Friday 10 August 2012

Lynx shot dead in 1926 and more

The end of July and beginning of August have produced several sightings of large cats within the south-east, the most recent being at Gravesend, where on the Wrotham Road a motorist had a daylight encounter with an animal he never believed existed. It's always of interest when sceptical folk observe 'big cats', and on this occasion at 9:00 am - as the man came from his Istead Rise home - a black leopard casually padded across the road from one field to the next. Only a day later a man driving at Meopham observed an animal of silvery-grey colouration that emerged from a hedgerow. The animal may well have been a puma.

There was also a black leopard sighting recently at Rye in East Sussex. This may well have been the same animal that was seen near Battle a couple of weeks ago.

Photo's will be uploaded soon regarding a pig that was eaten in Sussex. The animal had been rasped clean, ribs sheared off and huge puncture marks in the bone, particularly around the lower jaw.

We also received an email from a chap who found an interesting snippet of information regarding a lynx that had been shot dead by a farmer on the Chatham outskirts in 1926! This is currently under investigation as it seems the farmer took the body to a zoo, but sadly, which zoo we are unable to find, nor the exact location of the incident. This does bring to mind however the lynx which was shot dead in Bristol in the 1800s. The stuffed specimen was discovered in a zoo and was investigated by the Centre For Fortean Zoology.

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