The hunt for British Big Cats attracts far more newspaper column inches than any other cryptozoological subject.There are so many of them now that we feel that they should be archived in some way by us, so we should have a go at publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in.
It takes a long time to do, and is a fairly tedious task, so I am not promising that they will be done each day, but I will do them as regularly as I can. JD
The saga of The Beast of Smallthorne refuses to go away. This morning I received another letter from the bloke who claimed to have taken the original picture:
"Yesterday, on the 2nd March in search of the black leopard I saw on the 18th February 16:09pm [sic], Ford Green Nature Reserve, Smallthorne, armed only with my mobile 'phone. After two hours I heard a sound at the edge of the lake. I got as close as possible, and there staring was a small black leopard and took this photo on the 2nd March 17:04pm. I saw no sign of the first, bigger leopard"
Well, unless me eyes really do decieve me this is nothing more than a black kitten, albeit a rather cute one. I think the chances of it having leopard in its ancestry are completely nill.
However, we do our best to be open minded here at the CFZ, and so I am posting this picture and letter for your comments. The bloke who has been sending me these pictures seems to be genuine in his belief that he is photographing something extraordinary. So I don't think that this is a hoax in the traditional sense; just someone doing a Captain Ahab, and smelling land where there is no land..
Not enough picture showing to say anything with certainty.One could not possibly gauge size or stature from that charming picture.
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