Members of the public in West Berkshire have been warned to watch out for a wolf after it escaped from a sanctuary in Beenham.
Thames Valley Police (TVP) posted on Facebook on Thursday that they had been notified by a member of the public at 8am that a “wolf had escaped” from Picklepythe Lane.
The wolf, was one of 10 kept at UK Wolf Conservation Trust (UWCT), based in Butlers Farm.
TVP said officers “have sight of the wolf and are working with staff from the sanctuary to detain it” and urged members of the public not to approach the animal if they see it.
The sanctuary, which is around two miles from Bucklebury, is yet to comment on the escape.
The Duchess of Cambridge’s parents, Carole and Michael Middleton live in Bucklebury.
The late Roger Palmer, “a passionate lover of animals” founded the UKWCT wife Tsa, after visiting Alaska in the 1970s.
“There he encountered wolves for the first time and upon his return to the UK decided to acquire a wolf himself,” the UKWCT website notes.
Originally the sanctuary was in Dorney in Buckinghamshire, before it moved to Beenham in 1983.
Encouraged and inspired by Dr Erich Klinghammer, the founder of Wolf Park in Indiana, Roger and Tsa “were persuaded to form” the UK Wolf Conservation Trust in 1995, the website notes.
Over the past 20 years, the sanctuary has reportedly raised 18 ‘ambassador’ wolves, delivered the birth of the first European wolf in the UK since they were wiped out in 1743 and in 2011 imported the first ever Arctic wolves to the UK.
The police advisory prompted calls for authorities not to shoot the wolf as had happened to an escaped Eurasian lynx, in Wales, in November.
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.