he told the BBC<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n\n “It was a lot larger than a normal cat. We turned around and walked swiftly away and luckily the dog was on the lead.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I’ve never seen anything like it around here.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The sighting was reported to the RSPCA, which told them it had not received any reports of an escaped serval or Savannah cat in the area but urged people to be on the lookout.\n<\/p>\n
\n ![]()
A Dangerous Wild Animal licence is required for servals and first generation Savannah cats. (Image: Tom Baker \/ BBC)\n<\/p>\n
\n Kevin Murphy, who runs Norfolk Wildlife Rescue, alerted people on Facebook and has confirmed that the potential owner of the animal has contacted him.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I believe it is a Savannah cat,” he said. “There are no inherent risks but there is always a small risk with any animal.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It is still roaming as far as I am aware but someone has contacted me who may be the owner.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Murphy added that if anyone comes across the cat, they should get in contact with him directly and avoid scaring it away.\n<\/p>\n
\n RSPCA senior scientific officer Evie Button, added: \u201cWe have concerns about the breeding, trade and keeping of wild – or \u2018exotic\u2019 – animals kept as pets, including those classified as dangerous wild animals, such as servals.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Some species – like servals – are unsuitable to be kept as pets because their needs are too complex to be met in a household environment.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe would encourage prospective owners of any exotic pet to thoroughly research the animal’s needs, using expert sources and only consider keeping one if they can ensure they are fully able to provide for these needs.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The feline, which is believed to be a Savannah cat, was caught on camera roaming around a field…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-660338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}