Dubai: Big cats have been spotted near Burj Al Arab on social media.
A video of five tigers has gone viral in the last few days, but instead of watching them with their heads poking out of cars on Shaikh Zayed Road, they’re actually swimming and running on the beach.
The video has been shared and liked over 800,000 times in the last few days.
Authorities however, have questioned the date stamp of the footage.
Dr Reza Khan, principal wildlife specialist, Dubai Zoo/Safari, Dubai Municipality, told Gulf News that authorities did not receive any reports over big cats running loose on Dubai’s beaches over the weekend.
“First of all, we cannot determine whether the beach is a private or a public one. If it was filmed on the public beach, it would have put the public’s safety at risk,” said Dr Khan.
Nevertheless, that did not stop social media users from guessing where the video was taken, with a number suggesting that it was filmed in one of the private palaces along King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud Street (previously known as Al Sufouh Road).
Secondly, he also pointed out that big cats, such as the Siberian and Bengal tiger, require permits in order to be imported into the country.
"The tiger is on the list of endangered animals as per IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List and in Cites (Convention on the International Trade of Endagered Specicies) Appendix I," he said.
"So, it cannot be traded and procured from any country without a Cites permit," said Dr Khan, a member of IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas.
This is not the first sighting of big cats in Dubai.
In January 2016, a one-year-old lioness was captured in Al Barsha by Dubai Police after a frantic resident notified authorities about the animal hiding behind the fence of a house.
In February 2014, footage of a lion went viral in Dubai after a motorist spotted the big cat in the back of a Nissan Armada driving through the streets.
