As for finding bones and corpses, if you ask most people (not interested in bush-craft) how many corpses of squirrels or foxes or rabbits they had seen besides road-kill, I'm sure many of them would say none, yet they have no reason to doubt to existence of these creatures.
british big cats - your views
- Thread starter Siberianfury
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There are certainly big cats loose in the wild in the UK. When I was a kid a local scrap merchant kept a pair of black panthers (I'm unsure of which species) in cages in his yard. When debt collectors called around he'd come out with one on a chain to terrify them. Years later the press interviewed him about what had happened to them. One he had moved on to a private collection that was verified but he swore the other was destroyed by a local vet whom he couldn't recall. Despite investigating and interviewing every vet in a considerable area they were unable to establish if this had actually happened. Having known the individual a little for a long time I have to say he'd think nothing of just releasing it. I mainly tell this story because the cats concerned were black, which brings me to my point. Large black cats are grouped together by most people as 'panthers'. In fact a black panther may be from any number of species including the jaguar and puma. The fascinating thing about melanistic cats is that when they're free to breed in the wild they quickly revert to the common colouring within a few generations. Kinda knocks the whole theory of there being breeding populations out there doesn't it? The odds of a breeding pair of the same species meeting up are remote though hardly impossible. The odds of recently released black specimens meeting up consistently since the 1970's... well let's just say it's unlikely. As I said, there are undoubtedly big cats loose in the UK but the vast majority of sightings are of 'a large black panther like animal'. Most of these sightings can be ignored. The brain is great at filling in the blanks when someone sees something fleetingly or in the distance.
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In my opinion it's is all still just here-say and unsubstantiated reports.Until some chap pops up with a fresh carcase he popped off while it was after some livestock or other or professional testimony or irrefutable video/pictorial evidence then it's just a story down the pub, worth a pint but nothing more.
