Yeah, definately. Wind up or wonderment, investigating stuff is like catnip to me.
TRACKS: Who dunnit?
- Thread starter JonathanD
- Start date
Yeah, definately. Wind up or wonderment, investigating stuff is like catnip to me.
I know this might sound like a daft idea, but, would there be any merit contacting Uncle Ray? I'm sure he'd be interested & would certainly know some people who could help I'd & surveillance.
Tell him there might be some big game hunting in the offing, that may tip the balance
he may have already received a phone call to go to yorkshire ????
:http://news.uk.msn.com/uk/train-affected-by-lion-sighting
So.. What about the track being "too large" for this particular specimen? Or did I misread that the skull and paw mark were not of one and the same?
In hindsight I suppose a Puma would make perfect sense, the colours mean it does not stand out all that much, and even if there are sightings they can easily be confused with either a large dog or a youngster with a cat. Being an ambush predator it will spend a lot of time hiding and also, humans are generally not considered to be prey thus attacks are rare.
I doubt that there is a breeding population though, you'd expect quite a drastic decline in wildlife I'd imagine as there is hardly any competition for prey. Especially when having cubs there would have to be quite a few carcasses around (even though I am aware of the fact that Pumas do hide their victims). Then again, if Pumas only breed once ever 2 to 3 years and become sexually mature at the age of 2(?), typically having around 3(?) cubs it does take a while for a population to establish itself. Would imagine inbred would be a huge problem though? I suppose that fertile lands and not having to worry about predators can speed up the reproduction cycle, or does this only work when there are too many predators?
The idea of a dump site is pretty interesting, although would not account for a paw mark (I just convinced myself it cannot be a dump site due to this). Would death by starvation be an option? Considering the skull belongs to a youngster could it be that it did not learn any hunting skills in captivity thus was not able to fend for itself? I suppose that scavengers can have scattered the bones, but I have no clue what type of scavengers can be found in the UK.
Please note that all of the above is just my personal opinion and might be entirely wrong.. Very interesting finds in this thread though!
In hindsight I suppose a Puma would make perfect sense, the colours mean it does not stand out all that much, and even if there are sightings they can easily be confused with either a large dog or a youngster with a cat. Being an ambush predator it will spend a lot of time hiding and also, humans are generally not considered to be prey thus attacks are rare.
I doubt that there is a breeding population though, you'd expect quite a drastic decline in wildlife I'd imagine as there is hardly any competition for prey. Especially when having cubs there would have to be quite a few carcasses around (even though I am aware of the fact that Pumas do hide their victims). Then again, if Pumas only breed once ever 2 to 3 years and become sexually mature at the age of 2(?), typically having around 3(?) cubs it does take a while for a population to establish itself. Would imagine inbred would be a huge problem though? I suppose that fertile lands and not having to worry about predators can speed up the reproduction cycle, or does this only work when there are too many predators?
The idea of a dump site is pretty interesting, although would not account for a paw mark (I just convinced myself it cannot be a dump site due to this). Would death by starvation be an option? Considering the skull belongs to a youngster could it be that it did not learn any hunting skills in captivity thus was not able to fend for itself? I suppose that scavengers can have scattered the bones, but I have no clue what type of scavengers can be found in the UK.
Please note that all of the above is just my personal opinion and might be entirely wrong.. Very interesting finds in this thread though!
wow thats so familiar to the tracks i found last week on a field and a year ago, i live on a farm near blackness which is 20 mins walk from bo'ness now here the story about the first time i saw theese sort of tracks
it was about 5 am i was woken up by my two indoor siamese cats making a crazy noise like when cats fight i went to see them and they had bottle brush tails but couldnt see anything out the windows so i went back to sleep, when i finally got up at 10 or something there were fresh tracks exactly like this in the mud near the stream really clearly not a dog and too big to be anything else, i immediately got on the net and searched big cat sightings scotland and came up with lots of stuff about a beast of bo'ness!
so theres something to think about, im convinced they are big cat tracks! in fact a while ago on bbc theres a video shot by a policeman of a panther walking along a railway track in the uk :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8172064.stm
im going to look for more of theese tracks and take pics we can compare the two
it was about 5 am i was woken up by my two indoor siamese cats making a crazy noise like when cats fight i went to see them and they had bottle brush tails but couldnt see anything out the windows so i went back to sleep, when i finally got up at 10 or something there were fresh tracks exactly like this in the mud near the stream really clearly not a dog and too big to be anything else, i immediately got on the net and searched big cat sightings scotland and came up with lots of stuff about a beast of bo'ness!
so theres something to think about, im convinced they are big cat tracks! in fact a while ago on bbc theres a video shot by a policeman of a panther walking along a railway track in the uk :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8172064.stm
im going to look for more of theese tracks and take pics we can compare the two
Thanks for the link, I've never seen a video of a possible sighting.....................to me, it moves more like a domestic cat with the high tail carriage & rapid leg mouvements but it's too blurred to really ID it.
thats not my photo its from another article i read im going back to my parents farm next week and i will try and find tracks again and photograph them, the only problem in my big cat theory is that there is a deer park nearby which is part of a stately home and im sure if there was a big cat in the area there would be alot of problems with the deer getting killed or spooked and ive never heard about anything like that.
Some more yooman sign.
I didn't think anyone else would have been in this part of the countryside but evidently they were.
Transfer of mud onto bramble where someone's trodden it down to get through.
I didn't think anyone else would have been in this part of the countryside but evidently they were.
Transfer of mud onto bramble where someone's trodden it down to get through.
The first one is not very clear but the gait would suggest a Lagamorfh, probably a Hare from the size.
2[SUP]nd[/SUP] image Fox Trotting
3[SUP]Rd[/SUP] image Fox bounding.
2[SUP]nd[/SUP] image Fox Trotting
3[SUP]Rd[/SUP] image Fox bounding.
Completely different area but interesting that the national trust are taking it seriously...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ea...-mystery-of-big-cat-sightings-in-Britain.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/11/big-cat-gloucestershire-wood-national-trust
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ea...-mystery-of-big-cat-sightings-in-Britain.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/11/big-cat-gloucestershire-wood-national-trust
Last edited:
Re the skull and tracks on this thread. Bushwhacker has also recieved an amazing email from an expert. I'm not going to publish it as it was in a PM, but I hope he will post the info on this thread as it makes excellent reading.
