Porcupine alert issued by Cambridge firefighters after sighting in village

 

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service has warned residents that a porcupine is on the loose.

The animal was spotted on the High Street in Harston, in the south of the county, by firefighters on Monday (August 2) morning, who had attended a fire call in nearby Foxton.

Officers from Cambridge Fire Station have also asked residents to be on the lookout.

In a tweet, they said: "Residents of Harston - while attending a fire call to Foxton this morning crews from Cambridge Fire Station noticed a Porcupine loose on the High Street in Harston please keep a look out."

In a retweet, Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service said: "Firefighters did a double take when they saw this porcupine on the loose in Harston last night'"

Porcupines are large rodents that are native to North America, Africa and Asia.

Like hedgehogs - only much bigger -they have a coats of sharp spines, or quills.

While they are generally passive if left alone, they can use their sharp quills in self defence.

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Hopefully the owner is traced before DEFRA sends out another hit team.

Is It A Puma? Is It A Panther? No.....

 I recently identified one South West England "mystery beast" for a museum as a Bushtail possum.

https://exoticanimalsregister.blogspot.com/2021/06/animal-unknown-photograph.html?fbclid=IwAR28ljR8uKbZeBmcQS_P0mQQhKqYb0t8cOmE68kMW74qIFgwTyleL2hAZSw

Possums are held as pets in the UK so that explains that and I have no doubt that there are far more excapes than we know of.

Then I had this forwarded to me and I knew what it was straight away...

I honestly could make nothing out until I enlarged and cleaned the image but that tail told its...tale so to speak.

I had thought this was a civet. Basically I have spent two months solidly working on getting officials to take unexplained fox deaths seriously, looking into Old Fox types and wolverine reports and my eyes and brain were shot. At the very outset my little voice was shouting in my head that this was a small cat but for some reason I was ignoring that voice.

The wheelie bins next to the wall and the wall itself were "off" and I knew it but was blocking that info out. At around 0400hrs (my eyes were bleary so was the clock face ( 😃) I suddenly swore. I checked the photo again and realised that the wall was either made of the tiniest bricks ever or something was going on. It is why the animal in question is not in focus. The photo gives the impression that the bin is against the wall which it is not. The animal....well...it is nowhere near a big cat in size.

As I reached my conclusion I looked up to see a neighbour's cat on the fence, shorter tail, but "re-enacting" the photo for me. This is a domestic cat but whether a hybrid from the exotic domestic breeders I have no idea.

Was this photo deliberately sent to hoax? Who knows. I am now told that there is a video clip and photos showing the cat standing but the "big cat" group in question do not seem to want to respond or allow me to become a member...hmm.

So not a "big cat" (there is only one member of that family in the UK) but a small animal that many 'big game hunters' like to shoot and pose with (stood or sat well back so it looks like they have killed something the size of a leopard rather than something the size of a house cat).

If you have a photo of an unusual animal you have seen please get in contact at blacktowercg@hotmail.com

THANKS to Hayley deRonde for the discussion on this photo.