Wildcat spotted roaming through gardens near a major French city

Residents of Lille breathed a sigh of relief after a wildcat was captured by firefighters and taken to a local zoo.

A 15kg serval - that has prints similar to a cheetah - was seen roaming around the gardens of the rue Alfred-de-Musset, in the Vauban district of the city on Tuesday (July 4) morning.

“At around 7.20am, my wife opened the blind and that's when she saw what looked like a big cat at the bottom of the garden,” said one resident to the local La Voix du Nord newspaper.

“Before coming to our house, he was staying with my neighbours. They saw it fighting with their cat,” he added.

It took firefighters around two hours to capture the animal - which put up a fight - before they transferred it to the nearby zoo.

The firefighters were also joined by a local vet, as well as a dog-handling unit, to make sure residents were kept safe during the operation.

The origins of the animal are currently unknown, but it will undergo a “period of quarantine” at Lille’s zoo, said the vet, while more information about the animal is found.

Despite the ordeal, nobody was injured and the animal seems to be in good health.

What is a serval?

A serval is a medium-sized wild cat, originating from Sub-Saharan Africa.

Common in the savannah regions of the continent, the animals usually weigh between 10 - 18 kgs, and can sometimes be found in zoos across Europe, although it is not currently at risk of extinction.

The north of France has seen a number of incidents involving wild animals over the years – back in February, a lion was reportedly spotted in the town of Prouvy, 50km from Lille.

In 2021, a puma escaped in the Pas-de-Calais department.

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