Tuesday 28 July 2015

Map of lynx sightings in Suffolk


This is a first draft of my map of possible lynxes, servals, caracals and "tufted" cats reported in Suffolk from the 1980s to the present day. I've included the "Debenham Lion", described as like a small lion with short ears with tufts on them, and a "mottled cat" that matches the colouration of a lynx. Several big cats described by observers as a "puma or lynx" (or "cougar or lynx") are included, as is the "Shingle Street lynx", who is a lynx only by association, after the East Anglian Daily Times included in their report a photo of a lynx as an example of an animal "similar to the big cat seen in Suffolk."

I've also included the Beccles Lynx, actually shot in Great Withcingham, Norfolk, and found in a freezer near Beccles during a Norfolk Police/Defra investigation, now presumed to be stuffed an on display in a stately home "in the Beccles area."

It'll be in Mystery Animals of the British Isles: Suffolk, out soon.