Essex cat redux

Thursday 2nd July 2026

This is an interesting, if slightly enigmatic photograph, and – to be quite honest – I’m not 100% sure what it is. It does look a little dog like, and there is no real sense of scale. If this is a cat, it looks rather grainy, but nowhere near as gracile as the savannah cat pictured wild in Norfolk earlier in the week. People interested in these things should, I think, keep a weather eye out for developments in Essex. JD

Terrified commuter encounters ‘Beast of Essex’ prowling UK train platform – Daily Star

Wivenhoe boasts an extensive history of alleged big cat encounters, with residents regularly claiming sightings of enigmatic large felines throughout …

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Jonathan Downes
Cryptozoologist, naturalist, musician, singer, composer, poet, novelist and Director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology since 1992. Jon was born in Portsmouth in 1959 and spent his infancy in Nigeria and his childhood in Hong Kong. His wife Corinna died of cancer in 2020, leaving him with two stepdaughters and an eleven year old granddaughter called Evelyn.