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

[Qantaqa]

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?

We had a lamb taken on my parents farm in Devon. All we found was the head and spine. Everything else was eaten, bones crunched and everything licked clean. A fox/badger couldn't do that and it wasn't a dog - the rest of the flock was settled and if a dog had got in the field they would have been terrified. The only explanation we could come up with was a big cat. However, we never saw anything and it never happened again. That was in the 90s btw!

Someone I know who is eminently sensible and trustworthy is adamant he saw a big black cat near Much Wenlock in Shropshire. There have been a few other sightings in the area too.

www.shropshirestar.com/news/2015/01/12/big-cats-in-shropshire-a-tall-tale-or-serious-threat/

I saw a strange large animal in the distance whilst out walking. It turned out to be a hare.

Warwickshire

Opinions?

I saw one while on a dog walk on farmland near my house in about 2003. It walked out of a ditch on one side of the lane then walked along the lane and slinked down into the ditch on the other side of the lane and out of sight. It was blank with a long tail which it held quite low to the ground and about the size of my dog. I was a bit worried about it so dragged my poor Alsatian absolutely miles so I didn’t pass where it would have been on the way home.

When I got home I told my dad and he took the piss out of me about it. 3 weeks later he saw it himself about a mile away on another dog walk 😂.

Ooh I love these threads. I like to think they’re real but yeh I don’t see how they’d manage to have met each other to keep breeding if they were released pets

My FiL saw a puma near his base in Hampshire the 1960s/70s.
He wasn’t the only one to see it. There was lots of speculation around its existence.
The idea it was around gave my husband, as a small boy, nightmares.

I've actually seen one trotting across the field opposite us. Opened the curtains early one morning, and thought WTF! It was very obviously a big cat, moved in a particular way, and was black, with a long tail. This is mid-surrey downs area.

That is interesting, any more info?

I feel like someone might have made a hybrid there, a similar one in London was perfectly legal.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were the odd "medium" sized cat knocking around. And there might be all the acts in the world, but I wouldn't rule out the odd covert release. There's a zoo near my parents that practically seems to have a cat flap installed, no idea how they're allowed to keep going.

There's definitely plenty of interesting exotics. There are coatimundi living in Cumbria!

I saw a documentary about this maybe 10 years ago. You’re apparently allowed to keep big cats here and in Ireland. If one escaped then of course you’d get sightings. And would you really want a NDN who kept a big cat living next door to you?!

theface.com/society/tiger-king-uk-big-cat-exotic-animals-conservation

those exotic cross breeds (savannah, bengal etc) can be quite big. and their movements can be different from moggies.

if (big if) large cats have survived in the wild they are more likely to be hybrids.

Could have been a Scottish Wildcat, they can grow to a size comparable to a fox and are usually tabby in colour.

Or a Maine Coon that's had a haircut.

I think you can easily find out of there any licensed wild animals near where you live. Councils keep records as they have to inspect them regularly.

I was in a SE England restaurant one lunchtime, in 1988 and a large black cat slunk across the field out back. Twenty two witnesses. No doubt at all.

@CalistoNoSolo I'd bloody love Nessie to be real as well! Saw something in the paper that the latest sighting by someone saw two humps going in opposite directions meaning there might be 2 of them. I mean logically I know the odds of a hundreds year old sea animal in a loch that has been checked out loads is slim yet alone the idea of two, but I just want it to be true if that makes sense.

I'm well jealous of those of you that have actually seen big cats!

The PP who said that maybe they are just new ones occasionally being released makes sense I guess rather than them breeding.

I think they're now a hybrid breed rather than actual black panthers/jaguars but there's been more than enough evidence if you look it up.
Carcasses have been found and I've seen the remains of a fox, only the ribs and head left on it.
I've never seen a big cat though but would love to...from a distance that is.

Oh and I absolutely belive we still have lynx and they've not dies out liek it's thought.
There have been photos of them

This one in Helensburgh is the best footage I've ever seen because the railway gives scale. And dogs don't balance like that. If you don't want to click just Google big cat Helensburgh

I'd like to see footage but this an ad for Damart 😂

Well, this is the thing. I have a Bengal cross, very large, and he goes in that field a lot. I still think, knowing what Arthur looks like, and seeing him in the field regularly, that what I saw was definitely much bigger, and just too different from a domestic cat.

I saw one in Hampshire circa 1993.

but in the 70s and 80s there were a lot of ripped apart sheep carcuses, photos in newspapers etc.
Not so much recently

Our cat is 8kg - not a Maine Coon - just an all-sorts mix. He sometimes looks huge in the fields but it’s because you can’t judge his size. Depending if he’s plodding along with his head down he could be mistaken for something bigger.