Big Cats In Britain? Anyone buy in to this....

[JazMerkin]

I've heard this, I actually read a book about it a few years ago. That argued that there was some kind of new breed of big cat in Britain, although I don't buy that, it is possible that there is a small number of them that came from those released into the wild when it became illegal to keep them. It's not beyond possibility that they could be a small number of them living in the wild. Assuming they were leopard-sized, it's unlikely they'd face any real competition for prey where they were, so they wouldn't really have the need to leave their habitat (I was a real nerd about big cats growing up, not that you can tell ).

[TheMacMagician]

I've heard this, I actually read a book about it a few years ago. That argued that there was some kind of new breed of big cat in Britain, although I don't buy that, it is possible that there is a small number of them that came from those released into the wild when it became illegal to keep them. It's not beyond possibility that they could be a small number of them living in the wild. Assuming they were leopard-sized, it's unlikely they'd face any real competition for prey where they were, so they wouldn't really have the need to leave their habitat (I was a real nerd about big cats growing up, not that you can tell ).

Man, I'm really in to it actually. Your right on the release of animals when the act changed. It was 1976 I think. Became Illegal withouta license, and an expensive one at that. I know there is a chap who used to live in the same borough as me who was a Lion tamer back in the 70's, he admitted to releasing to big cats into the moors near my house on the Snake Pass between Glossop and Sheffield. One was a Bobcat and the other I can't quite remember. I used to be in to this subject years ago too when younger, my friend used to read Fortean Times. Bizarre I know, just started getting back into researching about things again. Interesting you replied anyways...

[superheavyrhun]

I used to work as a journalist on a newspaper in Mid Wales and every winter we would have similar stories running, basically as the wildlife hibernated in the forests, the cats had to hunt and you'd have a reasonable number of sheep being killed for meat by what was assumed to be big cats.

The RSPCA guys I talked all seemed to think that it was a perfectly plausible situation, as the bigger cats can easily cover larger distances, and the attacks were different to those by foxes.

The most interesting one I had was when there was a reasonable layer of snow on the ground, and the size and spacing of pawprints were clearly something bigger than a fox, and the attack was pretty gruesome, although I expect fox attacks would be gruesome too.

[Snakey]

We have the same stories here. There is rumoured to be panthers/panther near a place called Lithgow in Australia and there has been multiple sightings. Also there was footage of what looked like a panther stalking a kangaroo which was taken by a group who was camping near the area, they went back the next day and there was remains of a kangaroo. So its basically like Loch Ness monster, shit loads have seen it but no hard proof.

[TheMacMagician]

We have the same stories here. There is rumoured to be panthers/panther near a place called Lithgow in Australia and there has been multiple sightings. Also there was footage of what looked like a panther stalking a kangaroo which was taken by a group who was camping near the area, they went back the next day and there was remains of a kangaroo. So its basically like Loch Ness monster, shit loads have seen it but no hard proof.

Thats pretty weird you mention that man, I recently watched and Alien Big cat program in Australia the other night man. Just caught it on youtube. They were in Melbourne and Sydney if I remember correct and apparently they sent three different lots of Big Cat poo to some aussie gov testing lab, and all three times it came back as plain old Dog poo.... But the funny and alarming thing was, that the last time they sent in the poo for testing, they actually got it from a zoo, guaranteed Leopard poo, and the Aussie testing lab still sent back the results as Dog poo. Ha Make of that what you wish...

[Snakey]

Thats pretty weird you mention that man, I recently watched and Alien Big cat program in Australia the other night man. Just caught it on youtube. They were in Melbourne and Sydney if I remember correct and apparently they sent three different lots of Big Cat poo to some aussie gov testing lab, and all three times it came back as plain old Dog poo.... But the funny and alarming thing was, that the last time they sent in the poo for testing, they actually got it from a zoo, guaranteed Leopard poo, and the Aussie testing lab still sent back the results as Dog poo. Ha Make of that what you wish...

Yeah there hasnt been any publicised sightings for a while. But I remember seeing the video of this cat stalking a kangaroo and fuck it was either one over grown house cat or a panther...panthers would have it ruff here, most things that they would want to eat can kill them lol Kangaroos are quite dangerous, theres that many snakes in the scrub that can kill an animal with one bite. How cool would it be to add Panthers to australias list of deadly animals lol

[TheMacMagician]

Yeah there hasnt been any publicised sightings for a while. But I remember seeing the video of this cat stalking a kangaroo and fuck it was either one over grown house cat or a panther...panthers would have it ruff here, most things that they would want to eat can kill them lol Kangaroos are quite dangerous, theres that many snakes in the scrub that can kill an animal with one bite. How cool would it be to add Panthers to australias list of deadly animals lol

Damn good point man. I find the idea of living in amongst that kinda game in Aus a bit daunting to say the least man...

[Howlin Mad Missy]

Man, I'm really in to it actually. Your right on the release of animals when the act changed. It was 1976 I think. Became Illegal withouta license, and an expensive one at that. I know there is a chap who used to live in the same borough as me who was a Lion tamer back in the 70's, he admitted to releasing to big cats into the moors near my house on the Snake Pass between Glossop and Sheffield. One was a Bobcat and the other I can't quite remember. I used to be in to this subject years ago too when younger, my friend used to read Fortean Times. Bizarre I know, just started getting back into researching about things again. Interesting you replied anyways...

I used to read that...and travel that area as well..

it wouldn't surprise me. Do foxes take down much bigger prey? We've watched them sit and wait for a cat to finish eating scraps before they've moved in. Didn't square off but then again if it were hungry we might have seen some action.

[TheMacMagician]

I used to read that...and travel that area as well..

it wouldn't surprise me. Do foxes take down much bigger prey? We've watched them sit and wait for a cat to finish eating scraps before they've moved in. Didn't square off but then again if it were hungry we might have seen some action.

Crazy Magazine hey I remember as a teenager reading some crazy stories about blood sucking vampire dogs and all kindsa unusual, borderline lunacy.... Ha. Nice area to travel round here. I've walked right over the tops round here for miles too, certainly bump in to landscape that you never experienced never mind animals. When your up there you can certainly imagine bumping in to big cats or the like? Quite eery in places.

[Scrap]

ever got lost up there are we talking Kinder or Bleaklow.

[CFH]

We have tons of them around here and we get sightings in town on a periodic basis. A cougar came into our backyard and killed/chased away our two cats when I was a kid.

[TheMacMagician]

We have tons of them around here and we get sightings in town on a periodic basis. A cougar came into our backyard and killed/chased away our two cats when I was a kid.

Wow, thats sounds absolutely amazing. I remember a while back watching a realy good program, think it was based in Somerset if I remember right. They had two trackers / fur trapper chaps come over from Canada to search out certain places and look at evidence and photos. One of the guys was a Canadian called Mike Jones I think and the other dude was actually a british guy who had been working as a cat trapper in canada for the last 20 years or something. They weren't covinced by the evidence that they saw that anything was kicking around in Somerset anyways...

[TheMacMagician]

ever got lost up there are we talking Kinder or Bleaklow.

Hey Scrap, been up to both man. Bleaklow out that way can get very bleak man. Some desrted looking scape up there. Just gravel and rocks on some spots... Strange, eerie and very windy place. Not got lost yet, despite how geeky it is, I always carry a map and compass.