Hunt for cow who hoofed it

Yvonne the cow has evaded capture for almost 3 months. Photo / Supplied

A "cow whisperer", helicopters and infrared cameras: no effort is being spared to find Austrian runaway cow Yvonne, who escaped slaughter in May and sought refuge in a Bavarian forest.

The cow has become a media star in Germany and Austria after evading capture for almost three months.

Germany's leading newspaper, Bild, put up a €10,000 ($17,000 ) reward for her capture earlier this week.

But an Austrian animal sanctuary, which has offered to buy Yvonne to spare her another traumatic trip to the slaughterhouse, is resorting to more unusual means to find her.

A "cow whisperer" has been communicating with Yvonne every day by telepathy, said Britta Freitag from the Aiderbichl sanctuary near Salzburg.

The cow apparently understood she would not be harmed but was too afraid to show herself following the distressing transfer from her Austrian farm to Bavaria, according to these telepathic conversations.

Meanwhile, efforts to locate her by helicopter and using infrared cameras failed, but she was reportedly sighted twice on Thursday before vanishing again into the wild.

A tracker with experience in Africa has also been trying to find her trail, according to the sanctuary.

Last week, a bull named Ernst was brought in by the sanctuary to lure Yvonne out of the trees with his voice.

Her son, Friesi, has also been roped in to help, to no avail.

Yvonne was sold to a Bavarian farm where she was to be fattened up for slaughter before she escaped on May 24.

- AAP