To wonder if big cats really can be roaming the countryside?

304 replies

Qantaqa · 13/03/2023 08:14

Local news this morning reports "scratch marks" in trees in area where big cat sightings taken place over last decade.

I totally get that back in the 70s various big cats were released rather than people comply with the new laws coming in, but 50 years later can they really still be there?

Enough might have adapted to live wildly themselves (I assume many didn't, or died from cars etc), but they don't live 50 years so we must be on a 2nd / 3rd generation - surely mating with cross species? Aren't they quite territorial and solitary? Where do the next gen go when they mature? It's not like there is loads and loads of places they can hang out? Even if we didn't see the cats wouldn't there be more signs of them?

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Naunet · 18/05/2023 09:21

Tinysoxxx · 17/05/2023 22:12

You miss understand what I mean by darting. Darting (with tranquilliser) so the animal - if it exists - could be taken to a wildlife centre.

As for ‘pearl clutching’ - I don’t like pearls as I don’t like the way pearls are harvested.

We do live rurally though and walk in secluded countryside. To be fair, big cats would probably go for people’s dogs and cats before a child, but they do regularly kill small children around the world. I certainly wouldn’t want my children walking around unattended if I knew a big cat like a leopard was on the loose. A big cat would see a child as prey and an opportunity for dinner. Google ‘leopard kills child’. If there were big cats like leopards loose in this country, you could never say they would not be a threat. England is too populated for them never to be a risk to humans.

Can we do the same to men seeing as they BY FAR, pose the biggest risk? Do you let your kids out even though men might be around? Get some perspective.

EmmaEmerald · 18/05/2023 09:42

I wasn't going to comment ..but it is incredibly depressing that having hoped big cats live quietly among us, someone has reduced it to "dart them and out them in a facility". So I hope they continue to live quietly. There does seem to be a thing that people don't discuss sightings and I think it's best if it stay that way. So I will leave the thread - if anyone hears more, please pop me a DM.

Tinysoxxx · 18/05/2023 10:07

My cats have always caught what they can catch. Even the best trained dog may chase after a cat/ rabbit / deer if they dart in front. I would rather they not catch the song birds like robins or blue tits or polish off a whole nest but they have no ‘moral compass’ or conservation understanding.

A big cat is the same. Just bigger. I don’t want them killed. But equally they have no reverence to humans.

Definitelyrandom · 18/05/2023 10:16

They're probably offlead black greyhounds.....they lope like cats and in long grass in the distance there's nothing between them and a puma!

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