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SIX antelopes escaped from the Auto Safari in Sa Compa yesterday morning, mobilising the local police forces of Sant Llorenç and Portocristo, as the animals crossed municipal boundaries. Police sources said that the chief problems in capturing the animals were their speed, their capacity for jumping and their nervousness because they were in a strange environment. One police officer said that the animals had jumped over fences more than three metres high.
The officers, who were assisted by Auto Safari staff, had to find the antelopes and get close enough to them to shoot them with tranquiliser darts so that they could be carried back to their home. The difficulty was in finding them. One officer said “we would spot them, but when we reached the place, the animals would disappear within seconds.” The antelopes are not dangerous to humans, and it seems that they are staying away from the roads because the noise of traffic frightens them.
At the time of going to press, three of the antelopes had been recaptured and the search was continuing for the remaining three.