I doubt its come from Colchester Zoo 

We are always having people claim to have seen the Beast of Essex, and dodgy blurred photos of what could be a puma type animal...  or could just be a large moggy on the prowl!

IF it is a lion, and it if is roaming around the Clacton/St Oysth area, I do hope its caught humanely & safely too..  

then they need to track down the eejit that thought a Staffie (with pitbull ancestry) wasn't tough enough for them, and went for the lion.

with any luck the lion has already eaten him 

Oh you are awful, but I like you.

On the BBC news channel now.

A resident of St Osyth is telling of hearing a 'loud roar'(might be the guy you just mentioned, Cologne)

The newsreader has a little smirk on his face!

I WANNA GO HOME

NOW

SAVE ME

hahahahahahaha!

oh gawd! 

please tell me there is more evidence than this ^^^^   it could be any of the locals!

aparently thats what he said in an interview after he met the cast of TOWIE

yes,

he can talk

The BBC website says "Essex police are working with experts from Colchester Zoo who believe the reports to be genuine after being shown a photograph by a member of the public" 

Hands up.....who's betting it's a photoshop job?  

We get the Bodmin Moor beast every now and again when nothing else drags the grockels to this godforsaken sod of a piece of land. It's always a pussycat.

*sticks hand up*

then again...    its just bizarre enough to be true 

I'd love to live in Devon 

well, the bits of Devon I have seen.    

Ditty, get away from the TV, laptop, PC, radio.

Ickle, Ickle, get your mother, she's being played.

To be fair it's nice, but we've had wind and rain for about 2 months now. My cats have taken root on their chair and will only move for eating, treats and a quicky outside.

  Ickle has buggered off to bed (taking her little lion of cat with her)

I am just waiting for the dog to get on with having his last wee's & then I am off too 

Watch out for the lion.

Paul Gascoigne on the phone. He's apparently an old friend of the lion loose in Essex is on his way with "a case or larger and fishing rod".

why do dogs have last wee's?

bloody annoying

Pirate, come clean. Did you or did you not start that rumour?

These lions get everywhere:

From DigiSpy:

© stock.xchng

A young mountain lion has been caught trying to sneak into a casino in Nevada.

The "underage" animal attempted to slip into the downtown Reno venue ahead of the breakfast rush, according to The AP.

Nevada Department of Wildlife spokesman Chris Healy said the male cat's behaviour was "almost the equivalent of being a stupid teenager".

He added that coming-of-age cougars often end up in inappropriate locations after being chased out of a territory by adults.

Guests at Harrah's spotted the mountain lion trying to walk into the casino on Friday morning. He struggled to work the revolving door and took refuge under an outdoor stage in a nearby plaza.

State wildlife officials tranquilised the 2-year-old animal and plan to release it back into the wild after tagging it for participation in a University of Nevada, Reno study.

No injuries were reported following the incident.

Lion spotted in Essex!  Shut up!

The twitter stuff is quite funny, there's a rival account - two essex lions now tweeting and one has offered to fight the other one:

Essex Lion ‏@EssexLion

ON ME WAY TO THE CARPARK FOR A PROPER FIGHT. BRUVS GOING DOWN. LISTENING TO CIRCLE OF LIFE TO GET PUMPED.

I bet Suffolk is well jell that Essix has got a lion or somethink

Haven't read every reply but if it's really a lion on the loose I hope it's captured safely I lived in Essex for many years, great County. great people, it annoys me that Essex is regarded as a joke. Yes some who've been portrayed as representing Essex are not only an urban myth but an embarassement to the many who live there who are nothing like other Essex people who have more class than is represented

Shut up!

[only joking!]

It could be worse yellow rose, You could live in Norfolk, where we're all supposed to be having sex with our inlaws and have inbred children with six fingers etc., according to the "Mock the Week" panel etc.

Essix gets off lightly by comparison!

I'll keep quiet on the Essex subject, but it's so misunderstood

"A construction worker was bitten by a crocodile during a toilet break in a river in Malaysian Borneo, but fought off the huge reptile and escaped with his life.

Pai punched the two-metre (6.5-foot) crocodile in the eye after it bit him just above his right buttock"

And the moral of the story is, "Go sh*t in ya own river"

i knew there was something i'd left behind from my holiday in clacton

they've called off the search now 

  A gay one at that, he'd been to pride.

I might tweet that 

this would explain the black leather studded collar 

oh dear...   we are watching them interview "lion eye witnesses"

the town of Hotshot from True Blood springs to mind 

see..i said there was a lion, maybe

dont really look like one though

It looks like the one from Wizard of Oz!  

That is sooooo not a lion!!!

its got a mans face & a moustache!

and a bad essex bleach job that extends beyond the "mane" and down his back!

It really does.

its the bow in the hair that shows its a lioness

At least we've got this.