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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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13
JKScot4 · 08/04/2020 20:27

Any of this near you?
bigcatsinsussex.webs.com/apps/blog/categories/show/971725-sightings
I fell down a rabbit hole there of big cat sightings 😹😹

Teddy1970 · 08/04/2020 20:31

Ooh I'll take a look JKScot4, thanks!

Spied · 08/04/2020 20:45

No, but I'd love to ( from a distance)Grin
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Spooky & paranormal
TrashKitten10 · 08/04/2020 21:00

I saw one in the late 90s in rural Lincolnshire. Big, black animal the size of a large dog but looked and moved like a cat and jumped up and sat in a tree as we watched it across the fields opposite my grandmother's house. Later read the newspaper and the top story was about big cat footprints having been found in the local area. I was only young but I'm not sure why none of us did anything other than watch itConfused Really odd experience and I'm gutted it happened years before camera phones.

caoraich · 08/04/2020 21:24

I'm almost certain I have recounted this on a thread like this before as I'm having typing deja vu, but I had a bizarre experience with a something that was cat-like as a teenager. I am no believer in woo and am always searching for the scientific answer to things but this always sticks in my head.

I was about 14, early 2000s, walking my family dog near my house. We lived at the back of a village, there was a track along the back of the houses and at one end a path onto a big field which led to some woods. I always took the dog there. It was early evening but pitch dark - North East Scotland in winter. I had this glow in the dark tennis ball that I used to throw for the dog, who was a large border collie and a massive sook but who was going a bit blind. So I'm throwing the ball for him, and it disappears over a bumpy bit of land and the dog disappears after it. I then get a sense of the dog reappearing beside me, but just behind me. I turn the torch towards the dog and it lands on a pair of eyes that I assume are his. I go "come here silly" and at that point my actual dog comes pelting over the hillock growling like crazy. The thing next to me darts away a few metres and lies flat on the ground and in the light of the torch it is definitely more cat than dog shaped, big long tail catches in the beam. Anyway my dog - who til that point had never so much as bopped me with a paw before is now growling and snapping at my ankles and he literally chased me all the way home barking like crazy. He only chilled out once I was safely back in the house.

Anyway I told my mum about this and she went very quiet and said that something similar had happened to her when we lived in the next village over about 5 years previously, but she'd had a glass of wine that night and didn't believe herself.

I don't know what it was we saw, really. But none of us ever walked the dog by ourselves in the dark after that.

Wewearpinkonwednesdays · 08/04/2020 22:04

@TheSandman. That last video isn't great. I counted 16 passes and managed to spot the gorilla Confused

whatdayisitandotherquestions · 08/04/2020 22:15

Pippapotomus did you leave your DD at scout camp after seeing it?!

carlywurly · 08/04/2020 22:18

Yes - in Cornwall staying with then dps family 20 years ago. It was in the field adjoining their garden. I'd never met them before so didn't tell them what I'd seen until years later as I felt sure they would think I was mad!

Big black thing like the picture above. Definitely not a dog or domestic cat.

TheSandman · 08/04/2020 23:17

@Wewearpinkonwednesdays Congratulations, only 50% of people who watch that for the first time, with no notion of what it's really about, see the gorilla until it's pointed out to them.

Geepipe · 08/04/2020 23:29

I should have said i lived in the cotswolds when these girls stopped us to say they had seen a leopard.

TerrorWig · 08/04/2020 23:32

I've never lived or visited anywhere where there has been sightings, feel a bit sad about that!

morecoffeerequired · 09/04/2020 00:03

The optical illusions are interesting, although I have seen them before. Size isn't everything.

There is a big difference in general shape of a big cat compared with a domestic cat (especially the tail), and also in they way they move.

AvalancheKit · 09/04/2020 06:40

I have spent many years travelling and working in many rural parts of the U.K. including the West Country and the Cotswolds.

They are definitely out there. I have seen many Red Lions, White Lions and even a Golden Lion. The Red Lion at Clovelly is a favourite of mine. Having spent several evenings there partaking of the wines or spirits, it is not unknown for me to spot the occasional whale, giant squid or kraken in the harbour on an evening stroll.

Crayfishforyou · 09/04/2020 08:44

AvalancheKit 😁
And now mushroom season is almost upon us we can add fairies, gnomes and the occasional galavanting unicorn to the mix.

I did see a panther once in Spain. It was rural scrubland and we'd stopped the car as I needed a wee.
It was sitting with it's back to me, I thought it was a dog until I noticed its tail was twitching in a cat way. Then it turned and looked at me, I just sort of backed away and walked quickly back to the car. My DM had been calling for me terrified as it had walked right past the car. She thought I'd literally been caught with my pants down.
I however had my Walkman on high and just didn't hear her.
It must have been an abandoned pet.
Good job I saw it AFTER my wee

Broadwayb · 09/04/2020 08:50

My whole class saw one when we were on a residential trip to Wales in 1990. We were walking a woodland trail one evening (still light) and looked down into a field and there was an enormous black cat that looked like it was trying to climb a tree or maybe get some form of animal that was up the tree. We stopped and watched it for ages. It was absolutely huge. Not sure what it was - a puma probably. It was definitely a big cat though - no way it was a dog or anything else.

c3pu · 09/04/2020 08:55

Pretty sure the police found a big cat in someone's freezer during a raid, he was suspected of poaching or illegal firearms possession or something. This makes me think at least a few of the stories have truth in them.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/4830320.stm

keiratwiceknightly · 09/04/2020 09:06

There used to be one that lived within a few miles of where I live. Not seen or heard of any sightings for a decade or so now though so I assume it died. I never saw it but my dad did.

Whylurkwhenicanjoinin · 09/04/2020 13:46

Love this thread. Friends of mine live in mid-wales and are farming types. They have seen a black cat numerous times in the forestry land behind the house and also stalking their sheep. Google the "Beast of Bont"...that is their village. We were once chatting about it and they told me about a local guy used to keep big cats on his land to keep undesirables out (the police in other words - he was a bit dodgy) and after the Dangerous Wild Animals Act was brought in the police went to serve notice and they'd gone...locals are convinced he set them free and there is so much space there its a possibility they could mooch about unnoticed.

LoveMySituation · 09/04/2020 15:27

www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/sep/03/4
There's one in Telford!

Original poster
Unknown2020 · 09/04/2020 15:36

@c3pu that is actually very close to where I live and I’d never heard about it before reading that!

OP posts:
Original poster
Unknown2020 · 09/04/2020 15:37

These are all so interesting and I was never expecting the amount of responses to say anyone had seen one!

OP posts:
JKScot4 · 09/04/2020 15:44

I've ended up reading loads now on these stories, there is a podcast by a big cat expert too!

Pippapotomus · 09/04/2020 20:32

@whatdayisitandotherquestions, yes I left her there for a weekend. It was national scout archery camp though, so lots of armed teenagers.

BrokenNails · 09/04/2020 23:16

It's a bit odd though that for all the sightings, there has never been any conclusive proof ie a body or a really good picture?

Also there would need to be a breeding population for it to have spanned such a long timeframe sightings - a male and female of breeding ability of the same species - and living in the same areas?

TheSandman · 09/04/2020 23:20

www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/sep/03/4
There's one in Telford!

Even if there was it would be dead by now. That Guardian article is 20 years old.