Black Shuck sightings increasing? October-November reports from East Anglia

Evening all. I've been cataloguing East Anglian mystery animal reports for a while now, and I'm noticing a spike in 'Black Shuck' sightings (the legendary hellhound creature) during autumn months, particularly October and November. Most recent reports mention a massive black dog with glowing red or amber eyes, seen near graveyards, old churches, and moorland.

I'm not saying it's literally a supernatural demon hound. More likely a misidentified wild dog, a particularly large stray, or even a feral population we don't know about. But the clustering is interesting - 30 credible reports in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire over the past five years, mostly autumn. The witnesses aren't usually the type to make things up either. They're farmers, walkers, people with no particular reason to fabricate a story.

Wondering if anyone's got local knowledge or family stories from the region? The folklore is centuries old, but contemporary sightings deserve investigation too.

My grandfather used to talk about Black Shuck as a kid in Norfolk. He wasn't credulous, but he always said there were things on the fens that didn't quite add up. Never said he'd seen it himself, but he knew people who swore they had. The autumn timing makes sense - breeding season for wild canines, maybe explains why sightings cluster.

There are actually feral dog populations across East Anglia. Escaped pets, breeding over generations. A big feral dog in bad light, especially if it's got mange or something that makes its coat look odd, could absolutely explain these reports. The 'glowing eyes' are just reflective tapetum lucidum in candlelight or torch beams.

30 credible reports in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire over the past five years

I love Black Shuck stories but they're probably folklore that gets reinforced every time someone sees a big black dog in the dark. That said, if there's an actual feral population in East Anglia, that's worth documenting from a wildlife perspective. Might be worth contacting some wildlife trusts?

Folklore often has kernels of truth. There probably is a substantial wild dog population in East Anglia, which explains the frequency. The 'Shuck' legend makes people interpret normal canine behaviour as supernatural. But that doesn't make it any less interesting to investigate properly.