A mystical murder in the style of classic detective novels took place the other day at the Nuremberg Zoo. The solution given by local detectives still leaves many questions unanswered
A chilling sight appeared to the zoo servant on Monday morning: in the aviary, he found a panda bear with a slit belly. Its bloody entrails were scattered on the ground and hung on branches - apparently, the beast tried to find refuge on a tree from an unknown enemy until the very last minute. Nearby, in a bear dwelling, a female was found with exactly the same signs of a violent death.
The terrible news excited the whole city. Many still remember a similar tragedy seven years ago, when an unknown intruder released four bears from the enclosure - then they had to be shot to avoid human casualties.
The pandas lived in the same pen with the dwarf Indian mundjak deer. It remained either to suspect in the brutal murder of pretty deer, or to assume that a bloodthirsty killer, an animal hater, appeared in the zoo zone.
The director of the zoo, Dag Encke, dismissed the first version outright: “This assumption is simply absurd. The teeth of the deer are rounded, and the wounds to the bears were inflicted with a sharp object. In addition, the cubs and deer have lived together peacefully and without any conflicts for many years. The strangest thing, according to the director, is that no signs of a struggle were found at the scene. Despite their outward harmlessness, the panda babies had to defend themselves fiercely and would certainly have bitten the offender, be it a man or a beast. But there was no blood or torn hair on the bears' claws.
Deputy Director Helmut Mgdefrau also confirmed: "I can't remember anything like this ever happened at the zoo, both here and elsewhere."
The Nuremberg Criminal Department came to grips with the investigation. All the most serious means were used, including the identification of traces of the unknown killer by DNA analysis. The bodies of the killed bears were examined by specialists in a special laboratory in Erlangen.
Written survey protocols have not yet been published, but preliminary data show their results are discouraging. The experts came to the conclusion that the deer living with them in the same paddock are most likely to blame for the killing of bears. The mundjaks have sharp horns, they are omnivorous and sometimes they can drive small game.
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For many years, the animals lived peacefully together in the aviary: bears in the trees above, and mundjaks in the pasture below. However, one day this came to an end. As it turned out, literally the day before the tragedy, the pandas killed a little deer. Such cases have happened before, but the Munjaks reacted calmly to this. This time, too, when the employees found the baby's corpse, the deer showed no signs of nervousness. Only in order to take cruel revenge the very next day.
It is noteworthy that experienced zoologists still cannot believe this version. If there was the slightest chance of such an outcome, the animals would never be placed together. Now many zoos in the world will have to reconsider their policies in this regard.
And yet Magdefrau shakes his head: “If the Mundjaks really attacked the pandas, there should have been at least some traces of defense. But for some reason these traces do not exist. Why?"