The spectacular, fossil-lined, Bell Beaker grave of a young adult and child from Dunstable Downs, England. Genetic analysis revealed these to be a paternal aunt and her six year old neice. C. 4000 yrs BP #TombTuesday https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-45612-3#ref-CR37

"Another sea serpent" seen by crew of the /Imogen/ travelling from South Africa to London at Lat. 29 deg. 11 min. N, Long. 34 deg. 11 min. W, 15/05/1856, from Richard Owen's sea serpent scrapbook 📔, @nhm.org Library, image: courtesy Trustees of the Natural History Museum. @bestcryptids.bsky.social

Here, with permission from the copyright-holder, is a photo of the muntjac carcass found in the Ufford (#Suffolk) area on 07/02/26. Witness returned the following day and found it been predated on some more. This follows a "lynx-like" big cat seen nearby by a different witness on 31/01/26.

Rare loggerhead turtle washed up in Suffolk during storm Via BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Fisheries magazine "Land and Water" of September 1877 looks at sea serpent misidentifications including basking sharks. From Sir Richard Owen's sea serpent scrapbook, 📔 @nhm.org Library. Image: Courtesy of Trustees of the Natural History Museum.

I've seen footage of deer swimming in Loch Ness before - convincing misidentifications of the Loch Ness monster - but the Loch Ness monster being a misidentified swimming alpaca is a new one on me! ( I think those are alpacas,🦙 not llamas.) Daily Mirror, 9/8/22 @bestcryptids.bsky.social

I I just love rediscovering forgotten 1980s and 1990s waves of British big cat sightings! Here's one I recently stumbled upon from Northants, 1996.

Report of a big cat seen at Ufford, #Suffolk on 31/01/26 - "quite long body... leopard-like markings... brown... brindled.... moved like a cheetah or lynx... smaller than a leopard, bigger than an African wildcat... sort of serval-sized." Lynx?

Mountain lion (puma) captured after being at large in urban San Francisco. Ear tag identifies it as an individual caught in the area earlier and relocated. www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco...

The River Orwell leaves Ipswich under the Orwell Bridge, heading toward the sea. The writer Eric Blair chose its name as his pen name, becoming famous as George Orwell. He died #OTD 21 January 1950. His parents lived at Southwold in Suffolk, and he wrote some of his books there. 1/2

Ipswich, county town of #Suffolk, is bidding to be UK City of Culture for 2029. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

We used to do real science

Campaign for more frequent trains on East #Suffolk Line (Ipswich to Lowestoft) and for restoration of direct London Liverpool Street-Lowestoft trains - write to Greater Anglia railways. suffolkcoastal.getcampaigning.co.uk/campaign/581...

We’ve been saying this on the east Norfolk coast for a few years now. The declines in the last 3-4 years have been precipitous. Cliff-edge stuff. Numbers are abysmal. A catastrophic decline. Yet all the talk is of “restoring” nature. 🤣 #ukbirding

A series of local "discussions" on a proposed re-introduction of lynxes into northern Scotland starts later this month (January 2026). treesforlife.org.uk/lynx-communi...

Report of growling heard, followed by two large"black animals” together, seen in headlights by driver taking a break between Fornham St Genevieve and Fornham St Martin, #Suffolk at night, weekend of 11/09/25. One was slightly smaller than the other.

Here - with the witness’s permission - are photos of the animal (possible big cat?) 🐈‍⬛ seen on B1106 between Great Barton & Fornham, #Suffolk, 31/12/25. A group of red kites(?) were mobbing it - behaviour seen in big cat sightings elsewhere in the UK.

Report just in of a black big cat with a longish tail seen and photographed in a field from the road between Fornham and Great Barton (near Bury St Edmunds, #Suffolk) 31/12/25 just before dusk. Witness described 5 red kites dive-bombing it. No permission to reproduce photos at the time of writing.

"Mystery Animals of Suffolk" will appear in the forthcoming wall of books by local authors in the window of Clarkes@Saxmundham expected to go up in January 2026.

Protests at Bungay Boxing Day Hunt parade www.edp24.co.uk/news/2572443...

It's that time of year again! It's St Stephen's Day (26/12/25) and it all goes a bit "Wicker Man" in Middleton, #Suffolk, this evening for the Cutty Wren. mattsalusbury.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-...

Report just in of a warning snarl like a leopard's, followed by a hiss, heard by a witness in the Martlesham, #Suffolk area, in September 2025. Also a report of a possible wolverine run over in the area and also a wolverine or very big badger 🦡 caught on a trail cam locally. I am investigating.

Beaver 🦫 filmed in Theltenham, #Suffolk is the first beaver seen in the county for centuries. (Register for free to read) www.suffolknews.co.uk/thetford/the...

If you're thinking of ordering a copy of Mystery Animals of Suffolk as a Christmas present to someone, you'll have to order it from the distributor Bittern Books by midday Friday 19 December, Royal Mail Tracked 24 hour service. bitternbooks.co.uk/product/myst...

Also a historic report today (13/12/25) of a big cat sighting in Rendlesham Forest, #Suffolk "years ago" seen my multiple witnesses. More details to follow, hopefully.

Report of a big cat sighting - 9am today (13/12/25) at Darsham, #Suffolk. "Very dark brown.. Taller and longer than a muntjac. Not as tall as a fallow deer. Long tail curved up at end.. Walking like a cat does in a distinctive manner." Seen for 30 seconds from 125 yards away by passenger in van.

"Tan" big cat (puma?) seen this afternoon (10/12/25) in the Blaxhall, #Suffolk, area. "Large body, long tail... quite large... quite wide at the back, long tail." Witnesses alerted to animal by their dog, on a lead, who tried to give chase. Seen for 2-3 mins, from 15ft away, it ran into the forest.

New study shows spread of domestic cats from North Africa to Europe much later than previously thought - occurred around 2000 years ago. There is also evidence of an earlier "dispersal" of domestic cats from a distinct population from Africa to Sardinia. (Paywall.) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I stumbled across 2 historic #Suffolk reports in an early noughties @forteantimes.bsky.social "big cat roundup" - near Hadleigh, , "big cat", 15 Feb 2000; Leavenheath, (Essex border), "sandy coloured" . 15 reports to British Big Cats Society in 2001 from Suffolk. web.archive.org/web/20040412...

I somehow missed this Partridgian owl sanctuary story from #Suffolk from 2020. It came to my attention during a recent "Fort Sort" of clippings for @forteantimes. Owl found i a ditch wasn't injured after all - it had just eaten so many voles it was too heavy to fly. @accidentalp.bsky.social

Report to bigcatsofsuffolk just in: 02/12/25 just after dusk, lit by a bright moon, informant describes someone who was "walking our dog" in Tunstall Forest near Chillesford seeing a lynx-like cat "walking, crouching, stalking" 40ft away, the encounter lasted 5 minutes.

Artist Édouard Riou sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/riou_e... was born on this day. Though probably best known for illustrating Jules Verne, here's some of his artwork for Louis Figuier's "La Terre avant le Deluge" (The World before the Deluge) (1863):

The Green Children of Woolpit, #Suffolk, on BBC Sounds www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Reports of big cat sightings in #Suffolk in 2025 - bigcatsofsuffolk Annual Report : "2025 was another active year... There were 24 reports of sightings of big cats in the county... This year’s reported big cats were overwhelmingly melanistic leopards..." bigcatsofsuffolk.com/reports-of-b...

33.6% of respondents to @NFSEngland National Folklore Survey for England believe that "Big cats, not native to Britain today, roam wild and undetected". www.nationalfolkloresurvey.co.uk/news/first-f...

"The Woodwoses and Wildmen of #Suffolk", my talk for Dunwich Museum, now online. @DiscoverDunwich.bsky.social @forteantimes.bsky.social#woodwose youtu.be/ntVPfS_xhqI?...

Wearing my "martyr's arrows" T-shirt for St Edmund's Day.

Plan to re-introduce 50 European wildcats to mid-Devon in the west of England. Long extinct in England, the UK’s wildcat population is now critically endangered, confined to around 115 individuals in the Highlands of Scotland. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Avian influenza discovered at Debach - near Woodbridge, #Suffolk - exclusion zone in place. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6914e9...

Suffolk-based correspondent of shooting website says attacks by muntjac deer on dogs are common, including fatal attacks. Notes that many male muntjacs have broken fangs. www.shootinguk.co.uk/gundogs/do-m...

Report of a black big cat (melanistic leopard?) seen 8/11/25 at Haddon Approach, #Suffolk (on the Deben, opposite Woodbridge). "Slinking into cover ... jet black - strong muscular back end and cat tail... four times, possibly five times as big" as a domestic cat. Seen for 10 seconds +_10m away.

The Ling lioness - encounters with pumas on the Norfolk-Suffolk border in the 1990s, with thanks to @edinburghforteansociety.org.uk and Gill Thornton bigcatsofsuffolk.com/the-ling-lio...

World's first photo and footage of a white Iberian Lynx (leucistic, not albino, so it doesn't have pink eyes). www.euronews.com/green/2025/1...

"NESTLÉ'S MILK RICHEST IN CREAM", on a corner of Cannon Street, #BuryStEdmunds #Suffolk #GhostSign #GhostSigns

More fungi from Suffolk, specifically Ickworth House NT - Hen of the Woods, more Verdigris Roundheads, Dyer’s Mazegill and Weeping Widow @suffolkwildlife.bsky.social

"Fairy loaves" - fossil sea urchins - and "Devil's toenails" fossil shells 🐚 (mussels?) at Framlingham Museum, #Suffolk. #FossilFriday.

38 years ago #otd, the night of the great hurricane of 15 October 1987, 3 police marksmen from Norwich were called to Thrigby Zoo in Norfolk. They stood by, ready to shoot Jomo the leopard 🐆 in case a tree fell and crushed his enclosure and he escaped. The tree stayed up and Jomo stayed in the zoo.

"Pride in Place" govt. funding for "deprived neighbourhoods" to include - within #Suffolk - Ipswich, Felixstowe West, Lowestoft Central and Lakenheath. eastangliabylines.co.uk/lifestyle/co...