Do you believe "big cats" live in this country?

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Fourwings

I am a farmer and I have been face to face with a Panther at a distance of less than 10 feet and I'm still here!!

Like most other animals big cats would far sooner avoid any contact with man if at all possible. They are an animal designed for stealth and have fantastic senses that allow them to avoid danger.

I've long since given up caring if people believe me or not, thats up to them, but I know what I saw that morning.

I definitely believe you steve, i've seen what i believe was a cheetah wild in buckinghamshire and been present when a lynx was cage trapped.

I also saw a black cat arround 5ft long and 2.5 at the shoulder in the middle of exmoor once about 10ft away - I was sleeping in the car and the camera was in the boot , and believe me there was no way on earth i was going to get out the car to get it.

one question just out of interest, when you say panther do you mean a true panther ie a black leopard - or do you mean in the generic sense that the taploids use the word to mean a puma/cougar/mountain lion.

like you i have no intention of getting into a debate about this , I know what I saw and my freinds know I dont make this stuff up - apart from those who matter , what other folks think think is of little consquence

[anusha]

theres some interesting reading on the uk big cat site...


UK Big Cat Sightings
Monday, March 20, 2006

The British Big Cat Society (BBCS) has produced a report of big cat sightings in the UK. Their conclusion is that the number of Alien Big Cats (ABCs) in the UK could be increasing.

During the period April 2004 to July 2005 the number of reported sightings was a huge 2123. The South West of Britain was the main "hotspot".

According to the BCCS report, around 60% of the reported sightings were of large lack cats, another 32% were of brown or sandy cats thought to be pumas and 6% were lynx-like.

The full report is to be published in the April issue of BBC Wildlife magazine.

[Dogghound]

im finding this subject very interesting however it's abit like UFO'S there are so many people with so many different sightings and there all so different.
these are the sightings in my area

Big Cat Sightings in Scarborough & Ryedale

some of these sightings are less than a mile away from where i am now, but there is so many differences in the types of cat i find it hard to belive, i dont personaly belive in them or at least in the population levels some people refer to, but i have seen large feline looking footprints in my local woodland afew years back and its got me thinking.... im in the middle here, its annoy when people make fakes. on the subject its not a cat, but i have seen a raccoon in my local woodland and i am 100% on that one lol.

[aeshna5]

At back of current British Wildlife, under Conservation News, is a piece where local wildlife liaison officer for Thames Valley Police has exhibits of plastercast of Puma paw print taken from a deer hide in an Oxfordshire wood. Apparently there have been sightings, scratch marks + a dead Muntjac found 23 feet up a tree. Pumas have allegedly bred there- interesting stuff!