had any luck over the past three nights," said SANParks. 

The Bidvest team consisted of a tracker who joined the team on the ground and also had a helicopter - one of only two helicopters in the country that are fitted with forward-looking infrared (FLIR), or thermal imaging infrared cameras. These cameras allow the operator to pick up heat signatures on the ground over a radius of 10km when flying at night.