"Animal Unknown" Photograph

 It is no secret that I started advising UK police forces on exotic animals and particularly 'non native cats' back in 1977 and I still occasionally do so since most "British Big Cat" experts out there are unable to define Big cat from Medium and Small cats or give any accurate facts. In fact, one in particular may well be fronting for a group that wants to "hunt big cats" and have really tried their best to push the "They are coming for your kids and pets" narrative. These cats, whether black panthers (no, 'experts', that is not a separate species to the leopard), puma, lynx or others, have been (provable) in the UK since at least the 15th century and guess what? No mass slaughter of kids or pets.

Canids such as the Raccoon-like Dog or simply Raccoon Dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides)of which there are five types, have also been sighted and unless you want to see DEFRA send someone out to kill them do what I do: keep quiet (after telling me of course!). 

Since 1977 the one thing I have done which the 'big cat experts' haven't (because this is a hobby to them to get 5 minutes of fame) is ask about the local area. I study what other animals are around, the type of countryside, buildings or other places that an animal might lie up in overnight and much more. The one thing I have found is that none of these "invasive species" has actually had a detrimental effect on the British countryside. In fact some are protected by estates and gamekeepers because they are very effective predators and with millions of wild rabbits and deer a large predator is needed. Some report deer herds have become healthier as a result of the predators.

I have a largeset of index cards, maps and much more so when a farming group or college or otherestablishment contacts me anything they come up with does not surprise me. Whether it's Wolverine, genets, etc -I am ready. But when you sit back like that and act smug you really ought to expect something to pop up.

A museum recently asked whether I could identify an animal in a photograph taken in the "SW of England" a few years back. I first checked th photographic image to see whether someone had been pulling a hoax but all the data seemed on the straight. I guessed at what the animal was but I always prefer to get opinions from bodies such as the Natural History Museum.  However, the Natural History Museum after a month has not gotten back to me with an identification. So I decided to double check what I thought the animal was by looking at the diagnostic features.

Here is the photo:

My conclusion was a Common Bushtail Possum (Trichosurus vulpecula). "In the UK?" Well I heard that same question in the Barking Beast of Bath case when I found that the animal involved was a chimpanzee.

Possums are kept as pets in the UK with no licence required but a specialist diet and care are needed. These animals are from Australia and New Zealand but are being bred as well as sold in the UK.  The UK brought in the 1976 Dangerous Wild Animals Act but over the years it proved a joke and licencing is the only way you can control trade but, as it stands, no one knows of the breeding success or numbers though obviously the number being sold on as juveniles indicates there is success.

We have no idea what happened to this one. Had it been reported to me at the time then a search could have been organised to trap and rescue it -though there is the option that someone let their pet out for a walk (I have no details of the circumstances in which the photo was taken) but that the neighbours never knew there was a possum in the street.

So, a mystery solved for a museum and a break from dealing with unusual fox cub deaths.