The beasts on the moors.

[Wild-Woman]

Has anyone on WAB ever seen one of the 'big cats' that are said to be roaming around the countryside? Last year there was supposed to have been one in a lane near my home. The chap who saw it was an off duty copper. Real or a myth? What do you think? ww

[lol geoff]

Originally Posted by Wild-Woman

The chap who saw it was an off duty copper. Real or a myth? What do you think? ww

Why would he lie about his job?

[Boddie]

Originally Posted by lol geoff

Why would he lie about his job?

fantastic

[Adam]

Originally Posted by lol geoff

Why would he lie about his job?

Very funny.

But seriously, I have been thinking about Wild cats in Britain recently, although they can't be common - there could be a chance.

I read something in the Metro a few weeks back that told a story about a farmer who had shot some wild animals in his fields and when the police inspected his larder, there was a dead Lynx hanging in there.

[Mark43]

Well i am sure there has to be something in it.

To many reported for it to be just a myth.

If you think of all the other animals/birds that escape from zoos and private collections and set up home quite happily in the wild then why shouldn't big cats do the same.

[life through a lens]

I'd imagine a lot of them were released from private collections once they weren't so cute and since tougher laws were introduced with regards to keeping them.

A good site for more reading is the British Big Cats website:

http://www.britishbigcats.org/index.php

Olly

[Gill Catton]

when I worked at my village pub, the chef from the rival (but we were all friends really) pub once got knocked off his bike by a Badger in the dark and over a few (ahem....) drinks one night, someone dared him to report it as a big cat to a newspaper and The Sun actually ran the story........

[pheonix]

Im not going to say that i don't beleive they are about, but why hasn't any decent evidence emerged like good photoss, ever?!
its quite possible that they have escaped or been released after the dangerous wild animals act was bought in, but where are they? why hasn't anyone come up with a decent believable report??

[gez]

there have been good pics. and also dead cats found. a lynx & others i belive. a workmate lives near wooler. has only been there a short time & brought in some pics on her naff digi. i thought they were a big cat!!!.in my youth i was a hunter/tracker so took a great interest in the pics, they were big as a labs but had no claw marks. just waiting/hopeing for her to come in one day with a cat pic ?

[Nicola Main]

A few years back now there were reports of a black panther roaming around not far from my house in Carnoustie near to a cemetery. It was nicknamed the 'Barry Beast' by the locals and people were afraid to go up that way for a while. Eventually after a few months someone was brave enough to go up there to have a scout around and see if he could find anything. No big cat but he did find an ordinary black cat hunting for mice along the overgrown bank just before you get to the cemetery gate. Was it the reputed Barry Beast or a completely different cat altogether? We shall never find out. There are hundreds of reports all over the UK of big cats surely not all of them are fake?!?

[Wild-Woman]

If these big cats do exist, I should think they would live a very sad and stress filled life. In the wild, they probably wouldn't come across roads and humans very much.ww

[lol geoff]

Originally Posted by Wild-Woman

If these big cats do exist, I should think they would live a very sad and stress filled life. In the wild, they probably wouldn't come across roads and humans very much.ww

Funny you should say that ww but when you see these 'Safaris' on telly the shout goes up "cheetah over there" and about 20 vehicles all steam over to have a look, so they might have a more peaceful life over here than in their natural environment.

[eeyore]

When i used to work on a golf course a few years ago we had a resident lynx ( and we can do without any golf links jokes), we used to see it killing Rabbits while we were moving sprinklers arround at night. Eventually we cage trapped it and it turned out to be a very rare iberian lynx - it is now doing its "manly duty" as part of the captive breeding programme.

I have also seen a cheetah at large on Salisbury plain whilst working down there as a contractor. and a freind of mine claims to have seen a very large puma type cat in cannock chase.

[midnightfox]

There were once reports of a black panther in our area. We actually got quite spooked out because we decided to explore the other sidde of the wood(it is split in half by a small road). We found a lamb that could not have been taken by a Fox or dog, because it was to well-grow for a Fox and it had not be torn at as by a dog. The we found a 'lair', a large patch of ground under the protection of a half-fallen tree and some mistletoe- there was a large area of earth with no vegetation and our old dog Jake who has sadly sinced passed away was sniffing frantically around the area.
But I probably simply have an overactive imagination!

[paulthomas]

Originally Posted by eeyore

and a freind of mine claims to have seen a very large puma type cat in cannock chase.

There were lots of sighting of it some years ago. Not heard or read anything about it for some time though so I assume it either died or moved on.

[nightshade]

Most people are awful observers they just cannot estimate size or distance correctly,it needs training and practise, having said that I would not doubt that somewhere there are escapees that are eking a living in this cold grey land

[eeyore]

The freind who saw the puma in cannock is a zoo keeper originally from canada so I'm relatively sure that he knows what a puma looks like.

[RobF]

With modern thermal imaging gear, night vision, trail cams etc why aren't there any decent pics? I think most of the sightings are of dogs.

Rob

[ugly1]

Hi all I'm new to WAB so hi to everyone :-) I have been studying the science and art of tracking for about 3 years now, I am very interested in any sightings of big cats in the south of the uk as it is risibly easy to establish weather a sighting is trueor not because of the tracks and other signs left. I have been to a few sighting and quickly established that they are either domestic cats or total bull so any info would be great, I have been keen on observing wild life for many years and it is great to find a forum dedicated to the UK.

U

[canonman]

Hi
Not sure if it's true of just a myth, bit like the Loch ness monster.
But you would have thought there would have been concrete proof one way or another by now.
If there had been big cats out there what are they feeding on, the odd bird or Rabbit i would think would not be enough.
Mick

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by canonman

Hi
Not sure if it's true of just a myth, bit like the Loch ness monster.
But you would have thought there would have been concrete proof one way or another by now.
If there had been big cats out there what are they feeding on, the odd bird or Rabbit i would think would not be enough.
Mick

In upland environments hill farmers expect a certain percentage of their sheep to go missing anyway so a few big cat kills could easily go unnoticed. The exmoor beast in the 80s was undoubtedly feeding on sheep, the official line was that it was a dog, but this dont explain why they kept finding sheep carcases up trees

Then there are deer....

The smaller big cats such as lynx, serval, leopard cat, etc routinely feed on Rabbits, hares and rodents in their natural environment so there is certainly no reason why they couldnt do the same here.

[sparrow]

There has been a few sitings in Scotland where I live, but can they survive in such cold winter weather? Food would not be such a problem for them as the deer population is very high at the moment. I'm a new member so if these questions are stupid I promise to improve in the coming months and years!

[eeyore]

leopards and jaguars might have an issue with the cold, but lynx, cougar, snow leopard and aumur tiger (the latter 2 are very unlikely to be loose in the highlands) are adapted for much colder temperatures than those we experience.

[Mr Mag00]

A very close friend of mine saw a large spotted cat in Dorset about 18 months ago approx 1030pm whilst driving home, it crossed the road infront of her. She is not one for elaborate stories and extremely level headed. Ugly1 I know it is much later but if you want to contact her iam sure she would talk to you on the phone i can give you co-ordinates of the spot as i travel it every day, she did report to the big cat society?.

I have also heard what i believe to be a large cat. I was working one night in the late winter early spring at a house whose garden backs on to a small copse. as i left the building there was this almighty howl that made the hair on my neck stand, still does , and the sound moved very quickly through the copse. I have heard deer, foxes etc at night this was nothing like anything i heard before or since. The house owner also heard the noise above his stereo and came out to investigate whilst showing some concern for his domestic moggy, this was not a domestic moggy! which incidentally turned up after missing for 4 or 5 days hiding in a nearby barn judging by the state of him, the cat that is!

Ugly1 I believe there have been a number of reported sitings in the North Dorset area, I remember reading the Blackmore Vale magazine a number of yaers ago where someone reported hitting a large cat near Rawlsbury fort, bulbarrow area, the report i believe stated that a DEFRA person came and collected the specimen. I think the article was written by Judy Nash, so it may be worth contacting Blackmore Vale Magazine.

I firmly believe they are wild in our countryside. there are large tracts of unused (in a recreational, intensively farmed manner not true wilderness) countryside, in Dorset alone you can get from one side of the County to the other without being near habitation I have checked the map! There are large areas of over grown coppice, broadleaf and plantantion that nobody for years has ventured in to. So finding evidence could be really hard.