August 27, 2012

Thoughts on the UK Lion

As you’ll see, Loren has already done a post alerting people to the “Lion” sighting in Essex, England. I don’t doubt, at all, that there are large, exotic cats roaming the UK. But a lion? Really?

Since sightings of big, exotic, and out of place cats have been reported in the UK for decades (maybe even longer), this suggests they are breeding. That is, unless each and every one represents a stand-alone escapee/release from a private zoo, etc., which I don’t believe in the slightest.

So, if they are breeding, why aren’t people reporting lions, specifically, more often? Yes, many people in the UK have reported sightings of larger than normal cats, but very often they are of what sound like cougars, lynx, and, as they have become known, “black panthers.”

That these animals have been seen for decades, is a strong possibility/probability that they are breeding.

But a strictly one-off encounter with a lion – and with no other long-term, extensive sightings of other lions in the UK on file, the very occasional one aside – suggests either an escapee, or that the witnesses saw something legitimate, but perhaps a cougar – which would fit the bill of many of the UK cases.

If this turns out to be a real lion, and 100 percent evidence for its existence surfaces, I’ll eat my MIB Fedora hat!

Nick Redfern About Nick Redfern
Punk music fan, Tennents Super and Carlsberg Special Brew beer fan, horror film fan, chocolate fan, like to wear black clothes, like to stay up late. Work as a writer.

Filed under Alien Big Cats, Breaking News, Cryptozoology, Eyewitness Accounts, Lair of the Beasts, Mystery Cats, Phantom Panthers