MATING hedgehogs? An amorous couple? Perhaps even the legendary Claws the panther is back?Whatever is making the strange grunting noise in the woods off Dobbs Lane in Kesgrave on a nightly basis has stumped the White family, who claim they have never heard anything like it before.

MATING hedgehogs? An amorous couple? Perhaps even the legendary Claws the panther is back?

Whatever is making the strange grunting noise in the woods off Dobbs Lane in Kesgrave on a nightly basis has stumped the White family, who claim they have never heard anything like it before.

Over the last few weeks the family, whose home in Dobbs Drift backs onto the woods, have been woken up by a sound described as heavy breathing.

Helen White has heard the sound a few times when she has been in the house with her four children and claims it is “very scary and all rather eerie.”

Mrs White, 37, said: “At first I thought it was coming from upstairs but it was actually coming from outside. A friend of mine said it could be a hedgehog but it sounds too loud to be that.

“First of all I thought it sounded like a moose, now I think it sounds more like a pig. My son sometimes walks through the wood on his way back from school and he thinks he might have seen a tramp living there so I guess it could be something to do with that.

“It is strange because I don't think our neighbours have heard it but we haven't imagined it. The children have been very scared by it because we just don't what it is.”

The noise occurs at night, mostly around 11pm, but has been known to start around 9pm. Despite living in the same house for the past five years, the Whites say they have never heard the noise before.

Mr White, 46, added: “It sounds like heavy breathing-but its definitely animal noises rather than human.

“I thought it could be a deer because it was very loud and it echoes across the wood. It is quite unsettling.”

Suffolk Wildlife Trust senior conservation officer Simone Bullion said it sounds as though it could be hedgehogs as they are nocturnal creatures currently in the mating season.

She said: “They make a very loud noise during the courtship ritual where the male hedgehog circles the female to attract her and makes a rhythmic grunting noise.”

n. Have you heard the strange sound too? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN.

PANEL

Vote for what you think the strange noise could be by logging on the Evening Star website at www.eveningstar.co.uk or writing to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or email eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk

Deer

Hedgehog

Muntjac deer

Panther

Pig