[Alex90]

I have no doubt there are big cats around in the UK, and have had a few friends see them.

There was a big cat over my way that a friend told me about when speaking to him, He used to keep chickens out the back of his house around 10 years ago and one morning woke up to the sound of the chickens panicking went out and saw a large black cat jump straigh up onto the roof of the garages (7ft) he ran roudn the back and saw it disappearing into some fields. 2 weeks after this there was a black panther shot and killed on hayling island just over 20 miles away, there was a news paper report on this at the time. Seeing as the guy is an extremely well respected zoologist and has kept hundreds of species in his private collection including leopards, puma's and jaguars i doubt very much whether he would have got this sighting wrong.

there have been a number of incidents where big cats have been killed by cars although most common are lynx and other smaller felines. most of these cases are not highly publicised.

However despite my belief there are certainly big cats around or have been around that map doesnt appear to be terribly reliable seeing as there are big cat sightings in the center of some very large cities including london ... did anyone tell people that zoo sightings don't count?