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

[Unknown2020]

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?

Both my mum and I have seen big, black cats in a similar area 20 years apart. Lots of local sightings, especially around the time my mum saw one.

@DismantleMe our sighting was Fife too.

I’m so glad I started this thread! I love reading all of these. Although by I think I might stay in my house forever

@LemsipLemsipLemsip - Both the sightings I posted about were actually in Norfolk!

www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/reliable-big-cat-sightings-revealed-1229204.html
I've been reading these and thinking about times I've been in deserted areas, seemingly without anything for miles, and got the distinct feeling of being watched, like others have been saying, I thought it was just my very overactive imagination. Which it could be, but also not. The forestry commission believe they are out there

@Ipadipod it was in Erith, near ‘the pit’.

So where are the photos of these things? (Nearly) Everyone has a smartphone these days and happily takes pictures of anything and everything that they see - why aren't there hundreds of photos of these things on this thread?

There are lots of Friend of a Friend (FOAF) stories, and lots of 'about ten years ago under terrible observing conditions' stories but neither of those are proof of anything.

I don't doubt people are genuine in their belief they saw what they perceived to be an anomalous animal but specific dates, times, locations, and photos (of animals or reported pawprints) would be more useful and convincing than unsubstantiated, often second hand, anecdotal stories.

When the law changed (70s or 80s? I can't remember) owners were required to register them, cage them and care for them adequately. Some simply let them go into the wild instead of comply with the law.

Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dangerous_Wild_Animals_Act_1976

Proof from the Forestry commission, who saw them on thermal imaging whist doing a deer census. I've read somewhere before that they navigate by train lines and the canal network in this country, so maybe not many people are hanging out by canals at night!

So where are the photos of these things?

There are loads of pictures!

Try Google: www.google.com/search?q=big+cat+sightings+uk+photos

This is my favourite ever thread. I've been obsessed with big cat sightings since I learnt about the beats of bodmin moor in high school

Beast

Dhs sighting was too sudden to get a photo. A big mountain lion type cat jumped a hedge at night, landed in the middle of a country lane & jumped up over the other hedge. It was over in seconds.

locations, and photos (of animals or reported pawprints) would be more useful and convincing than unsubstantiated, often second hand, anecdotal stories

Most of the posts on this thread have been first hand experiences!

Yes I saw one about 10 years or so ago.

I was driving home at dusk in a fairly remote area when I saw one coming towards me in the middle of the road. I stopped and watched it for a while until it turned off through the hedge into the field.

A couple of days later a sighting was reported in a nearby village. Probably the same one

love this thread

apparently some big cats & other animals have ventured into city areas now the world is on lockdown

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.thesun.co.uk/news/11302340/animals-reclaiming-planet-coronavirus-lockdown/amp/

There’s a female black panther seen occasionally in Oxfordshire/ Buckinghamshire. I’ve seen what are highly likely to be claw marks in a tree, shown to me by someone who had seen it and evidence of her hunting. He gave me a excellent reason for assuming it was a female but I’ve forgotten what it is! It crops up in the papers every now and then

Try Google: www.google.com/search?q=big+cat+sightings+uk+photos

I did. The first image is obviously domestic (possibly feral) black cat in a field. It's a normal looking, bog standard domestic moggy filmed from an unusual angle with nothing nearby to give scale.

The second titled: "Big cat sighting: A massive puma has been spotted in a garden in north London" is obviously a ginger tom eating a pigeon. OR a Puma EATING THE BIGGEST FUCKING PIGEON EVER CAUGHT ON CAMERA! and so on.

There are some pictures that look like panthers or pumas but most are such low resolution and lacking any context that it's impossible to say whether the photo is of a genuine wild animal (and if they are, whether they are in the UK or not) or they are faked as in the case a couple of years ago in Scotland put a cut-out of a panther in a field, shot a few pics and within hours had confirmatory sightings popping up all over the place.

Often when there is confirmatory background/foreground detail (like the one with the solar light there) it shows that the animal is a big cat. Not a puma, panther, lion, lynx or whatever - just a cat. Like the one with the solar light there.

Yes I am 100% certain I saw one. Got on the train at Evesham Station in the Cotswolds early January 2010 I believe. After staying at Lygon Arms over New The train stopped at the next station (towards London). I was sitting on the left hand side and looked out of my window (on my left). Large dark animal - I'd say a panther. There was enough in the scene to give perspective and it was quite close to railway line, which is slightly raised, so I really had the perfect view. I was so shocked and the train moved too quickly for me to have to get a picture. So annoying! However I had and have absolutely no doubt in my mind it was a 'big cat' as opposed to a big cat!

*New Year.
I've never seen anything else out of the ordinary so this was pretty cool. Also couldn't give a stuff who believes it!

TheSandman, I think it would be quite difficult to capture a picture of a big cat. Sightings would only last a few seconds, if that. I struggle to get my phone out and camera on when I want to take a picture of my kids doing something, and I've usually missed it.
What about countries where big cats are native creatures? People still don't see them often.

You’d need a go pro to get a decent shot of them.

If they do exist, apart from the very rare escapee, I would expect;
At least 1 to have been hit by a car in all these years of sightings
At least 1 dead puma / leopard / lynx to have been found by now
Without this I think its dodgy eyesight, dodgy photographs and wishful thinking.

There was one in my village in Cornwall last year according to the news.

KonTikki Where I used to live, a jungle cat was found by the side of the road in 1989. It was stuffed and was in the local museum for years, I saw it not long after moving there as a teenager. Granted, it's not a big cat in the puma, lion category, but it's certainly non native and would have not have got there by itself from the forests of Asia.

If they do exist, apart from the very rare escapee, I would expect; At least 1 to have been hit by a car in all these years of sightings At least 1 dead puma / leopard / lynx to have been found by now Without this I think its dodgy eyesight, dodgy photographs and wishful thinking.

Yep. And suggestion. People jumping (albeit unconsciously) to an explanation for some half-glimpsed, half-understood sighting.

Like the case of the guy who spotted a penguin on the side of Loch Lomond in 2018. He posted about it in social media and other people reported they too had seen penguins in the area. They only stopped seeing them when the SSPCA caught two guillemots and relocated them back to the coast.

So jumping-to-conclusions misidentification coupled with the human brain's weirdnesses in being bad at sizing things out of context, and susceptibility to optical illusion. For example, everyone sees the moon as larger when it's on the horizon than high in the sky. It isn't. And people know that. But they still see it as such.

Even when you are told that the two horizontal lines in this famous optical illusion are the same length (and even after getting a rule and measuring the things!) you will still see them as being different.

I don't deny there may be the odd escapee - though any released back in 1976 when the Dangerous Animals act came in would have died long ago - but to think there is a healthy population of these things lurking around what is one of the more densely (human) populated bits of the globe is an (enjoyable) fantasy.