OT: Big Cat Sightings

[Faeden]

Hi Andy

I would have thought though that any large cats that were released by owners due to the 1976 dangerous wild animals act would have died of old age by now, so any sighting these days must be ones due to breeding????

I believe that there are reports of a adults and a youngster being seen, even 3 together, i think its possible that they are breeding, but i would think its rare due to the small numbers, so the population never becomes to large. they are mostly sighted on unused paths and railway lines they seem to use straight travel ways to navigate around.

I have seen a deer before in Spearywell wood near Mottisfont in Hampsire that looked like either a very sick and twisted individual had repeated stabbed it and dug out most of its chest/stomach and throat or some animal had attacked and been eating it.

I am no expert on animal attack wounds either but if a large cat is going to bring a deer or stag down it will go for the throat and more than not even if the wounds are severe you will see individual puncture marks and small holes also you might find deep scratch marks on the body sometimes 4 in a row, look around the carcass for large foot prinks with deep claw marks at the tops of the toes be remember some dog prints in mud can look larger than they are because when a dog puts pressure on the mud the print is exaggerated because all the mud squishes outwards, also look for lengthy drag marks in the ground, a large cat will often kill its prey and drag it out of the open so can eat undisturbed.

I have done work for anti hunting groups who film there activities, sometimes secretly, and I have seen footage a few different cases in fact where even after the deer had been killed or trapped some of the hunters started stabbing and ripping at it in a ritualistic frenzy, and cheering on others to join in, some people are just plan sick and enjoy doing these things for nothing more than pleasure. I used to walk along rivers with my dog and would sometimes come across beautiful stags that had been shot and just dumped into shallow rivers, and often they had knife marks on them, but an animal that has been butcherd by a knife, and one that’s been killed by a large cat I think would be fairly easy to distinguish between if you look close enough. Also look around for other animal hair that doesnt belong to the prey. Also they lick the meat with there tongues which strips it of in a sand paper type way, which can show signs.

All the best
Faeden

 

[andyn]

I was a bit younger at the time and wasn't too keen on close examination but if I ever happen to find another i'll bare that in mind.

Sounds like there are some very weird people out there that are permitted to use guns....very scary and rather disgusting.

 

[Spacemonkey]

Even scarier, is the fact that they are allowed to use even deadlier weapons- cars!!!

 

[andyn]

Even scarier, is the fact that they are allowed to use even deadlier weapons- cars!!!

LOL....Very true

 

[Neiltoo]

hmmmm

 

[Carcajou Garou]

There a story in J'burg, of a lepord living quite well for a long time in a sports complex, eating dogs, cats, anything stray really. They do quite well when they want to be "invisible" CG :yo:

 

[Dennis Mapletoft]

this thread has got me realy thinking, and i seem to remember something about the SAS hunting a big cat/beasty on Bodmin Moor, this was many years ago, do any of you remember it ? or has my memory played a trick on me.. Yours Den

 

[NickBristol]

this thread has got me realy thinking, and i seem to remember something about the SAS hunting a big cat/beasty on Bodmin Moor, this was many years ago, do any of you remember it ? or has my memory played a trick on me.. Yours Den

Think it was the Marines not the Regiment that had a sneak about looking for the beastie on Bodmin. Must have been 20 odd years ago at least. Wouldn't be suprised if it wasn't something most outfits have had a go at doing tho, if only to get one over on the other services by being the one to bag a puddycat.

 

[Neiltoo]

I would appear to have had a post removed from this thread - I assume that would be because it caused offence to someone - If so - I appologise. It was not my intention to cause offence, I wished only to state that what some call wierd others consider normal. I guess I went about it in the wrong way.

 

[Spacemonkey]

this thread has got me realy thinking, and i seem to remember something about the SAS hunting a big cat/beasty on Bodmin Moor, this was many years ago, do any of you remember it ? or has my memory played a trick on me.. Yours Den

It was a werewolf wasn't it, up in Scotland...?

 

[Tengu]

I have never seen a cat.

There is one round here. (NE Wilts) the chap who lives in the next street over said (without prompting) that he had been disturbed by the security light comming on, and investigating he saw a big black animal jump over the back fence (8 ft tall)

He has pet cats and so the light is set so they dont trigger it.

The lady who lives in the cottage on the edge of Braydon woods says shes seen it several times.

These animals are not pets, they are wild animals who are very good at what they do, nor are they particularly bothered by humans.

(Having said that the few times I have seen animals kept illegaly they were cats. one was a lynx and the other a big blotched animal. And theres lots of irresponsible people out there who would and could import animals just to let them loose)

 

[pierre girard]

While NE Minnesota has always had lynx and bobcat, it is not historically an area where you would find cougar. Even lynx and bobcat numbers are way down. A few years ago we started to hear about a lot of cougar sitings. A lot of people complained of their dogs - or other livestock - missing. The Dept of Natural Resources said it was not possible that it was a cougar - it was either lynx, bobcat, or most likely - wolves.

Some of us began to wonder - especially when we'd get called to things like a horse with injuries. The injuries were claw marks around the neck and twin claw marks on both flanks. Wolves could never do damage in that way. It sure looked like some kind of very big cat had got on the horses back - with their front legs around the throat - clawing, and the rear legs clawing on either flank.

One of the most persistent compaints was coming from a little old lady who had a farm on the edge of town. She was told the DNR said it was not a cougar. She finally came in with a photo of - not one - but two cougars - eating her dog.

Since then, many of us have seen cougars. In the last two years I've seen a large tawny cougar, a small tawny cougar, and a black cougar - in that order. There is something about the sight of a full grown cougar. The effect is almost paralysing - for a split second. Then your first idea is to leave the area as fast as possible (not usually a good idea).

PG

 

[pierre girard]

Here are a couple of sites showing cat tracks:

Cougar:

http://www.cougarsanctuary.org/tracks.html

here's an even better site:

http://www.bear-tracker.com/cougar.html

When you see cougar tracks - they look like they belong to a large animal. In soft ground - you can see it is heavy enough to sink in a bit. They can make a sound like a baby crying - or a woman screaming.

Bobcat and Lynx (and others):

http://www.wildanimaltracks.com/collection.htm

A lynx cry is like a tom cat - with amplifiers. I've seen them as large as eight feet - from nose to the end of the tail. The way you can always tell it is a lynx track for sure - they will walk along the top of any laying log they come across - even if it is laying 90 degrees to the right or left of the way they are headed. The old timers used to say they had "snowshoes," as they have large feet and generally stay on top of the snow. I've generally thought of them as more benign than bobcats - though I can't say why.

Bobcat tracks are kind of a longer narrower track - and I've sometimes mistaken them for otter - at first glance. If you surprise a bobcat - it will sometimes jump straight up to head height - with a yowl or a screech and spit at you. Like all cats - they are extremely quick. They are much smaller than a lynx, and a young adult could be mistaken for a very large house cat.

PG

 

[Razorstrop]

Am glad this thread has resurfaced.
Am curious to hear anyones updates or potential sightings during their winter travels


Mr Strop

 

[george]

Apologies for a longish post.

I live up in the NW Highlands and there are often rumours of big cats in the area.

At the start of october I saw something that I can't quite explain.

I live in a cottage in the middle of some woods several hundred metres from the nearest other house. We are surrounded by mixed woodlands that go on for some distance. The area is very very sparsely populated and there is a lot of wildlife in the surrounding hills and woods.

The front and the back of my house are separated by a 7 foot deer fence at one side and by my workshop and then a series of flat roofed woodsheds about six feet high on the other. The rest of the garden is surrounded by deer fence too.

Anyway one morning I got up at first light and went through to let the dogs out, I have 2 dogs - one very large black lab/collie cross and a smaller golden lab collie cross. Socks, the big one, is a very strong dog and is much larger than most labs, more like a small rottie really.

As I opened the door both dogs went daft and took off like rockets around the side of the woodsheds and out of sight barking really aggressively. I thought that a deer had managed to get into the garden and turned to get my boots on to go after them and pull them off. As I turned back I saw what I thought at first was Socks running over the top of the woodsheds back towards the workshop so I started towards them calling him back. I couldn't see the roofs of the sheds clearly because of the branches of a bunch of small trees that grow along their back and whose branches spread out over the roofs and whatever it was was amongst the branches. I was really puzzled because he had never managed to get on to the roofs before despite trying on several occasions that I've seen him. Whatever it was I had only seen it for a split second as it ran over the roofs and went into a bigger tree that grows at the back of the workshop and whatever it was can growl! I definately got the impression that it was a similar size to Socks though and it was certainly very dark or black.

Both my dogs came back around the corner of the sheds and started trying to get on to the roofs, barking furiously and generally going daft. There was a bunch of growling and thrashing about in the tree going on too. After a minute or two of this the growling stopped and there was a noise as something heavy jumped out of the tree and landed at the back of the workshop amongst a load of dried Knotweed stalks. The dogs started to calm down and came back to me with big s**t eating grins and wagging tails, look how brave we are kind of stuff!

I put the dogs back inside and went around to the back of the house and round the back of the workshop to see if I could see anything from there - Nothing except obvious signs of disturbance amongst the Knotweed stalks and a patch of disturbed grass immediately at the back - no obvious tracks though as the ground was quite hard there (plus I'm not the best at reading sign!)

I still thought that it must have been another dog at this point until I remembered that we're surrounded by 7 foot fences and I've not met many dogs who can get over one of them.

I checked the base of the fence and all the gates to make sure that they were still secure - if another dog could get in then mine could get out. There were no gaps, no gates left open and nowhere for a dog to crawl through or under - whatever it was must have gone over the top. I brought the dogs round for a sniff about and they soon showed me that whatever it was had come out of the tree and made a run for the fence closest to the thickest part of the wood.

It was only a week or so later when there was a reported sighting of a "big black cat" in a village some 20 miles from where I live and then a series of other sightings nearby that I started to wonder if that was what I had glimpsed on the top of my woodsheds.

George

 

[Topcat02]

Blimey, thats probably the closest any of us will get to one. Bit of a double-edged sword, if you dont get proof (a picture), it stays as a rumour, if you do get proof, then the poor animal will get shot or poisoned.

Any ideas what it might have been?

 

[Goose]

Where is favourite for a bushcraft meet to try and see track or photograph these?
Could be a good "theme" for a meet, do what we do anyway just put a little effort into having a look, a lot better than fishing.
It is one of those things that can't be proven wrong only proven right, but there are that many rumours from different areas and people there must be something to the stories, musn't there?

 

[george]

Blimey, thats probably the closest any of us will get to one. Bit of a double-edged sword, if you dont get proof (a picture), it stays as a rumour, if you do get proof, then the poor animal will get shot or poisoned.

Any ideas what it might have been?

No Ideas topcat - at the time I wasn't even thinking about "cat" I was just hoping that my dogs hadn't cornered a deer, then I was thinking "bu**er how did my dog get up there" it was only after realising that whatever it was had come over the fence that I started thinking "big + black + jumps deer fences + growls up trees....... caaaaat!

george

 

[Fungi]

Well, I have several theories about all this.
Firstly, there are many things 'out there' that we do not know about, or if we do its either very little, or is dismissed as nonsense because its outside 'The Box'.
Sometimes this dismissal may be just ignorance and sometimes it maybe intentional.
Anyway, I am beginning to digress slightly, so back to point.
There have been legends and sightings of all manner of creatures in the UK since time began, most have been studied by Cryptozooligists.
On the large cat front these have existed long before the release of 'pets' in the 70's.
Legends of large black beasts, with fiery eyes eg 'Black Shuck' roaming the countryside are as old as the hills themselves.
So there is an argument for a potential indigenous population, or at least a very early feral population.
Certainly, many 'cats' have escaped into the countryside or indeed have been released over the years. Many such cases are well documented.
In many cases animals are spotted or indeed known in certain areas.
There are also lots of hoaxes out there.
The positive 'evidence' often exists for sometime and generally then just disappears.
Why is this?

Many years ago I regularly followed big cat 'sign' in Sussex for a few years. Sadly I never had a sighting myself although I did encounter some very 'twitchy' moments whilst out. I knew of dozens of sightings, many by close friends.
One of these sightings was from a neighbour who claimed to have seen a large black cat with a cub, which in itself was over twice the size of a domestic cat.
A few months later a couple of sheep were found dead. The evidence pointed to big cats and a call was made to the local police. The official line was dogs had done it.
Suffice it to say, after this point I never saw anymore sign of big cats in the area. It was as if they had disappeared.
'Rumour' has it that 'The Police' organised a team to secretly 'remove' the Cats and that the whole thing was 'hush hush'. 'Rumour' also has it, that this sort of excercise is not uncommon!!!!!!
Is this 'Nanny State' protection to save us all from these 'nasty killer cats'?
Or to try and keep on top of what may become a major problem?
Is it the result of outdated and ignorant policy?
Or is it to try and hide something bigger?
Maybe somebody just likes to try and keep us in the dark, or maybe I have an over-active imagination.
Or maybe I'm just having a boring day?

This link shows how things can get confusing:
http://www.cryptomundo.com/bigfoot-report/baglan-beast-myth-or-alien-big-cat/

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this further food for thought.

 

[Razorstrop]

Where is favourite for a bushcraft meet to try and see track or photograph these?
Could be a good "theme" for a meet, do what we do anyway just put a little effort into having a look, a lot better than fishing.
It is one of those things that can't be proven wrong only proven right, but there are that many rumours from different areas and people there must be something to the stories, musn't there?

I've mentioned this before and think its a great idea for the bushcrafters/ budding cryptozoologists that are amongst us, kinda got my hands tied up with the North Spring meet at the minute, but if someone else wants to pick up the baton with it I'd certainly do all I can to attend.

Mr Strop