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?

Its at a distance. I've got a black cat and she's fat but that looks much bigger and longer than my kitty

I live in Dartmoor and regularly drive across bodmin. Both are huge mainly uninhabited moorland with lots of sightings of big cats. I'm pretty sure there could be some on there.

It's pretty blatantly a domestic cat! 😂

People are generally very bad at judging animal size from a distance. There are plenty of largish cat breeds that can look a bit like a big cat from a distance. Even a Burmese, which isn't very big.

If ya say so 🤣 yous need to go to specsavers seriously. That's not a domestic cat.

Agreed. People zoom in to see it better, lose any sense of scale in closeup, and think a domestic cat looks bigger than it is.

In the late 1990s, I was travelling by coach through the Peak District when I saw a large fawny coloured cat lying across a big tree branch with big tail hanging down. It was on a lone tree in a field. I would say it was the size of a Lynx, but had a tail so must have been something else. But it wasn't a domestic cat!

I'm also really fascinated by this sort of thing.

This! Looks so much like my Fat Sam feral tom cat.

Fascinating thread - I would love to think there are big cats skulking around the countryside.....

Judging by another thread though it could be feral students......

(I am aware that students identifying as cats is a hoax btw but it would make a great comedy film 🤣).

The tail its way too long for a start. And the sleekness of its back.

@MistressoftheDarkSide I nominate Martin clunes (playing a grumpy farmer?) to be in that film 🤣

@Alphabet1spaghetti2

Oh yes, brilliant 😅

And maybe Jamie Lee Curtis as the Transatlantic expert hired by the local council.....

@MistressoftheDarkSide ooo good choice! 🤣

I was lucky enough to encounter a panther sitting in a tree. It climbed down vertically and was the size of a medium dog. I was working in Italy at the time and my two charges immediately shouted "gato" I'm thinking "that's no cat" I turned them round to walk back the way we came and the beautiful animal sauntered away in the other direction. I know what I saw and it was magnificent.

I guess the reason no one wants to do a stakeout with me is that everyone who tries it gets eaten.

Ooh, when was this?

@MistressoftheDarkSide maybe Stephen merchant and Mackenzie crook as ramblers who come across a skeleton and a ‘something else’. ..

please can someone write this film!

Over 30yrs ago now. I remember it like it was yesterday.

Typo 20 yrs ago!

@EmmaEmerald it’s a nope from me! Dartmoor is scary enough in broad daylight without adding in large animals that could kill. I am such a wuss.

@Alphabet1spaghetti2

I'd go and see it if they did!

This idea definitely has legs..... and ears and a tail !! 🤣

@MistressoftheDarkSide 🤣🤣

Everyone just looks at me in horror when I suggest it. I guess I won't be able to sort a Mumsnetters trip even if it does include a spa hotel! 😂

Ah, so camera phones not a thing, what a pity.

did you feel you had to back away slowly though?

reminded me of Luke Wright's "Essex Lion" which I think is brilliant - seen him perform it live a few times.
Always amuses me - I grew up near where it's based
Based on a 'true' story that hid the headlines a few years ago (turned out to be a large domestic cat)

www.bing.com/videos/search?q=luke+wright+essex+lion&&view=detail&mid=BA6F3C74F155381EDD4EBA6F3C74F155381EDD4E&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dluke%2Bwright%2Bessex%2Blion%26FORM%3DHDRSC3

I'd love to! More likely a book, but I will want to plug it here!

I have seriously put this in my story notebook.