Mexico steps up search for escaped tiger, seizes 3 more cats

MEXICO CITY — Mexican authorities said Friday they are intensifying efforts to trap a tiger that escaped from a restaurant zoo on the country’s southern Pacific coast.

Tracks from the tiger named “Ankor” were found about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the private zoo he escaped from on Oct. 26 in the township of Coyuca de Benitez, west of the resort of Acapulco.

Experts from Mexico’s Environmental Protection agency said the tiger was in an area dotted with marshes, reeds and stands of button mangrove. Photos of the dense vegetation suggested the tiger had chosen a pretty good area to hide out in, and the agency did not say how it planned to trap him.

READ: Mexico warns about escaped tiger; 5 cows killed

The owner of a ranch about a mile (two kilometers) from the restaurant found five of his cows dead earlier this week, and the tiger is suspected in that case.

The agency issued a statement saying it “recommends that the population not approach” the area, and said it was setting up a plan to capture Ankor without hurting him.

Authorities also seized another tiger, a lion and a jaguar from the zoo, known as the “Mangrove Paradise,” and took them to a zoo park in the central state of Hidalgo for safekeeping.

It said the owners of the Mangrove Paradise had not provided adequate security measures nor properly cared for the big cats. They had been confined in bare concrete-and-steel cages.