Lions On The Lamb?
Posted by: Loren Coleman on May 29th, 2010
Is this the complete picture?
It has been a busy month. Besides reports of mystery black cats around Willow Creek, California, and seemingly out-of-place tanned ones around the Western USA, there seem to be others of some interest to us. What’s happening in Scotland, Ohio, and Texas lately?
What is one to make of an African lioness in Scotland?
A retired academic believes he spotted the big cat roaming the Kilsyth Hills, north of Glasgow. Although there have been more than 2,100 sightings of pumas, panthers, and lynxes in Britain – with 125 in Scotland – Dr Bob Sharp’s sighting, on April 22, [2010] is believed to the first of a Panthera leo.
Tired of the old circus train wreck explanation? The Columbus Dispatch published the following new one this week:
Authorities say a mountain lion is on the loose in southern Ohio. After receiving at least two calls yesterday morning about the animal, the Brown County sheriff’s office learned a resident bought a mountain lion at a flea market and it had gotten away about a month ago.
Meanwhile, in Texas, I am reminded of a repeating line from Oliver Stone’s movie, JFK. As I read the following account from May 27th, I kept having a refrain from Jim Garrison echo through my mind: “Ask the question. Ask the question. Ask the question.”
The question I wanted answered in this article was a simple one. What did the “lion” look like? Did it have a mane? A black tip on its tail? Or was it only tan-colored? Ask the question.
KSLA 12 News (Shreveport, Louisiana) reported:
Authorities are on search for a lion in Marshall, Texas, tonight [May 27th].
Marshall Police tell us they started getting phone calls of a lion on the loose near the train depot as early as 9 a.m. Thursday morning.
Marshall Police have been patrolling the area around the depot where witnesses reported seeing the 300 pound cat.
Animal control and police are searching the area of North Washington.
Some even carried high powered rifles in case the animal had to be taken down, and locals were warned by authorities to stay inside.
“They were telling us to stay close to the building, stay indoors because that possible threat really is there,” says Shawn Hagerty, Marshall resident.
After several hours of tracking, no sign of the big cat.
Wildlife experts say it was most likely a large bobcat or even a cougar.
So far, no reports of anyone who has “misplaced” an African lion. If you think you see the lion, don’t approach it, contact police immediately.
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.
I would say in Texas it’s quite possible to be a female lion,as Texas has many exotic game ranches, where you can hunt said exotic game. One could have escaped, as for the others,well…
There will be a new movie, Super 8 soon that has a scene that totally reminded me of the “train wreck theory.”
Of course, I don’t think a kangaroo or Panthera atrox will be emerging from this.
We ‘re pretty sure that the one here in Ohio is an escaped “pet”. These idiots keep buying these things out at the swap meet in Lucasville…then they “set them free” when they hit sexual maturity and are too much to handle. They ( the buyers ) all need to be struck repeatedly about the head and shoulders….
I am a sceptic myself, but even I cannot agree with the statistically high number of circus trains going wild in the USA that the media proposes. Of course it was a great explanation BACK THEN, see the number of Barnum & Bailey wagons in the poster.
If this was the case today, we’d have train catastrophes every other week.
That said, there are a number of big cats unaccounted for in the USA kept as pets. I don’t quite understand why anyone would demean such wonderful and majestic animals, let alone trust it with one’s life.