September 17, 2006

5931 Big Cat UK Sightings

Mon 18 Sep 2006

It’s a jungle out there as exotic beast sightings in UK soar
AMANDA BROWN

MORE than 10,000 sightings of wild and exotic animals have been reported in the UK since 2000, and the figure is set to grow, according to a new study.

Some 5,931 sightings of big cats, 332 of wild boars and 3,389 of sharks have been reported.

The British Big Cat Society has reported a dramatic increase in sightings of the creatures in recent years, with 2004-5 figures already up 3.5 per cent on the previous year’s study.

Animal sightings since 2000 also include 51 wallabies, 43 snakes, 15 owls, 13 dangerous spiders – including a tarantula and a Black Widow – 13 racoons, ten crocodiles, seven wolves, four eagles, three pandas, two scorpions and one penguin.

Chris Mullins, founder and co-ordinator of Beastwatch UK, who compiled the data, said: “Since the start of our organisation [in 2001], the number of reports has increased at a rapid rate, including monkeys stolen from zoos and private collections to colonies of wallabies and wild boar – and more unusual reports such as a chinchilla found in a post box, to a piranha in the Thames.

“It is clear that the UK contains far more exotic wild animals than the British public could ever imagine.”

Exotic animal sightings have increased as a result of climate change, zoo thefts and animal escapes.

The south-west of England is the big-cat hotspot, while wild inhabitants of Leicestershire include numerous racoons. And in Oban, several monkeys have been sighted in the area.

http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1376922006

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

Filed under Breaking News, CryptoZoo News, Cryptozoology, Mystery Cats