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Original poster

Big cat sightings - Do you believe in them or have you seen any?

270 replies

Unknown2020 · 06/04/2020 17:44

So I’m fully prepared I may get told I’m crazy...

I live rurally, think fields backing onto each other, forests etc..

One day a few years back I was driving down a quiet country lane and in the distance I saw something black creeping along in the field amongst the corn growing. I actually came to a stop in a little lay by and watched thinking maybe it was a lost dog (nothing else about for miles, and not a typical walking area) On further watching it was definitely not a dog, it was like a cat but much bigger/longer and with a long tail and it moved about like a cat.

I mentioned it to a family member at the time and they said they were sure many years ago of seeing a puma that ran across in front of there car. Again too big to be a cat/too big to be a dog but moved like a cat.

Has anyone else actually spotted anything like this in the UK?

OP posts:

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TheSandman · 15/04/2020 14:56

BTW does anyone have any idea of the qualifications, or the CV, of Big Cat 'expert' Frank Tunbridge? He seems to be the go-to guy for journo's trying to stand up a "Biggish Kitten in a Field! Is this the Beast of Chipping Onger?!" type stories.

I've been unable to find anything about that makes him an 'expert' in anything other than his self-proclaimed expertise.

Big cat sightings - Do you believe in them or have you seen any?

JKScot4 · 15/04/2020 15:00

@Sandman
He seems to be an ‘enthusiast’, there’s another guy Rick Minter who is an environmental consultant and seems in demand, I’ve read up quite a bit on him, this thread made me search too much 🤣

IAmcuriousyellow · 15/04/2020 15:09

I saw a large black cat style creature one autumn three years ago near the junction of the A34 and A303. The field had been cut and sheep had been put in to graze the stubble, they were all close together in one corner of the field which sloped up from the road and an enormous long low cat was walking straight across the middle. No slinking by the hedge, just calmly making its way across - long bulky tail, large head, I’m 100% certain of what I saw and if my adult daughter hadn’t been with me maybe nobody would believe me, but it was no dog and way larger than a domestic cat.

Interested in this thread?

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Spooky & paranormal

TheSandman · 15/04/2020 15:21

Gods, I love that word 'consultant'. All it means is that someone once asked your opinion on something.

"What do you want for your tea?"
"I don't know - what is there?"
"How should I fecking know - you're the consultant."
"What? Since when?"
"Since I asked you wanted for your tea!"

TheSandman · 15/04/2020 15:22

""Since I asked you what you wanted for your tea!"

Bum! I messed up the punchline.

LoveMySituation · 15/04/2020 15:33

Those are Golden Retrievers Sandman

PotholeParadise · 15/04/2020 15:37

It was a cat. An ordinary cat.

P.S. something I left out. I looked it up later that day, and I concluded that it looked just like a Savannah cat, which are a Serval-domestic cat hybrid, kept as pets. Very expensive! It would have lived in one of the houses nearby.

I think the combination of its markings and its stride tricked my eyes into seeing it as far bigger than it actually was. Eyes. Bloody useless sometimes!

TheSandman · 15/04/2020 16:48

@LoveMySituation

Those are Golden Retrievers Sandman

So they are. I stand corrected. I did say earlier in the thread I'm not a dog person. They are brownish dog shaped things therefore, to my non dog-liking brain, Labradors. (Despite it actually saying Golden Retriever in the caption to the photo. D'oh!)

BTW, what's the difference? They both just look like biggish, yellowish dogs to me.

steppemum · 15/04/2020 17:29

I know what I saw: a big cat stalking across a field. It genuinely seemed just like that. I also know that it wasn't true.

yes, and that trick of persepctive and light and angle can really fool the eye.

and so I would say that IAmcuriousyellow probably saw an unusual cat from an unusual angle, which set against the slope of the field and the sheep at an unusual angle tricked the eye.

I think also that there are some cats that don't look like domestic cats, their body shape and way of walking is different, and possibly unusual markings, so again, tricks the eye.

LoveMySituation · 15/04/2020 17:37

They're bigger and fluffier, I'm not a dog person either Sandman even more so now I'm forced to listen to next doors yappy bastard set off umpteen times a day

Moonflower12 · 15/04/2020 18:38

@TheSandman

As I only live up the road to Great Alne I have just taken the precaution of shutting my back door! Just in case.

Going home a few years ago when we lived in Rutland we had a large slinky animal crossing the road in front of us, on a very rural road.
I later found out that there had been many sightings along this road of something similar and large cat like footprints found.

Hence shutting the back door-even though I'm sure my spaniel sized spaniel would alert me!

Geepipe · 15/04/2020 19:31

Another question i have is why is most sightings big black cats? I though large black cats are a rare genetic thing so would be weird if most here if real were black?

steppemum · 15/04/2020 19:42

Geepipe.
hmm, so large cats being black (panther etc) are a rare genetic thing, but domestic cats being black are as common as muck....

I do think that over the years there must have been feral big cats. released from zoos and escaped from illegal private collections etc. It wouldn't surprise me even if some of these bred and survived for a couple of generations

Interesting though that none of the animals sighted are male lions or tigers, both of which are probably very common amongst the private collections and zoos. Instead most of the ones sighted are similar shapes and colours to domestic cats.
I think most sightings are mistakes, but that doesn't mean some sightings might be real

LoveMySituation · 15/04/2020 19:55

There are lynx coloured ones sighted too. Maybe the black ones were more striking as pets etc, so moee ended up in the wild. But as this video shows, they're not totally black..

Geepipe · 15/04/2020 20:13

I just googled. Large black cats are melanastic (sp) and not common. But i have also just seen in kenya they have found black servals which look amazing and fit the description of labrador sized black cats that are fast and ellusive. Although where would they have come from and could they survive britains temoeratures.

TheSandman · 15/04/2020 20:39

"Another question i have is why is most sightings big black cats? I though large black cats are a rare genetic thing so would be weird if most here if real were black?"

Presumably for the same reason that the New World Order that was due to take over everything toward the latter half of the twentieth century always flew around in Black Helicopters. It's sexier that Brown.

steppemum · 16/04/2020 14:30

I know many that are spotted are lynx coloured, as I said:

ones sighted are similar shapes and colours to domestic cats.

but you never hear of big cats being spotted who are tiger striped or have a lions mane, or who are proper leopard spots. if they were there due to released from private collections,I would expect tigers to feature much more highly

MrsCastiel · 23/04/2020 21:19

Did you see this? Doesn't look domestic to me and a good shot for once.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/womans-snap-muscular-wild-puma-21907684

TofutiKline · 23/04/2020 22:49

Hmm that’s more like it....

TheSandman · 23/04/2020 23:58

And that looks like a domestic British Grey in a bush. I used to have one that looked very like that. The low resolution level makes it obvious that this is cropped down out of a much larger photo. I'd want to see the unedited picture before I could make any real judgement.

Callimanco · 24/04/2020 00:20

A family member saw a large black cat in rural Suffolk at dusk about 15 years ago. Driving a single track road, it was sitting on the tarmac. She stopped the car and it slinked off. Family member is rock solid reliable. I believe her.

LoveMySituation · 29/04/2020 15:47

www.capetownetc.com/cape-town/caracal-spotted-in-llandudno/
There's a caracal in Llandudno