Escaped mammals in Britain (1 Viewer)

John Dixon · Mar 8, 2006

We often record escaped birds, but how many people have seen escaped mammals in Britain? The most notorious are the big cats (I once saw a lynx sp. cross a road in Wales near Trawsffynydd as I was twitching a Bridled Tern overnight) but presumably all sorts of others could occur.

The Steller's Sealion that used to be on the Brisons off Cornwall must presumably have been released by someone, I can't imagine it swimming here from theNorthern Pacific.

Anyone got their own examples?

tom24 · Mar 8, 2006

A few years ago i was driving during the night locally when the headlights caught 'eye shine',the animal turned it's head and made into the hedge.I saw the tail-long,black/dark and upturned at the tip.Took a few seconds to realise that distance from first sight and tail shape must have made the creature larger than a domestic cat.I'm not sure,but it could have been a 'big cat'.The tail sticks in my mind and it was certainly like that of the alleged 'big cat' reports.
Around the same area there had been reports of such sightings in the past (i didn't know this at the time).
I've also found many a dead sheep carcass on the hills stripped to the ribs(by what,apart from birds that high up?).But then again i've watched a tabby through a scope from quite a distance and due to optical illusion,it's looked much larger than it should be.

RobF · Mar 8, 2006

tom24 said:
(by what,apart from birds that high up?

Foxes and badgers.

A sheep carcass will be stripped to the bone overnight by our native carnivores. I was talking to a shepherd once who found a fresh dead sheep, went back to fetch his quad to retrieve it and foxes had eaten away the shoulder in the space of an hour.

Wasn't there a Kudu at large for a couple of years? A lion escaped a circus when it visited Grimsby and it trashed the Citizens Advice Bureau!

Rob

jurek · Mar 9, 2006

RobF said:
A lion escaped a circus when it visited Grimsby and it trashed the Citizens Advice Bureau!

Tell us more!

I also heard amusing story about ship carrying elephant seals to a zoo which dumped one dead seal overboard. Local fishermen discovered the carcass and promptly moved it and dumped in Loch Ness lake. Chaos ensued.

Anyway, a warthog was running in Poland some years ago.

Farnboro John · Mar 10, 2006

I've just remembered an old birder legend about a woman on St Agnes in the Isles of Scilly who reported a large white animal on the beach (on an island that at the time had no white cows) - supposedly the police attended a couple of hours later and found a dead emaciated Polar Bear - anyone else ever heard that one or know more details?

John M · Mar 10, 2006

Hi,
There are few places in Scotland with feral Wallabies. One was found dead on the island of Islay last year, it caused a great sensation at the time. I am certain that it was transported from near Inveraray, where there was a wildlife park. It most likely was killed on the road, as it had escaped from the park, and taken over to Islay by a practical joker. Certainly had a bit of publicity.
Like to know more about that Polar Bear?
Cheers,
John.

MSA · Mar 10, 2006

Dare I mention the monkey in a certain north-east England port that was (allegedly) arrested, tried and hanged as a spy by the locals?

Yes!

If anyone knows the full story, or if it's just an urban myth, I'd be interested.

saluki · Mar 10, 2006

John M said:
Hi,
There are few places in Scotland with feral Wallabies. One was found dead on the island of Islay last year, it caused a great sensation at the time. I am certain that it was transported from near Inveraray, where there was a wildlife park. It most likely was killed on the road, as it had escaped from the park, and taken over to Islay by a practical joker. Certainly had a bit of publicity.
Like to know more about that Polar Bear?
Cheers,
John.

Hi John,

I remember a tree falling into the Arctic Fox pen at the wildlife park at Inverary and all the foxes escaping some years ago. I know some were subsequently caught, but not all of them. When I was a kid I knew a guy who was rearing and releasing Polecats around Knapdale (I found a dead Polecat on the road to Ardfern a few years ago). There was also a guy in the 70's who had a pack of wolves in Mid Argyll he was planning to release, but subsequently moved north - no idea what happened to him.

saluki

nessie · Mar 10, 2006

escaped but not at large

Beavers and more recently a red panda in Birmingham, theywere recaptured though.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/4642784.stm

Natalie

John M · Mar 10, 2006

saluki said:
Hi John,

I remember a tree falling into the Arctic Fox pen at the wildlife park at Inverary and all the foxes escaping some years ago. I know some were subsequently caught, but not all of them. When I was a kid I knew a guy who was rearing and releasing Polecats around Knapdale (I found a dead Polecat on the road to Ardfern a few years ago). There was also a guy in the 70's who had a pack of wolves in Mid Argyll he was planning to release, but subsequently moved north - no idea what happened to him.

saluki

Hi saluki,
There was also an escape of a wild boar from the same park. It was shot a few months later. It swam Loch Fyne from the caravan park to Cairndow. The park suffered big wildfowl loses due to escaped foxes that were trapped within the perimeter of the park. It also had loses due to Pinemartin.

There are still some feral ferrets /polecats in the area. They are very destructive to ground nesters and the Wolves were all accounted for at Croabh Haven.
Cheers,
John.

MSA · Mar 10, 2006

Found it myself!

The Hartlepool Monkey
The monkey-hanging legend is the most famous story connected with Hartlepool. During the Napoleonic Wars a ship was wrecked off the Hartlepool coast.

During the Napoleonic Wars there was a fear of a French invasion of Britain and much public concern about the possibility of French infiltrators and spies.

The fishermen of Hartlepool fearing an invasion kept a close watch on the French vessel as it struggled against the storm but when the vessel was severely battered and sunk they turned their attention to the wreckage washed ashore. Among the wreckage lay one wet and sorrowful looking survivor, the ship's pet monkey dressed to amuse in a military style uniform.

The fishermen apparently questioned the monkey and held a beach-based trial. Unfamiliar with what a Frenchman looked like they came to the conclusion that this monkey was a French spy and should be sentenced to death. The unfortunate creature was to die by hanging, with the mast of a fishing boat (a coble) providing a convenient gallows.

AStevenson · Mar 11, 2006

Farnboro John said:
I've just remembered an old birder legend about a woman on St Agnes in the Isles of Scilly who reported a large white animal on the beach (on an island that at the time had no white cows) - supposedly the police attended a couple of hours later and found a dead emaciated Polar Bear - anyone else ever heard that one or know more details?

We get similar reports out here in the Outer Hebrides - sadly they have not been polar bears but.... well decomposed basking sharks. cetaceans or seals - when they've been in the sea for a while the blubbery bits and flesh turn white and when they dry out on beaches they sometimes appear furry! Sounds bizarre but it's true.

The biggest miss I've had here is the local fishermen who saw a walrus - tusks an' all on a small island off the east side of North Uist a couple of years ago. Best whilst birding probably beluga whales nr Varanger Fjord in Norway whilst scanning for rafts of seaduck, white-billed divers and Brunnich's guillemots.

Cheers,
Andrew

Stranger · Mar 12, 2006

Hi
Talking to some local shooting enthusiasts that reckon they have seen Racoons on our local hill.
A friends wife has also seen an animal with a long ringed tail crossing the road in the same area (possible Lemur ?) .
The area is not far from Cheddar where a guy tried to set up his own Zoo as part of some elaborate con trick a few years back.The guy vanished when he was rumbled and eventually turned up in London years later.No one is sure what happened to the animals that he had collected.

John Dixon · Mar 13, 2006

saluki said:
Hi John,

I remember a tree falling into the Arctic Fox pen at the wildlife park at Inverary and all the foxes escaping some years ago. I know some were subsequently caught, but not all of them. When I was a kid I knew a guy who was rearing and releasing Polecats around Knapdale (I found a dead Polecat on the road to Ardfern a few years ago). There was also a guy in the 70's who had a pack of wolves in Mid Argyll he was planning to release, but subsequently moved north - no idea what happened to him.

saluki

Interesting you should mention Arctic Foxes, I remember one of the birding magazines having an articla about Hen Hariers and merlins in the Derbyshire dales in which a harrier nest had been predated by an escaped Arctic Fox - bit unfair I thought, persecuted to blazes anyway and then zapped by something that shouldn't even be there!

John

John Dixon · Mar 13, 2006

AStevenson said:
We get similar reports out here in the Outer Hebrides - sadly they have not been polar bears but.... well decomposed basking sharks. cetaceans or seals - when they've been in the sea for a while the blubbery bits and flesh turn white and when they dry out on beaches they sometimes appear furry! Sounds bizarre but it's true.

The biggest miss I've had here is the local fishermen who saw a walrus - tusks an' all on a small island off the east side of North Uist a couple of years ago. Best whilst birding probably beluga whales nr Varanger Fjord in Norway whilst scanning for rafts of seaduck, white-billed divers and Brunnich's guillemots.

Cheers,
Andrew

Considering the last Walrus I'm aware of was the Collieston one in 1956 that is an excruciating miss! At risk of exciting the anti-twitching fraternity if I knew one of those was available in UK I would be on the road at once.

Cheers

John

Jos Stratford · Mar 13, 2006

John Dixon said:
Considering the last Walrus I'm aware of was the Collieston one in 1956 that is an excruciating miss! n

You forget 'Wally the Wandering Walrus', became famous in 1981 as it did a tour of various UK coastal spots.

Photos, when it was still in the Shetlands, can be seen on this link:

http://www.bobbytulloch.com/category_details.php?id=159

Were also some records in Ireland in the 90s - one in April 1999 (hauled out on rocks in County Mayo for six hours, lying within 100 metres of a busy coastal road). A dead walrus was also found in County Kerry in January 1995. Plus, some sightings at sea off County Donegal in winters in the late 90s.

jurek · Mar 13, 2006

Jos Stratford said:
Walrus

I read somewhere that Walrus used to live further south than Arctic, but were hunted out. I wonder if they ever bred in Scotland?

Jos Stratford · Mar 13, 2006

jurek said:
I read somewhere that Walrus used to live further south than Arctic, but were hunted out. I wonder if they ever bred in Scotland?

Whilst checking the date of the famous Wally, in the earlier post, I came across this comment on another site "The last breeding herd of walrus were shot off Shetland in 1846 - a bull, and his harem of three females", so if it is correct, the answer would seem to be yes.

Farnboro John · Mar 13, 2006

Jos Stratford said:
You forget 'Wally the Wandering Walrus', became famous in 1981 as it did a tour of various UK coastal spots.

Photos, when it was still in the Shetlands, can be seen on this link:

http://www.bobbytulloch.com/category_details.php?id=159

Were also some records in Ireland in the 90s - one in April 1999 (hauled out on rocks in County Mayo for six hours, lying within 100 metres of a busy coastal road). A dead walrus was also found in County Kerry in January 1995. Plus, some sightings at sea off County Donegal in winters in the late 90s.

Cheers Jos.

I was talking to Roy H from Tring this morning - he remembered about Wally but we couldn't get the year. Having been reminded I know it was mentioned on CEEFAX, but without sufficient detail to allow a trip. At least the records you mention suggest there may yet be another chance - or is there a clear case for reintroduction........

Cheers

John

PS I'm afraid I have electronic schizophrenia, using 2 identities at present depending on which system I can get access to!

Jos Stratford · Mar 13, 2006

Farnboro John said:
I'm afraid I have electronic schizophrenia, using 2 identities at present depending on which system I can get access to!

Hope noticed that

Wally was all over the national newspapers at the time ...can't remember where his final port of call was - but fairly sure it was in England, as opposed to north of the border. Perhaps the Wash? Whereever it was, he then got a free lift back to the Arctic

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