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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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?

OP posts:
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Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 14/03/2023 22:21

@EmmaEmerald er what now? A spa hotel you say… does this mean I can sit in a nice jacuzzi, with a glass of something chilled and watch the moors from behind a nice sheet of safety glass?!!! (Yes!!!!!)
I had visions of wet boggy ground, a saggy tent and a tin of cold baked beans. Although the idea of using night vision
glasses might encourage me…..🐯🐯

CaspianPlover · 14/03/2023 22:21

Taking my very old dog for a walk 20 odd years ago, I paused on a disused railway bridge over our usual walk just to give her a rest, I saw what I thought was a black Labrador walking along the path, I decided to wait till it and the owner had gone - my old dog was a bit of a barker at other dogs. The ‘dog’ then sat down and started to groom itself just like a cat, I watched for a good 5 mins, it was certainly a cat, when it turned and went into the hedge I saw its tail was definitely big cat like. I didn't go on that walk and reported it to the police as lots of children used that walk at home time. I am sure it was a big cat.

CrackersDontMatter · 14/03/2023 22:22

No idea but I've been a member of Chester Zoo for years and I have NEVER seen the jaguar and that is confined to an enclosure so I suppose it would be possible for one to hide out in the wild 😁

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 14/03/2023 22:25

@emmaemerald. The film/book idea:- Can I have a request for David tennant to turn up somehow, and Bill Bailey as a bird watcher capturing a first glimpse of a potential big cat stalking an escaped pelican from a local zoo? and a scene of a family sitting and watching taskmaster?

Also can I have a signed copy of this future master piece. Happy to pay the going rate for a proper hard back!

Ludo19 · 14/03/2023 22:27

EmmaEmerald · 14/03/2023 22:18

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

did you feel you had to back away slowly though?

Show quote history

I wasn't nervous although being in charge of a 4 and 3yr old I was worried they'd run towards it. I just turned them round and walked away. It wasn't displaying any sign of interest I think it was curious but I know I wasn't personally scared.

I'm up for a mumsnet trip! Spa or not.

ClareBlue · 14/03/2023 22:29

3900 registered dangerous wild animals in UK which include big cats. Estimated half again held illegally. That's alot of potential escapees or abandoned pussy cats out there. Not saying they breed or survive but its believable that people see them every now and then.

Unsure33 · 14/03/2023 22:29

I worked with a couple who definitely saw a puma . Refused to report it though in case it got shot .

I am 90% sure I saw a large black cat , about the size of a very large lab , like the previous person I thought it was a dog first of all . When I got home my daughter unprompted told me she had seen a large black animal / cat running across the same field where I had just walked from her bedroom window .

both sitings in Oxfordshire .

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 14/03/2023 22:33

@ClareBlue thats a lot, even given that we do have a lot of zoos. It would
be nice to know, but at the same time I hope they aren’t found. (iyswim)

LadyFlumpalot · 14/03/2023 22:33

There is supposed to be one living in an AONB near me. I've never seen it, but a farmer friend had a few sheep turning up dead a few years back. Not only dead but ripped apart. One was up a tree a quarter of a mile away. The police said it was probably foxes.

EmmaEmerald · 14/03/2023 22:35

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 14/03/2023 22:25

@emmaemerald. The film/book idea:- Can I have a request for David tennant to turn up somehow, and Bill Bailey as a bird watcher capturing a first glimpse of a potential big cat stalking an escaped pelican from a local zoo? and a scene of a family sitting and watching taskmaster?

Also can I have a signed copy of this future master piece. Happy to pay the going rate for a proper hard back!

Brilliant!

re the spa, it was a few miles from where the Goatman (mentioned upthread) was spotted, so I thought we could travel the area as a group at like, 2am or whatever time it was spotted. The main issue is having someone to drive the getaway car/minivan 😂 I thought if we built it round a Mumsnetters spa weekend, it would get more interest but on the original goatman thread, people just said, no way!

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 14/03/2023 22:36

@LadyFlumpalot ”the police said it was foxes” up a tree? I can believe they (police) said it, but I am having a hard time believing a fox would bother to drag anything up a tree. I mean they don’t when they ransack chicken coops etc, they are more kill and leave the dead where they are type.

larkstar · 14/03/2023 22:38

I am a sceptic by nature and training - I'm a physicist and like evidence. I don't believe in supernatural phenomena, ghosts, Gods, creators, etc and don't subscribe to conspiracy theories, new age ideas (Reiki etc). The wonderful thing about science imho is that it has very few answers and knows very little - there is a lot that science doesn't know or understand. So... I'm sceptical when I hear of reports of wild cats (UFO's, ghosts, etc) but I had one encounter last year along a footpath through a field of crops that I know very well - I've walked it for years with my dog. Up ahead a saw a black object on the path - maybe 75m away - the wide path is normally a clear sandy (muddy in winter) path - I couldn't tell what it was - thought it might have been a black burned tree stump lying across the path or..I don't know! - my dog noticed it and she cocked her ears - it suddenly dawned on me it might be a big cat and the hairs did stand up on the back of my neck - by the time I'd got my phone camera out I watched it very slowly slink off into the beans which must have been about 4ft high. I was a little on edge as we approached the spot and was surprised when my dog (Springer spaniel) suddenly dived in to the crops at exactly the point I'd seen the animal(?) I called her back immediately but she had definitely picked up on something, bar my wife, and here, I've not mentioned this to anyone - I did wonder if anyone else would see something and report it - I never heard anything at the time and I did a Google search to see if anyone had ever reported a big wild cat locally: they hadn't. All I can say is that I saw something unusual once on a path I've walked for 20 years. I have no idea what it was. My gut instinct is that it was a big cat from the way it moved, it's long low body and my dogs reaction. When I see people on the TV reporting such sitings I'm still very likely to think they are attention seeking fantasists or people with over active imaginations. If it wasn't a big cat, I can't explain it. That field has various different crops in it year on year and the only animals I and my dog see are pheasants (which she is very interested in!).

I can believe a big cat could largely evade detection - it's a very rural area.

EmmaEmerald · 14/03/2023 22:39

Unsure yes, I can see why people would worry about those animals being shot and not reporting it.

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 14/03/2023 22:40

@EmmaEmerald thank you (blushes furiously).

I have a tiny, bright yellow Skoda (a la the inbetweeners bus wanker scene) at my disposal as a getaway vehicle.
suspect it might alert any animals of our arrival as well as slow getaway departure…

ClareBlue · 14/03/2023 22:41

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 14/03/2023 22:33

@ClareBlue thats a lot, even given that we do have a lot of zoos. It would
be nice to know, but at the same time I hope they aren’t found. (iyswim)

These are in private ownership not zoos. I found the figures astounding. The born free foundation monitors the numbers and has an interactive map where they all are. They think there might be same again non registered dangerous wild animals in private ownership. There are significant number of cats but the figures are not released. We could be looking at around 1000 big cats in private ownership at any one time. Some of those are going to be abandoned or escape.

LadyFlumpalot · 14/03/2023 22:41

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 14/03/2023 22:36

@LadyFlumpalot ”the police said it was foxes” up a tree? I can believe they (police) said it, but I am having a hard time believing a fox would bother to drag anything up a tree. I mean they don’t when they ransack chicken coops etc, they are more kill and leave the dead where they are type.

Yup. My friend reported it to the police, asked for advice, they said it couldn't possibly be a big cat and was probably a fox. Obviously anyone with half a brain could work out that a fix couldn't drag a sheep across a field, over a fence and up a tree but that didn't seem to phase the police.

Friend put up some wildlife cameras but never caught any images and as far as I know hasn't had any sheep killed for a long time now.

EmmaEmerald · 14/03/2023 22:45

larkstar really interesting.

From a purely rational view, the main reason I think it's possible, is that people can and do import illegally. Goodness knows how they then look after them, which might explain escape etc.

larkstar · 14/03/2023 22:46

For the record, I owned a huge Norwegian Forest Cat that was 10.5kg when he died so...I have an idea what a big domestic cat looks like - my 3rd of 4 cats, excluding the 4 I grew up with.

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 14/03/2023 22:47

@ClareBlue then that’s definitely a big enough number for escapees. As animals
do escape from even the well run zoos with good security, it’s totally feasible that other more dubious owners will have or have had escapees, and wouldn’t report them. I think it’s entirely possible that the cats could be breeding in our countryside too. But I hope that they can continue to be allowed to live.

EmmaEmerald · 14/03/2023 22:48

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 14/03/2023 22:40

@EmmaEmerald thank you (blushes furiously).

I have a tiny, bright yellow Skoda (a la the inbetweeners bus wanker scene) at my disposal as a getaway vehicle.
suspect it might alert any animals of our arrival as well as slow getaway departure…

Hmm....we might need something a bit less like the Trotters' van...

I have insomnia, if I lived rurally I'd probably spend a lot of time out looking...if I could persuade others to join me.

Rural dwellers here - do you ever just drive at night because you fancy it?

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 14/03/2023 22:50

@EmmaEmerald 🤣🤣🤣!!

EmmaEmerald · 14/03/2023 22:50

LadyFlumpalot · 14/03/2023 22:41

Yup. My friend reported it to the police, asked for advice, they said it couldn't possibly be a big cat and was probably a fox. Obviously anyone with half a brain could work out that a fix couldn't drag a sheep across a field, over a fence and up a tree but that didn't seem to phase the police.

Friend put up some wildlife cameras but never caught any images and as far as I know hasn't had any sheep killed for a long time now.

Show quote history

Sorry to ask this, but assuming there wasn't a forensic examination - could the culprit be people? Incredibly sad to think about, but it was my first worry tbh.

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 14/03/2023 22:56

@EmmaEmerald imagine the scene

its a still, moonlit night. The intrepid cat fans are sat in a car in a lay-by, they hear noises and rustling in the field next to them. A deep throaty roar is heard. Faces pale in fear, and an unspoken group consent means the driver doesn’t need to be told to get the hell out of dodge. A key is turned and the engine splutters into life. A pair of emerald green eyes appear at the side window and the car immediately fills with screams.
The otherwise peaceful nights air is shattered by the sound of the car back firing and bouncing up the road, as a lone cyclist, weaving his way home from the pub, and overtakes the little yellow car with mismatched panels. (Stephen merchant on a too small bike)

ClareBlue · 14/03/2023 22:59

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 14/03/2023 22:47

@ClareBlue then that’s definitely a big enough number for escapees. As animals
do escape from even the well run zoos with good security, it’s totally feasible that other more dubious owners will have or have had escapees, and wouldn’t report them. I think it’s entirely possible that the cats could be breeding in our countryside too. But I hope that they can continue to be allowed to live.

I think it is highly probable there are escapees. Illegally held dangerous wild animals are not going to be reported missing. I think there might be some abandoning too when the cute cubs become fully grown. We had an escaped Alpaca wonder down our road once. Friendly enough guy, just pissed off everyone kept on calling him a Lama😀

EmmaEmerald · 14/03/2023 23:01

alphabetti but we can't drive away immediately...only if we are in real danger.

I was going to suggest we hide in the bushes with the getaway driver ready if need be...maybe the creatures of the night mean us no harm. Or ....maybe they are figments of our imagination....perhaps when we check in with Steven, who is the friendly local librarian, he will insist that there are no records of anything roaming the moors at night?