The Essex Lion

For many years I was part of the British big cat community, actively taking part in searches, press briefings and dealing with sightings from the public. I even became the big cat expert for the local paper The Southampton Daily Echo (proving how someone with no knowledge can should loud enough to became heard):

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/archive/2003/02/03/Hampshire+Archive/5597944.No_paws_in_hunt_for_big_cat/

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/archive/2003/02/14/Hampshire+Archive/5597324.Sighting_at_country_park_sparks_new_alert/

I am still convinced that there are tiny populations of the smaller varieties of cats in isolated areas of the British Isles, but any notion of a large cat population resident in the UK is an absolute nonsense. The latest media circus (literally) following the sightings of a 'Lion' in Essex were so obviously a bag of bollocks. There is absolutely no chance that a large cat can exist in that area without drawing a greg deal of notice to itself, do you know how much an adult lion needs to eat? About 11 or 12 pounds, that's over 5 kilos of meat a day an enormous amount of rats or mice, not going to happen. The justification for the media hype was that a circus visited the area at the start of the month. These days I doubt if the circus had any animals at all let alone a lion capable of surviving without notice for three weeks.

The reports were reminiscent of this story from 1999:

Friday, July 16, 1999 Published at 16:47 GMT 17:47 UK

'Lion' is dog with eczema

A "lion" reportedly terrorising a village has been revealed to be a
retriever with eczema.
Children and pets were kept indoors in Birdwell, South Yorkshire, after
several reports of a lion on the loose.

But the 'king of the jungle' turned out to be Rocky, a balding and
elderly ginger retriever-rottweiler cross.

The confusion arose because Rocky's owner, Joanne Storey, had shaved his
fur after his eczema left him with bald patches. She left the fur around
his head and shaved his tail apart from the end, creating his lion-like
appearance.

"Leaving the bit of fur at the end of his tail was done for a laugh
because the milkman had said he looked a bit like a lion," she said.

A few years ago there were reported sightings of a Panther in Gosport, Bridgemary to be exact. When the newspapers contacted me I told them it was a hoax, a cat that size, with his reputation? Sure enough it turned out to be a large stuffed toy placed by the hoaxer on the road for a few nights to gain publicity. (The perpetrator ended up teaching Sam drums, great guy BTW). But it seems that the media want this hit to be true.

Are there big cats roaming the British countryside? Probably, but that's exactly what they are, big cats of the domestic variety and certainly not Panthers, lions, tigers or leopards. Sorry.