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?

I don’t know about big cats but I’ve definitely seen a free range wallaby. Ashridge Estate, Herts. Me and the other car driver who stopped to watch it. Called Whipsnade Zoo who weren’t interested. Local donkey sanctuary knew all about them.
So no, I wouldn’t be surprised by big cat/hybrids.

I did find a deer head tucked high up in a hedge once. No body, just the head. I put it down to badgers / foxes etc…

I know there is as I've seen one ..it was close by and vvvvv scary to see... lucky a nearby dog came running down the path and it back away and disappeared. This is Somerset. I reported it to the police who confirmed there out there and warned to not walk alone.

Bear in mind how many deer and badgers we have in this country and we're not falling over them at night time. They can hear us coming and hide.
I think there were probably a few big cats released in the 70's but they must all be dead now.

Sorry about the damart ad but just look for big cat Helensburgh on YouTube and it should bring up the proper video.

I'm Cotswolds, there is a constant stream of deer, fox, badger etc roadkill and I regularly see live fox and deer. Its very common to see herds of roe grazing in daylight, I've seen a huge herd of fallow a few times, and muntjac are very, very common too.

Helensburgh was 2009!

i love the idea of this!

when people see them how come they aren't attacked?

loads of parakeets where I live

i'm in inner London, see foxes all the time ' once saw a peasant in the garden

Big cats, even in captivity with vets rarely live more than 15 years so if there should be evidence of a skeleton kind if not photographic. There's lots of sightings near me and even the occasional photo but it's usually proved to be a black domestic cat at the right distance/perspective to appear larger. There's some pretty large domestic cats around here too, not sure of their breed, something expensive I suspect including a huge o e with jaguar type markings walked on the lead, size of a cocker spaniel

I've been to Africa. It is damn near impossible to spot a leopard, even when you know it is there, in the tree, right in front of you.

About 15 years ago, I was hacking out on a nearby marsh on my opinionated horse. Suddenly, what looked like a very large black cat appeared, snarled soundlessly at us and loped off!

Horse and I galloped off pdq and I arranged another stabling arrangement twenty miles away.

I absolutely hate this idea! I was quite shocked recently when I realised that the 'mountain lions' common in parts of the USA are pumas. I can't think of anything worse to come across on a country walk!

If there are/have been big cats roaming around the countryside why has no one ever found a sick or dead one?

The Helensburgh cat was likely to be a large feral as some good sizing was done using the railway sleepers as comparison, Estimated at 33" long

Well there's none around here because my neighbour's cat would batter them.

That's my window by the way. The little wooden assist is for my own cats because they're old. He doesn't care. He does what he wants.

I don't know why this made me think about it but I'm slightly fascinated by the wild camel population in Australia en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_feral_camel
They are a huge problem for farmers and there's bloody loads of them.
Also there is a huuuge dingo fence keeping dingoes out of parts of Australia
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingo_Fence
Sorry for the derail, brain is sending me on tangents today!

I saw an enormous cat on one of the Scottish islands which I thought was a Scottish Wild Cat but was told that it was someones house cat - and that there are very few genetically 'pure' wild cats left as they have interbred with domestic cats. Very disappointed it wasn't the real thing

Just can't imagine a puma breeding with a domestic cat

I saw an enormous sandy coloured big cat jumping our fence and running away across the fields.

I'd opened the back door for something or other and there it was. About 10 meters away. We had guinea pigs lose on the lawn at the time. I recon it had come in for them. Puma size, massive long tail.

Um....are you sure? 😂

Laiste I think you live near that brilliant creature reported by the MNer...the goatman of "can't touch this" fame? My, my, my, my..

I want to live somewhere like that!

@EmmaEmerald yep

I was thinking about that just yesterday as i went up that lane. It's a bit bleak at this time of year. I looked across the fields and thought of the MC Hammer creature!

Almost certainly not, but not a 0% chance.

I agree. There is zero evidence to support the theory that there are big cats living wild jn the UK. And there is a lot of evidence absent that you would expect to find if there were big cats - scat, for example.

Ah, but Sherlock Holmes would say "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence".

yes, I know he's fictional too 😂

Laiste I forget if you saw it or if you just know the area. I keep meaning to get a book or something, I love these stories.