Large Cats in Forest of Dean!!!!!!!!!
- Thread starter Bushmaster110
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i never thought a forum like this one would degenerate to the point when bitchy comments are going to start....this get some facts going first.shooting the cats.im no expert i dont hold a firearms licence but dont the cats have to be added to your cert.if there not on there you can get in trouble for shooting one.as their not recognised in the uk they wont add it to your cert,ray charles in the countrymans weekly tried but couldnt and he has sightings of caracal and lynx or puma on his land.next the forest of dean.surely a cat would avoid any human/campsite as theres plenty of game here plus free roaming sheep which are much easy prey with the lambs that are now dropping.if any one here had shot one it would be a sheep badger [local name for shepherd]and he,s not going to broadcast it is he.also why hasnt anyone mentioned the feral boar they are far more likely to come to your campsite are nasty now they have reverted back to wild.and a young male was shot just outside coleford,only the other week.the last thing i want when i walk my dog through the woods is loads of t***s trying to knock off a big cat .all im going to now say is there was some strange animals got dumped here last year that were caught. 
moocher said:
Wild boar do exist, they are not native to the UK anymore, these are escapees, now breeding.
Can the same be said for big cats?
Strange that your happy with a load of t***s shooting boar but not big cats, why is that?
Even stranger that you would be happy to walk your dog in a wood infested with big cats mind you.
John
Stuart said:Bushmaster110 = Troll
so could you all stop playing his game now
I am starting to wonder myself... If there are any photos I would very much like to see them.
im not happy about the boars being shot the one outside of coleford i heard through a neighbour.and the woods are not infested with big cats only deer and squirrels .if there were cats in the woods outside my village my dog would have flushed it as it does with anything else from fallow deer to robins.Hunter_zero said:
moocher said:
Do you agree that the deer need to be shot?
I'm not 'having-a-go' at you in any way. Just like to know your opinions and feelings on the matter.
In my spare time I do manage deer. I stress MANAGE deer and not slay deer. Any fool can shoot a deer, that's the easy bit. Selecting the right deer to cull is where the skill is needed. The hard work comes after the shot.
I for one, believe that if we are to have a sustainable boar population, correct management of the species is paramount. The government has already considered a total cull on boar.
John
Stuart said:Bushmaster110 = Troll
so could you all stop playing his game now
...you mean this guy with 4 posts on the forums, the guy who claims there is more lions in Gloucestershire than the masai mara, Lions which have been dining on all the piddling pooches in the forrest of dean ...Lions which are actually bullet proof ...and that our ignorance of this is all part of a government cover-up to protect the tourist industry. ...You mean he might be 'avin a giraffe?
No.
I wish I hadn't opened up about my alien encounter now. I feel violated.
Martyn said:...you mean this guy with 4 posts on the forums, the guy who claims there is more lions in Gloucestershire than the masai mara, Lions which have been dining on all the piddling pooches in the forrest of dean ...Lions which are actually bullet proof ...and that our ignorance of this is all part of a government cover-up to protect the tourist industry. ...You mean he might be 'avin a giraffe?
No.
I wish I hadn't opened up about my alien encounter now. I feel violated.
This is a bit scary Martyn........................Im going to agree with ya
That Alien thing must have been terrible
The Joker said:This is a bit scary Martyn........................Im going to agree with ya
That Alien thing must have been terrible
I'm traumatised mate.
Martyn said:I'm traumatised mate.
Not as much as me with the thought that I have of you and a bunch of Aliens
Banned? for participating in a wind up? Nah, that's allowable
However.......the same can't be said of some of the posts in this thread.
I reckon they make this really a thread more appropriate to Fair Game......or is that too sureal
Might find the thread moved folks.
cheersm,
Toddy
However.......the same can't be said of some of the posts in this thread.
I reckon they make this really a thread more appropriate to Fair Game......or is that too sureal
Might find the thread moved folks.
cheersm,
Toddy
Wayland said:
I thought most of them used wireless hotspots these days to they couldn't be traced....?
hi hunterzero i agree the deer need managing here as there is a lack of vegetation for them.every where i go the woods have a lack of undergrowth and the only thing i find around is grass or brambles as anything succulent like dandelions/thistles have vanished.and they have stiff competion with rabbits and sheep,which ive noticed are going further into the woods now instead of browsing the road verges,another animal needing mangement is the grey squirrel which is really numerous here.the boar i feel need keeping in check due to swine fever being passed to pigs and they have no natural preadaters? here apart from the welsh lurcher boys,with their bull/greyhounds.i think you may have misunderstood me or ive not explained myself well.the point i was trying to raise is when a new animal appears some people tend to go crazy and head off into the woods to try and bag one and last thing we need is people taking potshots everywhere.
moocher said:
Yes totally agree with that.
Problem is that until some form of legislation has been agreed and passed, people taking potshots ( not correctly descriptive as they would be unlikely to actually eat the cats) is what will and could happen *if* big cats did exist in the UK.
Even the police would be powerless to stop this, that is until a precedent has been set.
The law as it stands, would mean a chap using a .22rf rifle could take 'potshots' at a big cat with no legal constraints.
My simple point though out this thread (for which I seem to have taken some flack) is that *if* big cats did exist in the UK, they need to be proven to exist before any legislation can be passed. Film is not going to prove anything. Tracks will not prove anything. Dead prey will not do a thing. IMHO the only real way would be to actually film a group of "big cats", and produce either a live or dead beast from that group. The cat can be autopsied to prove diet. This would be the only real true way to prove existence BUT I would suggest that such proof would never make it to the public. Why would I opt for a dead beast? Simply due to respecting the cats. Do *I* think big cats exist in the UK, well I've openly put a £2k bounty on the chance to prove they do.
As I guess this will be the last post for me on the subject, I don't really apologize to anyone who finds me brash over *killing* fluffy things. It's my job, day in day out. I get paid to bump furry little things off. I am and never will be coy about killing. If you eat meat or wear leather or eat any agri grown food stuff then you would be a hypocrite to decry animal control. We live in the real world, where if we were all blond, blond would be drab.
John
Stuart said:
Butter my buttocks!
Never mind big cats in blighty, some thing stranger has happened:
I'm agreeing with Stuart on something!
I have seen at least three cougar locally, a small tan, a large tan, and a black. Running into one on the trail is quite scary.
I just watched a show on Discover channel last night about cougar on Vancouver Island in British Colombia. Seems they have the highest concentration of attacks on man in the Americas. They believe the man attacks are most often (if not always) by juvenile cats who've been chased away by their mothers and do not yet have finely honed hunting skills. Combined with the fact that Vancouver Island does not have a very large population of small animals (no rabbits) for juvenile cats to subsist on - and the increasing number of humans invading the wild in that area - people become an alternative food source. In other areas, the young cougars largely subsist on rabbits and the like until they are able to take larger prey like deer , elk, and even moose.
PG
I just watched a show on Discover channel last night about cougar on Vancouver Island in British Colombia. Seems they have the highest concentration of attacks on man in the Americas. They believe the man attacks are most often (if not always) by juvenile cats who've been chased away by their mothers and do not yet have finely honed hunting skills. Combined with the fact that Vancouver Island does not have a very large population of small animals (no rabbits) for juvenile cats to subsist on - and the increasing number of humans invading the wild in that area - people become an alternative food source. In other areas, the young cougars largely subsist on rabbits and the like until they are able to take larger prey like deer , elk, and even moose.
PG
British Red said:
As to skulls and bones - every year I butcher seven to ten deer and dump the leftovers, hide, skull, bones, on the far end of my property. By spring, I'm lucky to find a shin bone left in place. Scavengers take care of them.
Also - As to Canadian trappers having expertise as to cat tracks - if your livelyhood depends on knowing what kind of animals are in the woods by their tracks - you quickly become expert. I only trapped for a few years in my teens, and I can tell the difference between cougar, lynx, and bobcat. There is quite a difference between cougar and the other two, and bobcat and lynx have a very different way of going through the woods which is easily recognized. Lynx have very furry feet, and on new snow you can see the "puff" around the track caused by the fur. Lynx usually have a longer stride and will walk the length of any log they come to. Bobcats do not do this. Cat tracks are also much different than wolf as wolf most often seem to be going in a straight line while cat tracks meander all over the place.
Bobcat and lynx tracks do look very similar, though the bobcat tracks are generally smaller. They are "rounder" in appearance than a cougar track, and the cougar's toes are larger in appearance. The main pad on a cougar track is different as well, often having kind of a U shape to the back of the pad.
Actually, I'm not sure how well I'm explaining this, but a cougar track will raise the hair on the back of my neck as soon as I see it, while lynx and bobcat tracks do not have this effect on me.
We have many large cats in the woods here, but I've never seen bones or skulls in the woods.
As to local attacks - we are wondering if some of the pets taken - usually ascribed to timber wolves - are not, in fact, being taken by cougars. There are also two instances of horses showing up with claw marks on the flanks and claw and teeth marks on the neck. This indicates to me that something was astride the horse's back. Very different from a wolf attack. Cougar go for the neck. Wolf attacks are more often shoulders, ribs, abdoman - at least those I've seen where the horse, or other large animal gets away.
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