Police end search for suspected puma near Munich airport

Police have ended their search for a possible puma near Munich Airport after finding no evidence of a large cat. The animal seen in a hunter’s footage remains unidentified, BR24 reported.

The search began after a hunter filmed a suspicious animal with a night-vision device on October 6. Police used drones, a helicopter, dogs, a mounted unit and officers, but found nothing. Experts who reviewed footage from the hunter’s thermal imaging camera reached no clear conclusion, an Erding district authority spokesperson said.

Police also reviewed a week’s worth of wildlife camera footage from a nature reserve near Oberding in Erding district. It showed native wildlife but no large cats, said Sebastian Pinta, head of the Erding police station. No one had reported another possible sighting for six days as of Wednesday, and investigators had found no possible prey killed by a big cat.

Police said they would respond to new tips but had stopped active search measures. They are still examining whether sharing AI-generated images of a big cat in the region could constitute an administrative offense. Pinta criticised the images, saying they gave police false leads and alarmed residents. He said investigators still consider the original footage authentic, but what it shows remains unclear.