Expert marksman says he’ll only get one shot in the hunt to capture escaped Dartmoor Lynx

THE tracker leading the hunt for the escaped Dartmoor lynx said last night: “I have to think like a cat.”

And dart-gun marksman Andy Goatman added: “I'll only get one shot.

“If he sees the dart coming he might be able to dodge it. It’s not nearly as fast as a bullet and he won’t hang around for another.”

Andy, 37, has narrowed down the search area after finding flattened grass used as a temporary lair.

The lynx, two-year-old Flaviu, was transferred from Port Lympne Zoo, Kent, to Dartmoor Zoo a week ago, but escaped on his first night there.

So far all attempts to capture Flaviu have failed including the latest ruse of playing sounds of its mother’s calls to lure it into baited traps in the area it is believed to be hiding out.

A police helicopter, thermal imaging drones, a bloodhound, and more than 35 staff and cops have been deployed in the search for the predator.

The zoo has cut the searchers from 35 to four to avoid spooking him.

Zoo owner Ben Mee said: “Flaviu will be watching us baiting traps.

“He could be in undergrowth ten yards away and you wouldn't know it.

“The hope is that he'll identify our team with food.

“He'll think of the farmland around the zoo as his home, his territory.

And he'll stay here.” The zoo are worried Flaviu could head into the huge wilderness that is the Dartmoor National Park – almost four hundred square miles of craggy moorland where it would be almost impossible to find.”

Operations manager George Hyde said: “All the evidence tells us we’re looking in the right place.

“In Andy we have the best person to lead the tracking operation.”