Reports of a Mystery Cat, the Essex Lion (sandy brown in color), seen near St. Osyth, United Kingdom, have called forth a massive safari-like effort to find it.  The latest effort involved 30 police officers, crack marksmen and two helicopters. For full details, see here and here.

It roared.

And of course, this tidbit came out too. A circus had been in the area, at Clacton Airfield, recently but the media noted: “Officers have spoken to the circus and confirmed that they do not have an animal missing, nor do they have any lions.”

This may or may not be the well-known Beast of Essex that is part of cryptozoology lore for the area.

(Thanks to Roddy Hays and David McMahan for alerting us to these news items.)