'Somewhere on the A39 between Bideford and Bucks Cross, 20/08/08 - 5pm
I don't really like driving, so on holiday I let my wife do all the driving and I get to look around and see if I can spot any interesting animals !!!
We were going pretty slow due to traffic, probably only 10 miles an hour , I was scanning the fields to my left , the field we were level with was empty and quite small only a few hundred yards wide. In the middle of the field was what appeared to be a furry red hump, as I drew level with it I got a pretty good look at it. It was definitely unlike anything I had ever seen roaming about our countryside before.
- Overall length - tip of tail to tip of nose 6 to 7 feet
- Height - 2 to 3 feet at the top of the hump.
- Huge bushy tail.
- Long thin face.
- Colour was red, but not like a fox more like maroon, like the cushion below, but it also had some rusty brown around the shoulders and head.
- The fur was short and course.
- The creature seemed to be digging with really thick front legs.
- My kids saw it as well and got quite excited as it looked so strange!
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In November Sahar Dimus, our guide on four CFZ Sumatra expeditions, died of liver failure leaving a widow Lucy and four Children. On the 2nd November, Dezyama D. Sangma, wife of our friend and colleague Dipu Marak, our collaborator on the 2010 Indian expedition died, leaving her grieving husband and two small children.
3 comments:
A maned wolf? But these are ginger like a fox rather than maroon. And what would one be doing roaming about down there?
Maned wolf was the first thing that came to my mind as well - but as well as being roughly the same colour as a red fox, they have very long, thin legs. I can't think of anything else in the size range that has a long face and a bushy tail...
One other thought is that melanistic jaguars can look a "purplish" colour that some might call "maroon" or "burgundy" in certain lights - but while about the right size, a jaguar certainly wouldn't have a bushy tail, and i don't think they'd be very likely to dig.
Colouration and tail sound like red panda, but they are far too small. They do have thick powerful front legs, but i do not know if they dig?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_Red_Panda_in_Darjeeling.jpg
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