Naturalistic animal fiction meets folklore in this fifth entry in Colin Dann's The Animals of Farthing Wood series which, despite its name, largely takes place in the eponymous White Deer Park. The story opens in the third winter since the companions made their dangerous trek from their doomed former home - destroyed by human development - to the safety of the park, and many of their number are gone. The survivors - Fox, Vixen, Badger, Tawny Owl, Adder, Toad, Weasel and Whistler the heron - confront a terrible new danger, in the form of a mysterious, secretive large cat, which has moved to the area, and has begun stalking the wildlife in the park. The younger foxes, led by Fox and Vixen's son Friendly, begin a campaign to track down and defeat this deadly enemy, but they meet with limited success, and in the back and forth of the conflict, many animals die. The Warden gets involved, to protect the park's deer, but even he is not successful. Only the call of a female cat saves the day, as the vicious feline predator laying siege to White Deer Park moves away of his own accord, in search of a mate...

For an animal lover, Colin Dann doesn't seem to care that much for cats. The Warden's pet cat, in In the Grip of Winter, doesn't come off looking very well in her interactions with Badger, and this cat is depicted as the kind of brutal, malicious predator incapable of understanding something like the Oath of Mutual Protection, taken by the animal friends in the first book, the eponymous The Animals of Farthing Wood. Leaving that aside, I can understand why many readers express confusion about the nature of this predator, as the UK is not known for having large cat species. As it turns out however, there have been many sightings of large cats over the years, and there have been a number that have been captured. A Canadian lynx was shot in Devon in 1903, a puma was captured alive in the Scottish Highlands in 1980, and an ocelot or serval was shot on the Isle of Wight in 1994. All kinds of wild cats have been found roaming the British countryside, over the years, and many of them seem to have been exotic pets that were abandoned, or escapees from zoos. That said, there are also mysterious cats purported to roam in various areas - the Beast of Bodmin, the Fen Tiger, the Beast of Bevendean - that have never been found. Cryptozoology enthusiasts maintain that some of them are a hold over from the last Ice Age, and have survived in secret in the wilds of the UK. Whatever one thinks of this idea, it seems to be the one Dann favors, as his feline predator claims that his kind had never been detected by humans, and were "survivors of the Old Animal Lore."

I enjoyed The Siege of White Deer Park, although I didn't think it quite the equal of the previous entries in the series. One of my favorite parts was probably the poignant moment when Badger, unable to cope with idea of his friend Mole being dead, insists on thinking of Mole's son Mossy as Mole, addressing him accordingly. It was lovely that the other animals, understanding the issue, played along. I also enjoyed seeing Adder meet a lady snake who was able to rattle him! Recommended to fans of the series. ( )