Police reveal big cat reports including a lion in Sussex

Stories of large creatures roaming the grasslands of the county have persisted for decades.

Since at least 2008, there have been reports of a panther-like animal, named locally as the Beast of Bevendean, attacking or frightening dogs in the area.

Although suspected sightings of that particular beast have gone quiet over the past few years, police continue to field calls reporting big cats across Sussex.

A Freedom of Information request has revealed the number of sightings between January 1, 2020, and June 16, 2021.

Sussex Police were asked to provide all reports which included phrases including big cat, puma, panther, lion, tiger, large cat, cheetah, lynx or leopard.

The police responded that there has been three reports during that timeframe, all of which happened in 2020.

This includes someone in Arundel who reported that they may have seen a lion cub.

While another person in Crowborough said they saw a large wild cat at the scene of a road crash.

And in Hartfield, a person reported seeing a lion in a field.

According to the BBC, cave lions died out in the UK around 12,000 to 14,000 years ago.

The date of their extinction coincides with the period of time at which humans were getting into farming.

This was the "quaternary extinction event", when ice retreated from the northern hemispheres.

During this time, animals including the woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, cave bear, and steppe bison went extinct from northern Europe.

Sightings of big cats in the country are markedly down from a spate of sightings last decade.

During 2004 and 2005, members of the public reported 20 sightings of big cats in Sussex.

The number of reports of pumas, panthers, lynxes and other big cats soared with police recording almost one case a month in those two years.

At the time, some experts believed big cats might have been breeding in the area.