Big cat investigator says Suffolk sightings are credible

Many believe that sightings of creatures such as Black Shuck, the demonic dog with fiery eyes said to roam the Suffolk wilderness, belong to folklore and hearsay. 

However, once you begin to examine the phenomena of big cat sightings in Suffolk, said author and journalist, Matthew Salusbury, the evidence becomes more and more compelling. 

He has been investigating possible big cat sightings in our region since 2014 - with the most recent sighting reported to him just last week in Saxmundham. 

“The 1970s was the last hurrah for Black Shuck sightings. People suddenly stopped reporting seeing this big shiny dog, and started reported seeing this big shiny cat. You have to wonder what’s going on,” Mr Salusbury said.  

A map from Matthew Salusbury's book showing possible big cat sightings in Suffolk, from as recently as 2021. Image: Matthew Salusbury (Image: Matthew Salusbury)

A map from Matthew Salusbury's book showing possible sightings of pumas in Suffolk from 1982 to 2014. Image: Matthew Salusbury (Image: Matthew Salusbury)

Mr Salusbury's interest began as a child, visiting the dinosaurs at the natural history museum during the school holidays with his mother, a zoologist.  

Mr Salusbury first began writing as a journalist for Fortean Times, a monthly magazine which looks into strange and unexplained phenomena, which taught Mr Salusbury to be “quite sceptical”. 

It was there that he first started looking into cryptozoology, a pseudoscience that searches for and studies unknown and legendary animals whose existence is not proven.  

“I moved to Suffolk, and being interested in that field already, I quickly became the go-to guy that people were bringing their big cat sightings to,” he explained. 

Last month, a house hunter reported seeing a lynx in Kirton. Image: Archant (Image: Archant)

• READ MORE: House hunting teacher says he saw a lynx in Kirton

Mr Salusbury has now published a book on his findings, Mystery Animals of Suffolk. 

While the first half of the book examines folklore and superstition, the second half is devoted to alleged sightings of big cats in East Anglia which claim to be completely genuine.  

The first sighting he examines was reported by a man named Jimmy Freeman, who was driving past the edge of Rendlesham forest in either 1976 or 1977. He recalled something “large and shadowy” charging across the road in front of him, which was “long, sleek and utterly black in colour”. 

Matthew Salusbury has been investigating big cat sightings in the region since 2014. Image: Matthew Salusbury (Image: Matthew Salusbury)

In 2020, Horsham Police officers responded to reports of a ‘large apex predator’. The arrived at the scene, and found what appeared to be a big cat - but turned out to be a stuffed toy. Image: PA (Image: PA)

Rendlesham’s infamous reputation for UFO activity has meant that there have long been people investigating the area, explained Mr Salusbury.  

“I’ve talked to a forester who was working around the Bawdsey Peninsula in the early 70s, who was warned by colleagues to keep an eye out for big cats.” 

He said it is not necessarily surprising that many alleged sightings occurred in the 1970s; in 1976, the Dangerous Wild Animals Act came into effect, tightening the rules on exotic animal ownership in an attempt to combat the fashion for keeping ‘interesting’ pets.  

“We think a lot of them were set loose,” said Mr Salusbury. He has read one article in the East Anglain Daily Times from 1997 from a man claiming to have owned a puma, which he released after the law came into effect. 

In the late 1990s, there was a shift in geography, and numerous sightings were reported around Ipswich and in the east Suffolk region.  

• READ MORE: Report of big cats 'roaming East Anglia' from 2006

The East Anglian Daily Times and then-Evening Star was covering this phenomenon closely. Nicknamed ‘Claws’, the newspapers offered readers a prize of £250 to anyone who could provide a photograph of the big black cat that so many had reported seeing.  

This trend continued throughout the early 2000s, and people are still reporting big cat encounters to this day. 

A man reported seeing something 'long, sleek and utterly black in colour' in the late 1970s. Pictured, a jaguar. Image: PA (Image: PA)

Indeed, Mr Salusbury was contacted just last week by someone driving from Rendham to Saxmundham Road at around 10:30pm.  

“They saw something brown, beige/tan, bigger than cat with a long, curly tail, not fluffy at the end, disappearing into hedge,” said Mr Salusbury. He stressed that the person is not 100 per cent that they did see a big cat - but this is only the most recent in numerous sightings reported to him, often from taxi drivers and early-morning dog walkers. 

Mr Salusbury is still keen to hear from anyone who believes they have seen a big cat in Suffolk. Sightings can be reported via his website: www.bigcatsofsuffolk.com

To order a copy of Mystery Animals of Suffolk, click here