The missing lynx escaped on July 6 from Dartmoor zoo (Picture: SWNS)

It’s been sixteen days and Flaviu, the stealthy Dartmoor lynx, still hasn’t been found.

The clever wild cat escaped from Dartmoor zoo, in Devon, on July 6 after chewing his way out of his wooden house within hours of arriving at the zoo.

Flaviu the lynx continues to evade capture three days after escaping

Now, searchers are resorting to rubbing cow pat on their feet in an attempt to lure the lynx to them.

Zoo operations manager George Hyde said: ‘Our task is being made more difficult because Flaviu is roaming over a wider and wider area. He seems to be looping out in each direction and those loops are getting bigger and bigger.’




Following advice from a professional animal tracker, Hyde said they’ll be using cowpat on their feet in order to disguise their scents.

Flaviu escaped from Dartmoor Zoo by chewing his way out of the wooden house he was kept in (Picture: Alamy)

He said: ‘A lynx in the wild will be familiar with the smell of a cow and its dung, whereas the smell of a human would put it on its mettle because it would see us as a possible threat.’

The tracker, who was bought in to help recapture the escaped lynx, went out on a five-hour exploratory mission on Thursday night to where the lynx was last spotted.

Runaway lynx Flaviu spotted chilling on nearby farm

Hyde added: ‘What we are looking to do is build up as much data as possible about Flaviu. We want to locate him, then watch him from afar and go back again to reinforce what his habits are.

‘That will give us the best chance of recapturing him by hopefully putting traps in the right places. We will still need a bit of luck in him being off his guard to catch him though.’

The kit that’s being used to lure Flaviu is a handheld device called Pulsar Quantum, which can pick up body heat from the grass where an animal has been lying.