Bavaria: Fugitive German cow Yvonne gives herself up Published duration 2 September 2011

A cow called Yvonne who made headlines in Germany has given herself up after three months on the run.

Yvonne escaped from a farm in Bavaria, just before she would have been sent for slaughter. Efforts to recapture her failed and she roamed free in forests.

But after finally turning up again on Thursday, the future is looking bright for the daring six-year-old dairy cow.

She has been bought by an animal sanctuary and will live out her years alongside other members of her family.

The Gut Aiderbichl sanctuary paid 700 euros (£617) to take Yvonne off the hands of her former owners - and has taken the lead in finding her.

A spokeswoman said they got a call from a farmer near Muhldorf on Thursday and staff were able to confirm the cow was indeed Yvonne by her ear tag.

She has since been transported to their sanctuary at Deggendorf in Bavaria, where she was reunited with her two-year-old son Friesi and her sister Waltraud - whom the sanctuary also tracked down and bought.

"She arrived at ten this morning and was met by her son Friesi, whom she recognised," the spokeswoman said. "She is calm and doesn't appear to have suffered in any way from her adventures".

Waltraud was with Yvonne when she charged through a 4,000-volt electric fence of a farmyard in southern Bavaria in late May. Waltraud returned the next day, but Yvonne carried on, apparently living alongside a herd of deer and foraging with them at night.

She managed to evade a shoot-to-kill order that was ordered after she bolted in front of a police car.

The Gut Aiderbichl sanctuary used both Waltraud and a breeding bull called Ernst to try to entice Yvonne to give herself up, but to no avail.

The cow's plight became a popular topic in German newspapers and TV - and she was dubbed the "the cow that wants to be a deer" and "the heroine of the summer".

But even though Yvonne may not be in the headlines quite so much now she has been captured, she will not be out of sight.