Ship of Fools: The Essex Lion

Thread: The Essex Lion Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Rosalind (# 317) on :

Have any shipmates seen it?

Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :

In my usual sceptical mode, I'm putting this down to a combination of hoax (see here for a precedent) and the silly season.

Of course I could be wrong...

Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :

The police were advising people who live in the area to stay indoors yesterday. They changed that advice today 'because it's a lovely sunny day'

erk!

Lions don't eat on lovely sunny days?

Posted by passer (# 13329) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
Lions don't eat on lovely sunny days?

Well, not Christians. They're out of season in August anyway.

Posted by shamwari (# 15556) on :

No sun here. Disappointing day.

The last lion I saw was when I went to see the Lion King

[ 27. August 2012, 10:10: Message edited by: shamwari ]

Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :

quote:
Originally posted by passer:

quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
Lions don't eat on lovely sunny days?
Well, not Christians. They're out of season in August anyway.

Corralled into camp gatherings?

Posted by Rosalind (# 317) on :

As I write, I see the SOF postcard of a lion alongside this screen. Perhaps it explains why the lion got set loose in the first place.

According to news reports, the police have been armed with tranquillisers. It didn't specify who they were for.

Posted by Zappa (# 8433) on :

Another case of Benji?

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

(From the ITV news site)
"Pub landlord: 'It has been a bit surreal'. Dave Sparks runs the Red Lion pub in Essex, near where a lion was reportedly sighted..."

It's a bank holiday weekend. The lion probably wanted a pub lunch and a glass of something (London Pride?), like anybody else.

It's probably gone to check out the other pubs with Lion in the name in the area.

Posted by daisymay (# 1480) on :

They said on the TV news that it may be a huge cat - which sounds amazing if it is. The police etc are still looking for it and still warning people to not get out where it might be.

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

quote:
Originally posted by daisymay:
They said on the TV news that it may be a huge cat - which sounds amazing if it is. The police etc are still looking for it and still warning people to not get out where it might be.

A normal cat viewed through binoculars will appear huge.

Posted by Doublethink (# 1984) on :

BBC news reports the police are taking the sighting seriously because someone got a photo on a camera phone - they showed to an expert (presumably someone working in a relevant discipline at a university or at a zoo) and they said, yes that looks like a lion.

It wouldn't be a total surprise, there have been genuine big cat sightings in the UK dating from just before licensing was brought in. Folk not wanting the hassle released theirs (v bright).

Essex has more than its fair share of very rich not particularly bright people - I could see someone getting one as curiosity and then not securing its paddock properly.

[ETA Have read updated report, they've now said no definitive ID - so probably a hoax then.]

[ 27. August 2012, 13:19: Message edited by: Doublethink ]

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

We've had stacks of 'big cat' sightings in South Wales, mostly in the Wye and Usk valleys, but many from people on their way home from the pub.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

The Fortean term is ABCs - Anomalous (or Alien) Big Cats. Remember the Surrey puma? Sightings, combined with 'evidence' such as missing/ savaged pets or livestock crop up periodically.

Like other modern folklore, it can be resolved into misinterpreted phenomena, hoax, conflation and archetypal motif, usually all running together.

Posted by QLib (# 43) on :

I'm pretty convinced that I saw a puma-type-animal near Hay-on-Wye about ten years go. Eight-thirty in the morning; I was sober - can't speak for the puma. But it does seem pretty unlikely that such an animal could be about without the effect on local farm animals making its presence pretty obvious.

Posted by passer (# 13329) on :

Looks like the subject of all the excitement is just a puddy-tat! Looks very like my own, but Rufus was here all night, I can assure you Officer.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

Does anybody seriously think that looks like a dog? (Other than that zoologist?)

Posted by Taliesin (# 14017) on :

I think it looks like a toy.

remmebr this fiasco??

tiger in the grass..?

Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Taliesin:
I think it looks like a toy.

remmebr this fiasco??

Yes. Yes, I do.

Posted by Taliesin (# 14017) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Eutychus:

quote:
Originally posted by Taliesin:
I think it looks like a toy.

remmebr this fiasco??

Yes. Yes, I do.

Posted by daisymay (# 1480) on :

And they've said it again on the TV that it is a huge cat, which is thought of now by some police-people. They did show us some pictures of lions, but not any of huge cats.

Posted by Doublethink (# 1984) on :

I think it was a maine coon. The ears and general shape seem right. Lions do not have pointy ears.

Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :

Qlib - sounds like you saw the Beast of the Beacons! There's a farmer in Clifford swears he's seen it prowling round his house.
Some years ago, my husband was called up to the Sennybridge Ranges, where the army practice their shooting and so forth. The local Wildlife Trust asked him to act as their "resident expert" to check out reports of a black puma like animal there. Allen said that he was shown round by a very down to earth and sensible sergeant, who was convinced that he'd seen it. They couldn't find any traces - but there are plenty of sheep up there for such a Beast to eat (and sometimes they get blown up by the UXBs scattered around the place).

Posted by tomsk (# 15370) on :

A friend of mine from Braintree had a guinea pig go missing, clearly devoured by the desperate Loughton Lion.

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Doublethink:
I think it was a maine coon. The ears and general shape seem right. Lions do not have pointy ears.

Or this. It has the sandy coat and pointy ears. The advantage is that this species used to live in Britain. It might not be quite as extinct in the UK as people think.

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :

The thing being that Maine Coons are kept as pets in this country.

Jengie

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

{whispers}

Aslan is on the move!
[Yipee]

Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on :

Thank you for that, Golden Key!!! [Yipee]

Posted by LutheranChik (# 9826) on :

Here in Michigan cougars had been extinct since colonial times, then began appearing in the Upper Peninsula -- apparently migrating from the West in the wake of federal protections. A few years ago there began to be reports of big-cat sightings in the northwestern Lower Peninsula, including one sighting by a presumably trained, non-hysterical National Park Service employee who reported briefly coming face to face with one in the Sleeping Bear Dunes area.

The state Department of Natural Resources has been loathe to confirm any of this -- I remember asking my DNR-officer cousin about cougars in lower Michigan, and his hastily negative response suggested I'd made some sort of horrible faux-pas -- but recently it did confirm DNA evidence of cougar in the Lower Peninsula. (Not sure if this reticence has to do with a desire to be entirely factually correct, or pressure from the state not to frighten tourists, or an attempt to keep farmers and rabid shoot-anything-that-moves hunters from killing off this new population, or a combination of things.)

Which is kind of cool -- even though, as opposed to wolves, which generally avoid humans even if they're hungry, cougars have a reputation of aggressively hunting us.

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :

quote:
cougars have a reputation of aggressively hunting us.

Misplaced reputation. Very few predators "aggressively" hunt humans. Even those that do, most are deviations rather than the norm for the species.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

It may have disappeared for now, but it might just be lion in wait...

... either that or it really has gone off to the pub for lunch. I can see the scene now, as the barman takes the order from a safe distance:

"How would you like your steak?"
"Roar."

(I'll shut up now)

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :

quote:
LIONS 7 CHRISTIANS 0
Christians in Heaven, lions ill.

I can't remember where that quotation came from, but it seemed appropriate ... [Big Grin]

We were in Essex earlier this week, and we didn't even see a corpulent cat, let alone a lion.

It's completely beyond me how anyone could mistake the moggy in the picture in the East Anglian Daily Times for a lion, even in Essex.

[Devil]

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