Reports of a lion loose in Essex U,K

reply to post by fatdeeman


Hmmm an interesting photograph. It looks big enough to be a lion for sure and seems to have many of the characteristics of a lion. There is something about it that just doesn't feel right though.

I think Hangthetraitors was just laying a bit of bait for you all there, don't bite!

Originally posted by GezinhoKiko
reply to post by fatdeeman

 

source for the pic?


Apologies, it was the Sun newspaper (I know they suck but I see no reason for this to be fake) but the photo is also on twitter.

As reported in the Sun newspaper (which is the equivalent of toilet paper here in the UK, but occasionally they get some stuff kind of right) - with lots of pictures and one of a gun for Yosemite Sam to get all excited about...

www.thesun.co.uk...

“I am sceptical - I think it might just be a large domestic cat, but they certainly saw something that they were were concerned about and they went down the right route to the police.

“They have taken it very seriously and have put two helicopters up in the air and I don’t know how many armed police that we still have on site now. They have taken it very seriously.”

Read more: www.thesun.co.uk...

reply to post by neformore


yeah the body does seem powerful, but the face looks more and more like a household or maybe even a wild normal cat the more i look at it.

reply to post by fatdeeman


The Sun is showing the photo, although it does not acknowledge who provided it, just that it was a witness, which is odd.

www.thesun.co.uk...

Colchester Zoo spokespeople are now calling the photo(which may or may not be the one run by the Sun) "poor quality".

www.bbc.co.uk...

Originally posted by lifeform11
reply to post by fatdeeman

 

looks like a household cat on a garden fence, the car could simply be parked in a driveway. could be wrong though

is there any daytime photo's of the same angle (probably clutching at straws there).

I disagree simply because it's too muscular and the head is too large to be a domestic cat, also the hair is too short and clings to the body. Another possible clue is that lions can't hold their tails vertically like a domestic cat.

Essex lion hunt is serious say police

I suppose there will be all sorts of conflicting stories over the coming hours.

If the photo IS the one shown to police I'd say this is the real deal or at least that the photo depicts a lion and not a domestic cat, it may be a fake or doctored photo of a real lion though....

reply to post by fatdeeman


I just didn't think lions had what appeared to be black strips on their face going from the photo and assuming it is the one police are going on. it just doesn't look right, the body screams lion but the head/face doesn't.

I can see why they have to treat it as a lion regardless though. I just hope it is not a hoax wasting police time.

reply to post by lifeform11


It could well be a large dog.

Or, if, IF it is a lion i reckon it is an illegally imported one, being kept as a pet which is why it hasn't been reported by anyone.

Originally posted by lifeform11
reply to post by fatdeeman

 

I just didn't think lions had what appeared to be black strips on their face going from the photo and assuming it is the one police are going on. it just doesn't look right, the body screams lion but the head/face doesn't.

I can see why they have to treat it as a lion regardless though. I just hope it is not a hoax wasting police time.

I honestly can't tell if those are strips or just jpeg artifacts, the image has been blown up and had the brightness increased greatly. I suppose it could be some kind of large dog.

Originally posted by Peruvianmonk
reply to post by lifeform11

 

It could well be a large dog.

Or, if, IF it is a lion i reckon it is an illegally imported one, being kept as a pet which is why it hasn't been reported by anyone.

I agree with that, much more likely to be an illegal import than from a zoo etc.

Originally posted by fatdeeman

Originally posted by HangTheTraitors
WOW, what a TERRIBLE SHAME that you all didnt have FIREARMS to eliminate this threat over there in the UK...

How many innocent families and children will be watched EATEN ALIVE because nobody had the ABILITY to eliminate this THREAT?

Poor defenseless UK.

Yes because the only way to deal with a lion is to shoot it dead, what a shame we haven't invented some kind of projectile containing something like a tranquillizer.

Don't feed the troll.


Shame.

The one thing that makes me most skeptical is that as many as 6 people supposedly saw the lion, one couple claimed to observe it for 30 minutes yet there is one low quality picture so far, nearly everyone has at least a camera phone nowadays and as soon as soon as something interesting happens everyone instantly points said camera phone in that direction so there should be more photos.

www.dailymail.co.uk...

The daily fail has published the same photo but only gives twitter as the source!

Why the heck are people so strongly trying to prove this as being fake? Are you so terrified that you refuse to believe there is a lion roaming around, or what? A house cat on a fence? A big house cat? A big dog? Have you people never seen a lion, a cat, and a dog before?

If you want to argue that picture is fake (Photoshop insertion of a lion, or a picture taken somewhere else at another time) the by all means, you could very well be correct. But to try and say that picture shows ANYTHING other than a lion, or other similar huge cat appear incredibly foolish. That is not a picture of a house cat, that is not a picture of a dog. That's a damn lion, and if someone took a picture of that close to where I live I'd be gripping my Mosin Nagant all day to be safe.

A lion is apex predator and probably one of the most incredibly dangerous animals on the face of this earth. Having one roaming around a populated area is damn dangerous.

That being said, the story does seem "odd" because I'd imagine if there WAS a lion roaming around, someone would have been attacked, someone's animals would have been eaten/missing or something else along those lines. Although I guess it's possible if it was an illegal pet lion that someone had, it could have been raised being fed all the time, meaning it never developed it's hunting skills, it's used to people and doesn't see them as a threat or a potential food source, but instinct and the sheer size and power of such an animal still makes it dangerous even if not being used to hunting or killing, as soon as it gets hungry.

Which is why I'm a bit skeptical, it just seems like someone would have been attacked or something like that would have happened. But the reasons people keep using for this not being possible, like none of the zoos missing lions, are completely ridiculous as there is a prevalent trade in illegal animals pretty much everywhere in the world, it's not really that hard to believe someone had an illegal lion that escaped.

I'm really interested to see how this turns out and hope nobody gets hurt or looses their pets. If I lived where this thing was supposed to be I'd definitely be packing my Mosin in the house and my 10mm when going out, I figure it if kills bear it would take down a lion.

reply to post by James1982


watching the news report there was some sort zoo keeper/expert who said when looking at the picture "i was not prepared to say one way or the other it was a lion" to the police.

IE: it is not as clear as you like to think, it could be a lion but there are things about it that don't look right, the face.
what people on an internet forum think will not change the situation. the police are looking for a lion so we will find out more soon or it could be a dead end and we will never know.

I'd say thats a lion. After hearing the witness' statement and looking at that picture im convinced. Its nothing like a dog or even big domestic cat, the stance, the head shape even the curl of the tail are all familiar to the lion. You can even make out that familiar 'bump' a lion has under the tail, not sure of its correct name right now, but its definately a lion.

Here is an enhanced picture of the lion. He looks dangerous to me.
Lion on the loose

i think it could be an hoax,the woman who witnessed it was interviewd on the news and i thought it looked like she was bs'n

Originally posted by haven123
i think it could be an hoax,the woman who witnessed it was interviewd on the news and i thought it looked like she was bs'n

There were multiple witness', this wasnt a one person sighting. They called other people to witness and confirm to the police.