A runaway African lion will be heading to a Quebec zoo after being captured early Thursday by police who carried out a frantic search for the animal.
The lion cub, dubbed "Boomer" by his caregiver, will have a home in Granby zoo, near Montreal.
The six-month-old cat disappeared Tuesday night from its pen on a native reserve near Maniwaki -- about two hours north of Ottawa in the western part of Quebec. He was caught by police officers at 12:45 a.m. on Thursday after a woman reported seeing it walking along Highway 105, and an officer responded to the call.
"Sure enough he went over there, he seen it, found it and more or less controlled it, contained it and put it in the back seat of our police car and brought it to our office," Kitigan Zibi police chief Gord McGregor told CTV.
The 70-kilogram animal, which stands about four feet tall, was described as terrified and weak by police who managed to lure it into a cage. His keeper claimed Boomer is domesticated and harmless.
McGregor said the animal indeed was not aggressive and no one was injured during the capture.
"He was more evasive," he said. "But the officer was able to get him to come to him and was able to tie a rope around him and -- along with the help of a couple of officers from Surete de Quebec -- was able to put him in the back seat of this car."
Boomer was being kept in a jail cell at the local police station.
The keeper of the cat, Stanley Dumas Whiteduck, said it is not dangerous.
Whiteduck, who reportedly brought the animal to the community two days before it escaped, had been helping with the search.
McGregor said he isn't sure yet whether Whiteduck will be charged.
"We're investigating the matter right now so we can't say at the moment right now if there's going to be any charges," he said. "It's something new to us, it's nothing we've ever seen before so we're going to be researching the matter first."
"Boomer" is reportedly a Barbary lion -- a rare species that exists only in captivity. CTV Ottawa learned that before the lion came into Whiteduck's care, it had been living with a family since it was three days old in Cobden, a small community in the Township of Whitewater Region of the Ottawa Valley.
When a child in the family reportedly spoke about the lion in school, officials with Child Protective Services were alerted. CTV Ottawa learned the family was told by officials that keeping the lion was unacceptable and posed a danger to the children.
That's when Whiteduck, a friend in Maniwaki, was contacted. He was asked to "lion sit" for the family until they could find an appropriate home for "Boomer." A friend of the family in Cobden told CTV Ottawa their intention was never to keep the young lion -- which they claim was abandoned by its mother -- and that they were simply giving it a temporary home.
Boomer to be quarantined
Officials from Quebec's Wildlife Department gave Boomer to the Granby zoo on Thursday.
Alain Fafard, the Granby zoo's director of animal care, told a news conference that the friendly cat was likely hand-fed as a cub. But he said it will likely be quarantined at the zoo for 30 to 40 days so veterinarians can evaluate its health.
As docile as Boomer turned out to be, no one was taking chances a day earlier. Police brought in helicopters to perform an aerial search for Boomer and 20 officers spread out to cover a 20-square kilometre wooded area.
Residents of the sparsely populated area were beginning to fear the cat could become desperate if it remained on the loose much longer.
"We don't know what this animal will do eventually when it gets hungry. That's the fear," Jean-Guy Whiteduck, a former chief of the Kitigan Zibi reserve told CTV before the capture.
