Born Free, an international charity, has collated all of the licenses for unusual pets that have been sent to each local authority across Great Britain.
Its 2026 survey revealed more than 2,270 “dangerous wild animals” are licensed to be kept privately in the country.
A total of 156 private addresses across 115 local authorities hold licences or are in the application process to keep dangerous wild animals.
The map shows that there are no animals of this kind living in west Suffolk.
A Cuvier’s Dwarf Caiman is being kept in Suffolk (Image: André P. Meyer-Vitali/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0)
However, in Babergh there is a Cuvier’s Dwarf Caiman – a small crocodilian in the alligator family from northern and central South America.
In mid Suffolk, one licensee has two servals living at a property.
Servals are wild small cats native to Africa, which are normally found in sub-Saharan countries, where they inhabit grasslands, wetlands, moorlands and bamboo thickets.
In east Suffolk, data shows there is one Monocled Cobra and one Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, but it isn’t clear whether they are owned by the same collector or not.
Monocled Cobras are venomous snakes found in south and southeast Asia, whereas the rattlesnake is part of the viper family, commonly found in the southwestern United States and Mexico.
All animals are kept legally under the Dangerous Animals Act 1976.