Mystery Animals of Suffolk
@mysteryanimals.bsky.social
Big cats, wildmen, other Suffolk mysteries. Book by Matt Salusbury (Leiston Press, 2023), also a place for reporting local big cat encounters. Map showing sightings at https://bigcatsofsuffolk.com/big-cat-sightings-in-and-around-suffolk/
'The Mowing-Devil', printed in 1678. It recounts, as fact, an alleged incident in #Hertfordshire. A farmer saw a fiery light over his oat field one night, and then found it had been mysteriously mowed. The illustration encouraged some to believe it depicts the first Crop Circle. #WyrdWednesday
A witness who saw a "brown big cat" in June at Blyth View near Bulcamp, #Suffolk contacted me to say they'd since become aware that a local resident has an "extra-large" brown Maine Coon cat.
I'm in @forteantimes.bsky.social this month (FT474, Sept. 20206) on the difficulty of witnesses estimating the size and distance of water monsters and big cats - with a headline inspired by "Father Ted".
Photos of the black big cat "the size of an adult Labrador but with a long tail and cat ears" seen in Fressingfield, North #Suffolk on the evening of 26/07/26 and recently reported to bigcatsofsuffolk.com. Supplied one of the 2 witnesses, who added that they were 400m away.
Photos of the black big cat "the size of an adult Labrador but with a long tail and cat ears" seen in Fressingfield, North #Suffolk on the evening of 26/07/26 and recently reported to bigcatsofsuffolk.com. Supplied one of the 2 witnesses, who added that they were 400m away.
29th European Cryptozoological Meeting, Dinant, Belgium, 24-25 October 2026. It's in French, but recent meetings have had an afternoon of speakers giving talks in English with simultaneous translations. @bestcryptids.bsky.social www.cryptozoologia.eu
Reported sighting of a black big cat at Fressingfield, North #Suffolk on the evening of 26/07/26. Seen for 3 minutes, it was "the size of an adult Labrador but with a long tail and cat ears". It walked along a line of trees and licked its shoulder.
Update on Orford Ness - my source also described a pair of "yellow eyes" seen in the beam of a headlamp that followed them around the Ness at night in March 2009 for 20 minutes, adding that others had seen a lynx there by the sea defences in 2005, 2008, 2010. bigcatsofsuffolk.com/photos-of-mu...
Photos of multiple big cat kills from Orford Ness from 2006 - Big Cats of Suffolk
A lynx was active around Orford Ness throughout the 2010s, according to photos of kill signs from the Ness sent to me anonymously and testimony of multiple lynx sightings there. (Update in reported si...
bigcatsofsuffolk.com
Savannah cat (serval/Abyssinian cat hybrid) on the run in #Norfolk since June captured near Bramerton, near Norwich, with broken paw and chest wound. Microchip identifies its owner and names it as "Blaze".
Report of a dark big seen cat at 05.45 (dawn) on 18/07/26 near Oulton Broad, #Suffolk (NR32 5DW). "Washed black, grey" coloured, with a "stocky tail", witness thought it could possibly have been a black Maine Coon cat. They were aware of other local sightings of "large cats."
Report of a sighting at 23.25 on 19/07/26of "a long tail, approximately 2-3 feet" long, a "black/mottled tail" briefly seen disappearing into a hedge from 8 metres on the Boxted to Langham road (South #Suffolk). Witness who was driving "didn't see the whole animal, just the tail."
An East Anglian mystery animal - how did a muntjac deer get stuck in the 15cm gap in the glass barrier in front of the lift 🛗 in the Rampant Horse Street branch of M&S in Norwich? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Muntjac deer gets stuck on Norwich M&S escalator
Wendy Valentine from Hillside Animal Sanctuary says the rescue was "certainly one to remember".
bbc.co.uk
"Our Lives - The big cat investigator", now on BBC iplayer, features Gary Ridley of Surrey Panther Watch. We've been in touch about FOIA requests. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
Our Lives - Series 10: The Big Cat Investigator
Builder by day and big cat investigator by night, Gary Ridley is on a quest to solve one of Britain's enduring mysteries. Are big cats roaming freely in the countryside?
bbc.co.uk
This East #Suffolk Line train from Ipswich to Lowestoft, passing through Darsham, no longer has a Greater Anglia company logo and is now branded as the state-owned "Great British Railways - Coming soon."
"Mystery Animals of Suffolk" will soon be on sale at Waterstones, Sudbury.
Photos of carcasses of foxes and a swan presumed to have been predated on by a big cat - from Orford Ness, 2006, sent to me anonymously. bigcatsofsuffolk.com/photos-of-mu...
Report of a "100% black" big cat 🐈⬛ seen in a back garden at Bourne Hill, Wherstead (near the Orwell Bridge) at 17.15 on 15/07/26. "Walking slowly, with its tail angled down with tip angled up... distinct ears... long tail". It was 1m long, seen from c.15m for a few minutes.
Mystery Animals of Suffolk (the book) is now available at the Sudbury Tourist Information Centre and at the following East Anglian outlets: bigcatsofsuffolk.com/about-big-ca...
There's now an interactive online map of well over 350 big cat sightings in and around #Suffolk going back all the way to 1976 and up to the present day. bigcatsofsuffolk.com/big-cat-sigh...
Suffolk Police's Freedom of information team confirm to me that - 29 years later - they cannot find any data on a wave of sightings of a lynx-like cat around Wrentham, #Suffolk in 1997.
Geology cabinet commissioned by the artist Thomas Gainsborough for his teenage son, a keen geologist. His descendants have added to the 30 drawers for fossils and minerals. The Gainsborough House, Sudbury, #Suffolk. #FossilFriday.
"My life in the Fort Sort cohort" from @forteantimes.bsky.social, now online. Trends in weirdness - sweary parrots, 🦜 burglars falling asleep on the job, swarms of various animals fuelled by climate change. mattsalusbury.blogspot.com/2026/06/my-l...
