Twelve lions, 14 tigers, 50 leopards and 250 poisonous snakes are among the tally of dangerous wildlife kept in garden sheds and spare rooms across the country.
Figures released by local authorities under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed the surprising extent of wildlife - excluding zoo animals - owned by private licensed keepers.
Big Cats in Britain, a research group, discovered that 154 assorted non-domestic cats are owned privately, along with even larger numbers of other dangerous species, after requesting information from 408 local authorities.
Smaller cats such as servals and leopard cats are being kept to crossbreed with domestic cats to produce the "designer pet" varieties known respectively as savannahs and bengals, researchers said.
BCIB also discovered more than 300 American bison grazing at various locations across the country, along with 6,000 wild boar and 2,000 ostriches. At least 50 members of the crocodile family are also in private captivity in Britain.
Under the Dangerous Wild Animal Act 1976 private owners of all animals legally deemed to be dangerous are required to buy an annual licence from their local authority.
Shaun Stevens, who collated the figures for the BCIB, said the public did not need to fear lawfully kept wild animals. But he added: "The real question is how many dangerous animals are there out there that we don't know about?"
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