A helicopter and members of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office and Colorado Division of Wildlife were among those searching for an African lion in eastern El Paso County on Monday. The search for the large cat was called off Monday afternoon.
Was the large unknown animal seen in Colorado an African lion? Panthera atrox, the American Lion, known from the Pleistocene? A feral dog? An escaped pet felid?
It certainly befits the classic definition of a cryptid, unknown, uncaught, unidentified, and yet surely an animal.
Here is a roundup of the various reproductions of the cellphone image published this week of this “cat.”
