Leopards and other big cats ARE on the loose in Britain - just don't tell a soul

One or two posters seem to have confused the Scottish wild cat, a well-known native species, with large cats, which would be escapees or their descendants.

It's not difficult to conceive of large cats loose in the wild. The real question is: 'Are there enough to sustain a breeding population?'

Here's possibly the best video evidence to date:






I have to say I'm not convinced it's a good idea to allow such creatures to live in the UK. One child mutilated would be one too many. They don't belong.

Theres a lady who lives near me who rekons that her mother(now passed away)used to feed a big black puma type cat in her garden on a nightly basis.

She would put out food like fish or meat,and watch the creature come and eat it.

I live in north Wales,where there have been many sightings(over 40,just since 200o).

Some news articles:

www.bbc.co.uk...

www.dailypost.co.uk...

(The 1st link mentions the Wrexham area,which is where the lady used to put food out for the cat.)

Originally posted by pause4thought
One or two posters seem to have confused the Scottish wild cat,
It's not difficult to conceive of large cats loose in the wild. The real question is: 'Are there enough to sustain a breeding population?'

Aye, Scottish wildcat is about the same size as a large domestic. Very pretty though.

Originally posted by pause4thought
I have to say I'm not convinced it's a good idea to allow such creatures to live in the UK. One child mutilated would be one too many. They don't belong.

They seem to be doing well so far, and no casualties we know of apart from one boy who was scratched by one. I think they deserve to live wherever they can. I'd be very upset if folk started hunting them, so it's kind of a good thing that most folk are sceptical of them living wild in the UK.
I'd probably be quite scared if I saw one myself but if it was a tiger, now I'd most definitely pee my breeks and faint dead away.

This is evidence of the extreme immaturity and irresponsibility of humans.
My bff is a zooligist. She was a senior zookeeper. part of her job was to rehabilitate big cats that people bought, and release them on to refuges. You would be surprised how often this happens.

Just like there is a major boa constrictor problem now in Floriday, it doesn't not surprise me that scumbags get these pets and quickly find out they are not kittens. A tiger cub gets to 75 bls in a just a few weeks. A 75 lb tiger cub can hurt you, and eats quite a bit. So in extreme irresponsibility, they just release them into the wild so they don't get into trouble.

I think that if these cats had a problem finding enough food,thats when we should worry about them attacking children to eat.

The fact that they have not done so in the 40 odd years since the dangerous animals act,suggests that the cats do very nicley off things like rabbits,badgers,foxes etc.

They are also intelligent enough to realise that humans would be their biggest threat,and seem to be adept at keeping out of sight most of the time.

Masters of stealth,they could be feet away from you in the bushes,and you would not notice IMO.

reply to post by ken10


Hiding or securing kills is necessary in their more usual habitats but over here there isn't anything to steal their prey. Cats don't waste energy they don't have to.

Originally posted by TruthxIsxInxThexMist
reply to post by wigit

 

Sounds great but will there be much Countryside left for them to roam about in in a few years time? Not if we keep building there won't!!!

I'd like to see this wildlife but i'm in a crowded concrete city so unable to...

Be careful what you wish for!

news.bbc.co.uk...

It was sighted again in various parts of South London last year.

A 'big cat' documentary for those interested.





Theres something in the woods....make no mistake about it.

reply to post by LightFantastic


No a cat knows a kill the size of a sheep will guarantee it food for several days if it is kept away from others like Crows/Magpies/Foxes etc.

Originally posted by nixie_nox
This is evidence of the extreme immaturity and irresponsibility of humans.
My bff is a zooligist. She was a senior zookeeper. part of her job was to rehabilitate big cats that people bought, and release them on to refuges. You would be surprised how often this happens.

WTF? Is this how the Tories and their Lib Dem fags are planning to reduce immigration? By releasing rehabilitated big cats and setting them on to refugees? I thought Thatcher was a heartless bitch but it seems Cameron's twice as evil.

Fortean Times recently did a thing on a bear in Hackney Marshes and usually have at least one alien big cat or out of place animal feature in every month and is about panthers over in Mull this month.

To be honest, I'd love to see more wild animals in urban areas. We've got used to foxes now and would like to see more badgers wild boars and, in the near future, wolves and bears. I honestly think we need this kind of a threat as a species and it would perhaps thin down the population a little. It would certainly keep some of the dickheads off the streets at nights.

Maybe I should start dressing up as a bear at night and mauling some chavs like the Elders in the film 'The Village'. Maybe I could ask the local council if they'd pay me to do it as it would be more useful than community wardens and their ilk.

reply to post by ken10


I would guess these kills are opportunistic, hence the partially eaten remains. The last kill I mentioned was quite far from any trees, despite being in the national forest.

It was in open farmland near to the road.

I don't think anyone can be sure how they have modified their behavior to cope with living over here, especially as it is possible many are human reared.

I'm not sure if the behaviours you mentioned are instinctual or copied from parents.


[edit on 29/5/2010 by LightFantastic]

reply to post by LightFantastic


I have to agree with you on some of the points... yes a cat could have been scared off of a kill in a field.

Also if these cats are for instance a cross between a Puma and a Leopard, Which could be possible with a lack of same species partners....Then their habits could very well change, But i would still expect a cat with the time would try to hide its hard won kill.

reply to post by pause4thought

Nice one, I was wondering how I could dredge this one up... I remember when it first came on to ATS, thanks for putting it up

Well perhaps I can get some help with something I saw back in the early 90s. It was up near Hadrian's Wall at sunset. A bit more than 200m away, dark coloured (I couldn't swear to black) & definitely moving like a cat. I dont think it was big enough to have been a leopard or puma, I'd say it was a bit smaller than a German Shepherd.
I tried to photograph it, but the hill I was looking down faced pretty much SE & was already in deep shadow. The camera was a cheap 35mm point & click with 200 ASA film. The 3 snaps I took all came back as blurs of shadow with nothing identifyable even as the landscape. Sadly, I dont even have them anymore: casualties of clearing out before a move I suspect.
How big is a lynx & do they come in dark colours?

reply to post by Merriman Weir I could sort of agree, but I'll have to echo Fang & say be careful what you wish for.
I was camping with some mates in S France when a bear came into our camp whilst we were asleep. It wasn't even that big (I've seen bigger dogs), but it was a muscley bastard with massive claws & teeth. I nearly soiled my sleeping bag!

Originally posted by Lady_Tuatha
I think its quite scary

i would so not want to see a big wild cat whilst out walking, it would probably smell my fear and eat me alive, im abit of a wuss, afraid of strange dogs also.

Im in northern Ireland tho so suppose im okay, havent heard any reports here

Haha, then this link is especially for you.

blather.net...

According to Irish News
'A second sheep was found dead close to Ballycastle on Saturday and
police confirmed that neither a dog nor fox had killed the animal.'

'...a woman spotted a wild animal in fields close to her
Ballymoney home and two police officers later saw it crossing a
country road.'

'It was the officers' description which prompted police to state that
it is a panther.'


'Mr Philpott said the USPCA is aware of six tigers, five lions, three
wolves, a leopard and Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs which have either
escaped or been released by their owners in Northern Ireland.'

Originally posted by Bunken Drum
How big is a lynx & do they come in dark colours?

In terms of size, it depends on the species. I don't know about the variations in markings. The bobcat I mentioned earlier, found here in the US, is a lynx that can be roughly as large as a medium sized dog and although they usually eat rodents, they're perfectly capable of taking livestock the size of goats.

I suspect mistaken identity may be playing a role here as well. Upon further review, that Scottish wildcat is probably too small, but I think its very plausible that some medium sized cat is actually responsible for many of these sightings rather than leopards and such.

Originally posted by Merriman Weir

Originally posted by nixie_nox
This is evidence of the extreme immaturity and irresponsibility of humans.
My bff is a zooligist. She was a senior zookeeper. part of her job was to rehabilitate big cats that people bought, and release them on to refuges. You would be surprised how often this happens.

WTF? Is this how the Tories and their Lib Dem fags are planning to reduce immigration? By releasing rehabilitated big cats and setting them on to refugees? I thought Thatcher was a heartless bitch but it seems Cameron's twice as evil.

.

Huh, WHAT? sorry man but you lost me!



It is simply because people think they would make cool pets. Nothing says extravegance then;looky, I can buy and import an expensive, illegal and exotic animal.

That may not be totally the reason, but that is usually what happens.

All the animals my friend rehabbed were just that, pets and luxury items.


I understand needing predators in an ecology, but you need local predators, not exotic. Invasive species never work out well.

Not to mention, how cruel it is to force an animal into a habitat it doesn't belong.



[edit on 29-5-2010 by nixie_nox]

Originally posted by nixie_nox
Huh, WHAT? sorry man but you lost me!

It was a joke, nothing more.

Yes, I understand how this all works. It's thought that we've had animals released/escaped from private zoos for 100s of years over here, possibly as far back as the Middle-Ages. It's been happening for so long that it's hard to separate it from much of the folklore of England and the rest of Britain. One of the most interesting aspects of alien big cats is that the majority of sightings tend to be black animals which not only reduces the species paradigm but blurs the line between 'real' animals and the likes of Black Shuck &c.

[edit on 29-5-2010 by Merriman Weir]

Hi, folks!

Just a note to add that if you don't have the sense to fear and respect these creatures, instead of acting like they are "natural" and better than you, you may just end up on one of two popular types of American television shows!

How's that for interesting and exciting! If you fail to take these mighty predators as seriously and cautiously as you should, you could be a star on either

A) A show about miraculous survival; one recently featured a formerly gorgeous young blonde whose face was actually ripped off. She was conscious the entire time, her fellow bicyclist helped her by attempting to put out the animal's eye, the only thing that made it let her go.

B) Yet another news program with the sad story of yet another victim of a big cat attack.

None of these people are happy or excited. The witnesses seem terribly traumatized, and no one thinks it's the animal's fault.

Still, very bad things come from contact between massive predators and naive, animal-worshipping humans.

Putting your own safety over the experience with the animal basically means you think it's more important than you are, or you simply haven't had enough of these tragedies to know the truth.

For your own sakes, do not underestimate these animals, nor approach or seek to find them! PLEASE!

The humans that survived and told their stories had one thing in common, human intelligence is what ran off the predator, not strength nor might. Only simple tricks a human can do, like going for the eyes, to get your husband out of the animal's incredibly powerful jaws.

The longer they hold on, the less likely the victim can stay conscious or breathing.

Please, prepare yourselves through the experiences of others. Their scars and their mutilated bodies do not lie, my friends.