The Mysterious Big Cats

I know some of the posters here are from the U.K., have any of you guys heard about the big cats prowling around? Ive been following this story for a while now, and the Brittish Big Cats Society has reported upwards of 1,000 sightings.

From what I read, it seems to be a Jaguar. Possibly a very rich persons pet that got too big and was dropped into a forest? This has been known to happen when people purchase big cats (Lions, Leopards, Tigers, Cougars, etc...). They get too big to handle and are dumped into the wilderness.

Ill post a few links for you guys:

icliverpool.icnetwork.c... o.uk/3300icormskirk/newsandsport/page.cfm?objectid=12732395&method=full&siteid=50061

www.northantsnew.co.uk...

icwales.icnetwork.co.uk... 200politics/0100assemblynews/page.cfm?objectid=12588559&method=full&siteid=50082




[Edited on 28-4-2003 by Tetsuo-51]

I don't know about the UK but here in Kentucky, right where I live there are people who have seen them. Everyone I have talked to that have seen them, say that they are large black cats.
One person I talked to said that he had just gotten up to go check his cattle when over the hill he saw one kill one of his cattle. The cat then drug the cow off into the woods. He described it to be about 4- 4.5 feet tall.
The ones around here sound like a woman screaming, when they "meow" for lack of better words.
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K_OS

Ive never heard of that before. I think in your case that Panthers came up from Florida. Thats the best explanation that I can give.

[Edited on 28-4-2003 by Tetsuo-51]

I'm familiar with the sightings, including the misidentified ones (the stack of telephone books.) Some of the sightings are misidentifications (one woman reported what turned out to be a stack of telephone books in a black garbage sack), but others are most certainly someone's wild animal gotten loose or dumped.

I don't think that there's a breeding colony of the things (there'd be a LOT of predation then). I do believe that there may be a group of wild native cats around that's about lynx sized.

But breeding colony of large jaguar-sized critters? No, I don't believe that's possible.

[Edited on 28-4-2003 by Byrd]

icwales.icnetwork.co.uk... dark%20cat

hold up ther are panthers in florida???? well there goes my vacation to disney world

Of course there is. They are very endangered and VERY reclusive. The Florida Panther shouldnt give you any trouble, hell, you probably wont even see one .

We have those Black Cats in Australia too. Farmers were getting anoyed because they were loosing cattle from this. I think it was being covered up, but I don't see why they would want to do this.

I've heard this before. There have been sightings all over the would. Anyone have any theories?

"I think in your case that Panthers came up from Florida"

Florida panthers are more of a tan color though... They are pretty rare though, extremely endangered.

The British "sightings" have been an annual event for some years now.
The most commonly cited "culprit" is an escapee from a private zoo.
Now, Estragon has not yet got round to buying a private zoo, so I cannot claim to be speaking authoritatively here; but I should have thought that one would notice if one of one's big cats had gone AWOL.
I suppose it's just possible that a very rich person could smuggle such beasties intop the country - but it seems unlikely.
I attribute the phenomenon to warm weather and cider.

Animals turning up where they should not be hase been happening for years. Since we have been routinely transporting them out of their normal environment and placing them into new environments since the stone age. A few examples: rabbits in Australia, horses in the USA (unknown until the Spaniards arrived), carp in eastern USA (unknown untill 1880's), walking catfish in Florida. Also pheasants (hunted in my state, Ohio) are also not native to the USA. Often these transplanted animals thrive in their new environment. Perfect example is the carp which was brought here in the 1880's. Now carp live in all the lakes and rivers in the eastern USA and in some cases are about the only fish you are going to catch. Exotic animals can enter a new environment by escape or when the owner releases them because they get to big to handle. (In the state of Ohio, it is a first degree misdeamor to release any exotic fish into public waters (maybe it's a felony now.) I would not dismiss out of hand any report of an exotic animal (by this I mean an animal not normally found in your local environment) especially if there are multiple reports. In many cases the ownership of such an animal is illegal unless specifically licensed (I would think that would be the case in the UK). If you had one as a pet, you probably would not report it if it escaped and you surely would not go around telling people you let your pet tiger or panther go because it got to big.

I seen a wolf down in California once. They are supposed to be extinct in Cali, living only in washington and Alaska, but i saw the #er. Bigger than a coyote, and silvery. A definite wolf. Dunno how he got there once tho.

Seen cougars up here in washington, but they are native here. Bout the biggest cat i saw in Uk was a fat housecat the size of a beagal on the airbase.

There are wolves in Ohio now (not much in the papers about reports). Yours truly is fairly sure he saw one. I live in a fairly built up area, but there still lots of cover for fairly large animals. I do not smoke in the house, but go outside to smoke. One night I saw a grayish dog looking creature walking across the back of the yard (fairly large yard). It looked like a german shepard but I could see it very well because of the darkness, but the one thing I did notice that it did move like a dog. It was walking in a tail down position rather than a tail up. With the way people transport animals around, I would not be suprised if a camel were spotted in Ohio. Next thing I expect is for a wild llama population to develope here in Ohio because there are several people raising them in this state for their wool. Sooner or later someone is going to get careless and allow a few to escape and they will breed.

We have big cats in Australia too. They are mostly sighted around Vic and NSW. There was a video on the Aussie news a year ago, where a farmer caught one on tape.
The most accepted theory is that they are escaped panthers from a circus around the 1900's. They have proliferated because they ar at the top of the food chain with no natural predators and plenty of game.

When I spent a few months working on a sheep/crop farm near Orange, NSW, we had to shoot feral cats. This was because some of them were big enough to kil lambs. We shot one which weighed 22 kg.
They get that big because only the biggest and strongest ones survive.
It's interesting as these cats have become this big only over the last 200 years, when domsticated cats were introduced.

Let me see here. 1 kg = 2.2 pounds then 22 kg = 48.4 pounds (that is getting pretty big and none of it is fat). If a city dweller saw a cat that big at night, he might think he was seeing a panther. A cat that big could probably eat about every dog on the block for lunch. Correct me if I am wrong, cats are not native to Australia so all your cats are descended from the common house cat. Haven't heard much about feral cats getting that big in the USA but the thought that they can get that big in Australia should give animal control officers in the USA and UK some thought.

surely these 'BIG' cats. would have killed some body by now. and why aren't there any pictures of them...?

Don't belive it my self. Hope I don't bump into.

I live in North Yorkshire and there is supposed to be some in the moors.

I believe there is big cats in the UK. Also I don't think there is a lot of photographic evidence as the people who have claimed to have seen them have been out at night. You don't normally take your camera with you. Well I don't anyway.
www.bigcats.org...

Ive seen pictures. Not too sure of the authenticity though. Im going to go search for them and Ill post again once I find the pics.

www.britishbigcats.org...

Heres some cool pics.