British 'lion' may be large feral housecat

Pet cats in Britain are turning feral and growing to more than 4 feet in the wild, a British professor said after reports of a "lion" on the loose in Essex. Stephen Harris, a professor of environmental sciences at Bristol University, said previously domesticated cats that have turned feral and grown to large sizes may be filling a gap left by the extinction of wolves and other large predator animals in Britain. Such a feral cat may have been responsible for reported sightings of the so-called Essex lion this past weekend, he said. "There are no leopards or pumas out there but we do have a population of feral cats -- domestic cats that have gone wild -- and some of them are getting surprisingly large," The Daily Telegraph quoted Harris as saying. They can be as long as 4 feet from the nose to tip of their tail in Britain and Harris said he had seen domestic cats growing to more than 5 feet in Australia. "I don't think these pose a threat to anyone," he said. "They're living by themselves, no one is responsible for them."lo