Cougars in Great Britain

[george]

Early eighties, staying for a couple of days at Crossburn bothy in the galloway hills with a couple of friends. We carried in quite a bit of fresh food and sealed it all in a cooler bag weighed down with rocks and stashed in the burn to keep it cool. (it was mid June and hot) With the dozen tins of beer or so that we had brought, the bag weighed around 25lbs.

We went for a wander to have a quick look at the area and were gone about 2 hours. When we came back the bag was missing. A set of huge - and I mean as big as my hand, pug marks led out of the water on the opposite side of the burn from the bothy. They were quite distinctly cat like. There were no drag marks from the bag, it must have been carried clear of the soft ground at the edge. We lost the tracks about 30ft from the edge of the burn - none of us were any good at tracking and the ground got very stony there. We didn't look too much further and needless to say didn't wander too far from the bothy when going for a pee in the middle of the night! Still got no idea what on earth took the bag but I like to regale my kids with the story of "The day a Puma ate my breakfast"!

(I never did find the tins of beer and I always wonder if it enjoyed them as much as my bacon and my sausages!)

George

 

[RAPPLEBY2000]

my wife saw a big cat!

she was at a pony club meeting in northamptonshire, and took her then 4year old brother into the local woods for a walk, walking up one of the forest tracks an adult panther walked across in front about 20 ft from her, she never reported it from fear that she would be laughed at!

she just let it walk past and then walked away quickly.

she says that often when people ride horses you can get really close to deer and other wildlife (as the animals see you as part of the horse or related to a horse therefore not a threat? something like that.)
anyway prehaps more deer or wildlife would have been around that day and so the panther sensed it and was looking for an easy kill? :shock:
she doesn't know if it saw her :!:

 

[Keith_Beef]

my wife saw a big cat!

she was at a pony club meeting in northamptonshire, and took her then 4year old brother into the local woods for a walk, walking up one of the forest tracks an adult panther walked across in front about 20 ft from her, she never reported it from fear that she would be laughed at!

she just let it walk past and then walked away quickly.

she says that often when people ride horses you can get really close to deer and other wildlife (as the animals see you as part of the horse or related to a horse therefore not a threat? something like that.)
anyway prehaps more deer or wildlife would have been around that day and so the panther sensed it and was looking for an easy kill? :shock:
she doesn't know if it saw her :!:

My great aunt Pol used to have a big cat that lived with her near to lake Windermere. It used to catch rabbits for her.


Keith.