Why did the Maned Mystery Cat cross the road in front of the bus? Obviously, to get to the other side.

It was bound to happen. After all those years of my gathering accounts of “Maned Mystery Cats” that look like African lions in North America, now comes word of one from the United Kingdom. Are there escaped mundane lions afoot in the Nottingham forests, or are these sighted animals in the UK of Panthera atrox (above), as noted in-depth in Mysterious America?

The newspaper, the Retford Trader and Guardian published a wee notice on February 25, 2008, that an unusual sighting had occurred at Retford on Saturday, January 26, 2008, at 7:30 pm.

Retford is a market town in Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands of England, located 31 miles from the county town of Nottingham. The highly unusual coat of arms for the town consists of two rampant choughs (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax), members of the crow family.

A bus driver on Hallcroft Road had the sighting of a “male lion” as it crossed the road in front of him, turned to the bus and its headlight, and then moved on.

The police said the man reported the animal looked “like a lion with a black mane.”

No further sightings were reported at the time and none have been received in the month since.

In the mid-1990s, various reports surfaced of a big cat in the Clumber Park area.

In the foreground is a sub-Saharan African Lion (Panthera leo). The background felid is a representation of the American Lion (Panthera atrox).

Thanks to Michael Newton for bringing the initial news item to my attention.