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?

A few years ago someone local to me shared a picture of what I can only describe as a black puma that they had seen whilst out for a walk.
It had a distinctive long tail and strong legs with a very "big cat" like face.

I also remember in another area I lived in at the other end of the country, a woman who was shaken after seeing a very similar animal walk in front of her car.

Clare "I think there might be some abandoning too when the cute cubs become fully grown"

true story - one of my ancestors (not in England) found an injured cub in the land around his home. He took it in to look after it. He then kept it....till it grew older, then first attacked him, then someone else in the household. He then released it into the wild.

this was early 1900s. Mum is convinced she has seen a sepia style photo of this animal with the relative, but I've not been able to track it, and I do believe it would have been passed down - who would throw that away?

maybe being fascinated by big cats is in my genes!

@EmmaEmerald now I have the some with ‘creatures of the niiiiiigggght’ lyrics going through my head!!
Steven as the bespectacled librarian, yes insisting that there isn’t any such creatures, but secretly is in love with Jamie lee Curtis - the expert (see upthread) and shares his secret collection of puma pictures in the library stacks with her…

I mean come on - this stuff is writing itself!

@ClareBlue did anyone catch the alpaca? They are fab.

Yes. He was tame enough and missed, so he went home. We had an idea where he lived anyway. Owner said they get lonely on their own and look for herd company. I would say he was befriending our goats to join a herd. He was pretty cool but sort of looked at you a bit distainfully, but not sure he could help it.

I lived in Gloucestershire pretty close to the Forest of Dean. 5/6 years ago I was Driving home along a country lane when I glanced into the adjacent field and saw a big cat. It was huge , size of a large dog, black, but it’s movement was that of a cat, it was beautiful. This area is a perfect for them to live in as it’s full of sheep and deer and lots of cover for them. So yeah I think that there are big cats roaming around the country.

I love this thread but have to agree that the Forest of Dean panther is clearly a pet cat. It's smaller than the thistles 😂

@EmmaEmerald I was all up for a Big Cat Stakeout until you mentioned getting eaten ..... now I'm 50/50.

@CrackersDontMatter I mean you are assuming the Jaguar is even in there? Perhaps its roaming around Chester?

@EmmaEmerald and @Alphabet1spaghetti2 I can offer a Defender so we can do a plucky chase / get away off road and over the moors?

I wouldn't be surprised if, at any one time, there were a small handful of individuals that had escaped from private collection wandering about, but there's definitely not a self sustaining population.

Yes, you can be the getaway driver so no risk of you being eaten! 😂

this is going to be a comedy movie where I lead the front and say "cover me"

then I look round and no one's there

then I get eaten

cut to final scene - you're all in a hot tub with Stephen Merchant and Jamie Lee Curtis, sipping prosecco and swapping addresses for holiday visits.

Breeding populations of really big cats.. no.

Smaller species, possibly, but they're not what people are claiming to see and wouldn't be doing the damage to trees or carcasses that people are claiming to find.

Odd evidence of escaped illegal pets - almost certainly, the illegal trade in exotic pets is thriving, but I doubt those animals survive for very long.

@Qantaqa defender it is! @EmmaEmerald please get writing! I feel there is some sort of bafta (my phone autocorrect’s that to nafta..) or a book award of some sort in your future.

I know they are because I've seen one, just outside Bedford crossing a country lane in front of my car at about 2 o'clock in the morning. No mistaking it for a cat, it was the size of a large, chunky dog. It was a sandy colour, had pointed ears with darker tufts and a kind of thick looking tail. It was quite a shock and I think I didn't really pause to register it properly because of that. I remember watching it's rear end disappearing into a hedge and thinking that it was definitely some sort of wild cat.
So, having said that, it's very strange that they aren't seen more, photographed properly and video'd. There isn't a lot of evidence of kills. Although my friend in Wales has a horse that clearly has claw marks from a very large animal on her rump...

Another friend who maybe should wear a tin hat says that we are seeing them when two alternative realities cross. So they aren't spending much time here and all the evidence would be in their reality. 😦

It's 30 years ago now, but when I was a teen, myself and friends were walking through the woods in SW Surrey and thought we saw a lost sandy coloured dog. We approached it to see if it was ok and when we were about 15 feet away we realised it was a Puma and not a dog. It ran away form us pretty quickly! It was probably still one of the ones released in the 80's and it's unlikely there were enough for breeding populations so although they were around in the past in the wild they are probably very rare these days!

Loving this thread!

About 15 years ago my FiL was driving in the early hours on a quiet stretch of the A470 in South Wales when he saw what he described as a panther crossing the road about 50 yards in front of him - he said it was dark in colour and very big but what really stood out to him was the tail was longer than the whole body and dragged along on the floor behind it.

FiL is a matter of fact bloke who isn't prone to tall tales and to this day is convinced it was a big cat of some kind.

Pink South Wales near A470? I was on holiday near there, there's some public land bordering private land...the pub we stayed in gave us a map for walking.

there were a couple of chaps stationed near the border. They called out to us, politely, that it was private land. We said "no worries, we're aware".

then we saw them in the pub later, I was actually ordering at the bar and just said "hello, lovely evening isn't it" or something. They looked alarmed and one said "you're not going walking again?" I said, no, we're in the pub for the night.

but my sister was quite suspicious. I wasn't. I just thought they were protecting their property, or working for a landowner, possibly overzealous but perfectly polite.

now, with that location, I'm wondering who owns that land.

Aww..I really do want to write this. I'll pack us a picnic and I thought I could write while you do the motorway parts?

so many locations now from this thread too!

@EmmaEmerald done deal!

This was in-between Abercynon and Merthyr Tydfil....

Ah, no, looking at the map, further north. But, I just told my sister about this...l could her bristling and she said "well, they were definitely up to something".

however, she isn't keen on country walks anymore. Last holiday, she said "right, let's go back to the hotel, those cows are looking at us funny".....they were in a field quite far away 😂

She is horrified by my ideas of wandering on the moors. If Alphabetti has to call her and tell her I've been eaten by an unidentifiable creature, she will not be at all surprised.

The puma/cougar represented in this Derbyshire News article is the type of cat I saw in the Peak District in the late 90s. I would be really interested to hear of any other similar sightings in the same area:
PUMA

I would love to see a good investigative documentary on big cat sightings, with a credible expert.

Interesting.

The one I saw was Somerset too and there were actually a number of reports in the press over the next few weeks afterwards about people seeing a panther type animal

I'd love to see a TV show this too. The fact there isn't one - unless we've all missed it - suggests even more that any legit sightings stem from dubious legal situations.

londonrach oh I missed your post earlier - wow, confirmed by police? So that's very interesting.