Making the news today....

[Stubby]

Puma / Cougar / mountain lion is in the panther class I believe . Very adaptable animal to change of habitat and until

  recently thought to be a solitary cat . Somewhere , can't remember where now it has taken to be in groups and to hunt that way . Small evolutionary beginnings ? 

[Mick Dempsey]

26 minutes ago, Stubby said:

Puma / Cougar / mountain lion is in the panther class I believe . Very adaptable animal to change of habitat and until

  recently thought to be a solitary cat . Somewhere , can't remember where now it has taken to be in groups and to hunt that way . Small evolutionary beginnings ? 

But never black..

[Mesterh]

3 hours ago, Mark Bolam said:

The government and DEFRA don’t like admitting they exist.

Whoa, whoa, whoa sweet child of mine, hang on in there for one minute. Government cover ups, DEFRA sounds way too much like DARPA which funds Boston dynamics bigdog program. Bigdog, big cats being spotted, hmm far too much of a coincidence!

 

Was it something like this that you saw? 

 

Granted that's an earlier version so itty may have looked a bit more like this.

 

[sime42]

4 hours ago, Stubby said:

What about that lioness in France on the news last week or two back . The authority said not to worry its a wild boar . From the photo I saw it looked nothing like a wild boar and everything like a lioness . 

I remember that. I thought it was in Germany though. The lioness/wild boar! was the escaped pet of some high profile gangster or other.

 

 

[scbk]

5 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

The language used is ambiguous ‘potentially’ for example.
And yet, not one camera trap picture, just sightings and conjecture.

Its not beyond the realms of possibility, but surely in Gloucestershire of all places a dog being walked off the lead would flushed it out of wherever it was living and got ripped to shreds in front of its owner. It’s not exactly remote there is it?

 

I've been doing some google research, these big cat species are very elusive and highly intelligent.

 

I don't think it's beyond all possibilities that panthers/pumas living wild in the UK are actively avoiding being caught on camera.

 

The most obvious way would be balaclavas so they're not recognised, or they could spray paint the lens. Or even dress up as another animal.

Think about it, how many times do you see foxes/badgers/deer on trail cameras, but never big cats? They can easily buy these costumes on ebay.

 

 

Yours sincerely,

Terry Nutkins

[daveatdave]

i remember years ago there was footage from a police helicopter thermal Camara tracking a supposedly big cat that suddenly disappeared on them the next day foot officers checking the location could not find any tracks or pipes where it disappeared  

[Steven P]

Comment about big footprints, one of the comments about the Yeti foot prints is that as they thaw they get larger - the edge of the imprint works outwards, print gets bigger. However, for cats you'd loose the detail i think

 

6 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

how adept they are becoming at living unseen amongst humans in cities.

 

Plenty of footage of big cat attacks in cities - India mostly

[Mark Bolam]

5 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Then what? Puma? Assuming it had a tail (so not a lynx or bobcat) it could only be a leopard at that size or a puma.

God knows Mick, it doesn’t make sense really.

There aren’t really any black pumas, so I’d rule that out.

Probably got to 50/60m away but I gunned the Tranny to get closer and it slipped into a hedge. Long tail. But this was way bigger than a domestic cat.

Our Benny is a big black cat, 4’ when I stretch him out, but this was way bigger.

 

I’m a country lad, know most animals and spend a lot of time outdoors, always have done.

I’m pretty good at identifying what’s what.

We turned up at the job and mentioned it to the client.

He didn’t bat an eyelid, and said ‘Yes, there’s a few round here’.

 

We are pretty close to a few big zoos here, Port Lympne and Howletts, and a few Big Cat sanctuaries, but they’re pretty hot on escapees.

 

They lost an Ocelot a few years ago, but they denied it until a farmer shot it and they had to fess up.

They are more honest these days.

 

The previous story about a keeper knowing he was being stalked rings true as well.

Two keepers down here had exactly the same thing, they were shitting themselves, and aren’t exactly shrinking violet types.

 

There was a big thing in the ‘70’s after the new wild animal act where people released ‘big cats’ because they knew they’d be destroyed because the zoos couldn’t take them all.

I think there were a fair few running around then.

Most probably died pretty quickly.

Even if they did adapt, their natural lifespan isn’t that long.

Did they breed?

Pretty unlikely I reckon.

 

Big cats?

There was one in Kent that I saw 15 years ago for certain.

 

I’d trust my mates back home as to what they saw as well.

 

Just because you haven’t seen one doesn’t make it. conspiracy theory rubbish.

 

 

 

 

 

[Anno]

the Leopard/black cat DNA evidence is fairly dodgy, they won't say which authority and/or University did the scanning and what the actual findings where, for an organisation that has bleated on for decades about gaining good evidence I found this astonishing really.

 

Might be worth a Google for the term Kellas cat especially if you are north of the border.

 

Hominids fascinate me, from Yeti's to Sasquatch via Almas and tropicals like the skunk ape.

 

Also worth remebering that not too long ago they found a very large quadraped antelope in jungle habitat, unknown to science, they catalogged it under the indiginous term for the creature, unfortunately when translated it was 'food' 

 

All interesting stuff, even my old favourite Nessie.

[Mick Dempsey]

10 hours ago, Mark Bolam said:

God knows Mick, it doesn’t make sense really.

There aren’t really any black pumas, so I’d rule that out.

Probably got to 50/60m away but I gunned the Tranny to get closer and it slipped into a hedge. Long tail. But this was way bigger than a domestic cat.

Our Benny is a big black cat, 4’ when I stretch him out, but this was way bigger.

 

I’m a country lad, know most animals and spend a lot of time outdoors, always have done.

I’m pretty good at identifying what’s what.

We turned up at the job and mentioned it to the client.

He didn’t bat an eyelid, and said ‘Yes, there’s a few round here’.

 

We are pretty close to a few big zoos here, Port Lympne and Howletts, and a few Big Cat sanctuaries, but they’re pretty hot on escapees.

 

They lost an Ocelot a few years ago, but they denied it until a farmer shot it and they had to fess up.

They are more honest these days.

 

The previous story about a keeper knowing he was being stalked rings true as well.

Two keepers down here had exactly the same thing, they were shitting themselves, and aren’t exactly shrinking violet types.

 

There was a big thing in the ‘70’s after the new wild animal act where people released ‘big cats’ because they knew they’d be destroyed because the zoos couldn’t take them all.

I think there were a fair few running around then.

Most probably died pretty quickly.

Even if they did adapt, their natural lifespan isn’t that long.

Did they breed?

Pretty unlikely I reckon.

 

Big cats?

There was one in Kent that I saw 15 years ago for certain.

 

I’d trust my mates back home as to what they saw as well.

 

Just because you haven’t seen one doesn’t make it. conspiracy theory rubbish.

 

 

 

 

 

Easy tiger!

 

All I’m saying is there has been no real proof except for eye witnesses, and people can be mistaken, lots of people have seen the Loch Ness monster haven’t they? 

 

One factor may well be that black cats are more difficult to assess size from a distance than say a tabby.