Is this evidence of a big cat ??

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Tengu

Full Member
Jan 10, 2006
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Well, isnt it amazing. When people say they have seen a big cat.

It turns out to be a small cat.

Or not a cat.

Why cant the public recognise common domestic animals?
 
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C_Claycomb

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Oct 6, 2003
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Well, isnt it amazing. When people say they have seen a big cat.

It turns out to be a small cat.

Or not a cat.

Why cant the public recognise common domestic animals?

People are just bad at identifying stuff. Many also want to be the one to have seen something special. not really fair to hold it against the public ;)
At least people here only have the idea of big cats to play with their imagination. If you travel the US they have many strange and popular cryptids (Bigfoot/skunk apes et al, dogmen, and skin walkers to name but three) in addition to the real chance of encountering puma, bear, wolves, wild dogs. People say they see some really strange things there!
 

nigelp

Native
Jul 4, 2006
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newforestnavigation.co.uk
I was recently part of an online discussion/talk about big cats in the UK. Looking at various bits of evidence presented, or lack there of I am sceptical. Maybe there are one or two around; I’d like to think so because it would be an exciting thing to see one but that photo is certainly not one!
 

Fadcode

Full Member
Feb 13, 2016
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Cornwall
I find it funny that whenever a big cat, big foot are spotted the pictures are always blurred, even though they look like they are taken from a distance, which normally, would allow the person taking the snap to have the opportunity to focus, etc.
 

C_Claycomb

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Oct 6, 2003
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I am going with Cockapoo. I met a couple walking this one today and asked if I could take a photo!

1617891622122.png

Although a Labradoodle could also be a possible.
 
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Paul_B

Bushcrafter through and through
Jul 14, 2008
6,154
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Cumbria
Could you not move further away and replicate the image? Might make your theory more plausible.

Personally I think it's an earth hound. But then I was trained by professor Xargle in earth hound identification. I can even spot them from my space craft. ;)
 

Kav

Nomad
Mar 28, 2021
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California
Was this in THE BASKERVILLES? We have the myth of 'coy dogs' which do happen, and for some reason collies the most willing. Supposedly these are a super predator with less fear of people and unusual pelage. My DVM did some research and for various reasons the pups are very unthrifty and never reproduce subsequent generations.
We had a silly example of city people back in the early 80s. The dismembered heads and legs of housecats were found strewn all over the local golf course. Rumours of a Satanic cult made up of Hollywood trophy wives sacrificing cats and having lesbian orgies on the grass spread all over town.
Someone claimed to have photographed 13 robed figures with candles Walking across LADYFACE. That is our local low Ridge wih a LONG and DIFFICULT dirt road up to a weather/radio assembly. If you ever watch GRAPES OF WRATH; the scene when the Joads first drive into California shows Ladyface beyond the then agricultural valley. Turn your head to the right and you can see a woman's profile in the peaks.
Ventura Sherriff's department assigned a recent Academy graduate as 'the occult expert' after he attended a single class on comparative religion at the community college. Nice Catholic Chicano who started checking out spray paint graffiti of the local barrio kids looking for inverted pentagrams.
Animal control finally set out some live traps. BANG, and they caught a very large, very fat female. A post mortum revealed her stomach full of cats.
Eventually MY Hiking group realized the group photograph ( zoom lens) by the date was US. Only difference was there were only 9 of us.
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
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McBride, BC
This cat was hanging around country houses where there are animal pets and small children. It turned out to have a broken abscesses tooth and a massive wound in one paw. Note the color. Unless you were away south in Jaguar country, these cats don't have a melanistic coat color phase.
 

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C_Claycomb

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Oct 6, 2003
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In the interest of balance, I am pretty sure that there are some large cats up to puma/leopard size living wild in the UK, but I am sceptical of the 250 of each estimates published in the papers last summer.
 

mimozine

Member
Jan 26, 2021
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north yorkshire
i know some people have spotted a panther around the york area, not been seen for a fair few years now though.

i am lucky enough to know someone who breeds animals on the dwa list. i have played with a lynx and a serval, and tickled a puma (but only through the enclosure). trust me you dont want to come face to face with a big cat in an uncontrolled situation they are awesomely powerful scary creatures.

expect raccoons to be a more common site in uk than big cats
 

C_Claycomb

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Except that loads of people say they see big cats, or signs of them and I have never heard of anyone saying they have seen a racoon here.
 

Broch

Life Member
Jan 18, 2009
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Except that loads of people say they see big cats, or signs of them and I have never heard of anyone saying they have seen a racoon here.

Estimates for racoons in the wild in the UK are in single figures but there is concern that they could breed very fast and that UK milder winters are more suitable to them now. There is a general concern that, if any population did develop, they will devastate ground nesting bird and mammal numbers.

I can't see it being very likely as there are no huge collections of them (as there was for American Mink).
 

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