british big cats - your views

[Siberianfury]

as far as i can remember there has been speculation that large wild cats such as puma and melanstic leopards have been roaming the british countryside. there are certan areas or hotspots which seem to have more sightings and stories regarding these cats than others, these areas include pembrokshire, forest of dean, mendip hills, north east dorset, cornwall and devon. Some people have even reported sightings of mothers with cubs and kills which display the throat bite marks trade mark to a cat (dogs tend to grab and shake their victims in order to cause maximum damage and compensate for their compartvly short canines.
there is a wild life park in sparkwell devon (bens zoo - as seen on bbc2)
called the dartmoor zoological park, they have/have an enclosure housing two female pumas, which was said to attract a wild male puma, the old owner (now retired) who left out camera trapps and took casts of the cats footprints, and had built up a vast array of evidence.
there have also been to my count 2 attacks on people in the uk from big cats one, a 12 yea old boy from south wales, the other a man from a rural london area i seem to belive.
i live in somerset and hear frequent stories from people who are shure they have seen big cats, i have looked around and found some arguably good evidence on the internet.
There was even a story of a farmer who trapped one of these cats of his land which was attacking his livestock.

Personaly i feel there is far to much evidence for their presence to be denied, i may be wrong and it may all be a load of rubbish (quite alot of it definatly is), but what are your veiws?

http://www.britishbigcats.org/


thanks
josh

 

[Twoflower]

In short, I believe they are out there but I don't believe they would attack people unless seriously provoked. There is lots of evidence to suggest they exist in our wilder places but any of this evidence that is a sighting is the big cat running away.

I can understand the people that doubt they are out there too though, as this is a very small over populated island and there should be more evidence of them.

Unfortunately until there is solid 100% proof then we will never know!

 

[Siberianfury]

im not sure if the attacks are true but i found a link of one attack
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4370893.stm

thats the only one i can find, the one on the boy was on a wildlife documantary a few years ago.

hope this helps
josh

 

[alpha_centaur]

Have any of the trackers on this site seen any tracks even. You'd think that with the number of us lot out in the woods somebody on the site would have seen something,,,

 

[Allie]

There are at least one or two, as I have encountered one on a friend's farm on Exmoor. It wasn't like a huge wild cat, it seemed more like an oversized house cat.. But it definitely wasn't a house cat! Maybe a cross, or something..

 

[saddle_tramp]

Few years ago, i was working on a farm when we got a call to drop everything and get to certain wood fast.

the farmer had been out spraying and seen a big cat enter this wood and wanted everyone to flush the wood so he and his boy could shoot it.

needless to say we found nothing, none of us saw it, or even any sign. But all in all, 9 of us spent over 3 hours looking for that cat, and on paid time. To myself, that settles it that he knew exactly what he saw.

 

[Forest fella]

I'm pretty sure there are afew big cats up here in the Forest of Dean,I know many people who say they've seen them.and there people I trust.

 

[scanker]

I went to Sparkwell a few years ago and heard the tales of the cats there. Apparently wild big cats could be heard responding to the calls of the captive ones. I have no reason to doubt the honesty of these accounts.

My old man has a photo he took in the Lake district of a track which looks cat-like, but bigger than a large dog. I'll try and get him to scan it and post it.

Then again there were reports of a "big cat" in South Wales a few years ago - turned out to be a fox with mange iirc.

Edit: My mistake, it wasn't a "big cat", it was a "wallaby". Shows how errors in sightings are reported though:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3755162.stm

 

[Shewie]

Grrrrr

 

[hiraeth]

I have to be honest and admit to being a sceptic until the year before last, when i saw one myself. Still have not found any tracks in the area, only sorry i did not have a camera with me at the time.

 

[Sniper]

While I was on a stalking holiday for 2 weeks some years ago at a place near Scots Gap in Northumbria, staying in a cottage out in the ulu at the edge of a large wooded area I saw something which I couldn't identify. Now I don't consider myself an expert by any means but I have been shooting from a very young age and I pride myself in being able to spot and identify most of the british wildlife even from a distance especially the larger animals, deer and so on. Again I am no tracker but again can identify many animals from there tracks. However an animal much bigger than a large dog and with very reflective eyes and long tail which moved with the same fluid movement as a cat's tail, long thin body shape, dark colouration, came round the back of this cottage along the treeline. It was about 11 o'clock at night and in winter. We had heard very strange noises most of the evening which again I could not identify, and only spotted this animal when I went out back to bring in more firewood for the woodburner. The woodline is no more than 30 - 40 yds from the back door. Only saw the eye reflection at first and stopped still. I had a very powerful handlamp in my hand and shone it at the area where these eyes were expecting to see a fox or a badger or even a deer, when I did I caught a fleeting glimpse of this animal as it bounded into a large shrub quick as a flash and out of sight. I still have no idea what it was but it had some characteristics of a big cat. The following morning I went out to the spot where this animal was standing and compared height against my labrador who was a very large dog compared to the rest of his breed. This animal I judged (conservatively I may add) was about half as tall again. In fact about the size of a wild boar, but when I spoke to the professional stalker who came to take me out that day told me that there were no boar there but other people had described a similar animal to the one I had described in that immediate area.
I'm not claiming it was or it was'nt but I would never discount it.:Wow:

 

[Sniper]

Oops double post.

 

[sapper1]

I have travelled all over the country as a coach driver and have seen these cats .Mainly at night but I've seen them from edinburgh to lands end mostly i saS them in the Kent area.
I live in south Wales near Port Talbot but I have'nt seen one in this area ,maybe thats because I tend to be away quite a bit.
I know these cats exist,I also know that people know that baby pigeons exist but ask how many people have actually seen one.

 

[alpha_centaur]

I know these cats exist,I also know that people know that baby pigeons exist but ask how many people have actually seen one.

However if you posted "has anybody seen a baby pigeon?" on this site you would find that a lot of us have.

I personally think that they do exist and live in hope of seeing one but don't take all the tales that I've read in the press as gospel.

 

[Barn Owl]

Two points..

Once on nightshift driving south from Ayrshire to D&Galloway,in the h/lights I saw eyeshine of a black large cat.
It moved into the roadside veg' and I noted a long black tail just like a 'puma'.

This was all within seconds and I was driving at speed (lawfully).
The area had sightings previously and sheep kills.

Point two...
Looking through my spotting scope over a water expanse with fields at edges,I saw a large cat in said field..but..when said cat passed cattle it was obviously a farm moggie.

There is an optical illusion using optics where two same size e.g, birds on a shoreline appear larger and smaller within the view.

I've also had plenty sheep carcasses on the hill which is common,but how many deer,badger etc..carcasses do we find when out and about?......

 

[Forest fella]

More talk about the Big Cats,Just had the REVIEW paper through my door and there is a article on the Cats and how someone has got a Paw print impression,and this time they have a proper cast of one.Proof you decide

 

[spiritofold]

About 7 years ago, while me and my kids were playing in the local woods we disturbed an
animal. It was the size of a fox, was brown with a black and light brown striped tail, it stopped and looked at us from about 40 feet away, then ran off into the bushes. I've seen plenty of ferral cats, and some of them can get bigger than your average moggie. This was no ferral cat though. I never had the sense to try and look for tracks at the time, to be honest it put the wind up me!

Still have the image burnt into my mind.

 

[SimonM]

Two points from me...

1. In the days before she met me, SWMBO was seeing a Police officer who worked a rural area of Lancashire. After several "sightings" of a big cat in his area, he was asked to take his shotgun to work in his patrol car. Remember, this was before the days of ARV's being around quickly. Obviously the Police took it seriously enough!

2. Driving home late one night, taking the back roads, a cat about the size of a labrador was standing at the side of the road. As my headlights illuminated it, it turned and jumped a dry stone wall and disappeared from view. I mentioned this to a friend who worked for the RSPCA and he said there had been a few sightings in that area. This was nearly 12 years ago, and I have never made another sighting, despite having been back to the area numerous times.

Simon

 

[mortalmerlin]

I think on balance of probability that there are big cats in the UK.

It sees to me there must be a number of exotic animals animals inported into the UK every year and I would guess a few of them will end up getting released into the wild when their owners don't want to care for them anymore. But how long they survive for I wouldn't like to guess.

Evidence like footprints is very difficult to take as proof becuase even though there might be real ones there will be quite a lot of fakers doing it to.

 

[thewanderer]

just read post regarding sparkwell and the wildlife park close to sparkwell is a village name of hemerdon and above this is the china clay workings My father who is ex navy is water baliff for two lakes belonging to navy fishing club at hemerdon there had been reports of the larger fish going missing so whilst on a evening walk with the dogs round the top lake he claims whilst stopping to sit on a pile of old sleepers to watch the carp feeding on bread he heard a noise behind him as he turned to see a large black animal with yellow eyes which he says was a cat the animal then rose turned and slunk away as my father reached the bank top to see it disapearing into the gorse about 50 60yards away and out of sight. this is close to the park and the lions can be heard roaring
at feeding time whilst sat fishing
i myself have since witnessed a mountain lion (puma) near dipton county durham near to where i now live.