Big Cats
There have been many sightings of Big Cats in the UK. One suggested reason for this is the introduction of the dangerous wild animals act in 1976. It is thought that when faced with the restrictions introduced, some collectors simply released their animals into the wild.
There have been many sightings of Big Cats in the UK. One suggested reason for this is the introduction of the dangerous wild animals act in 1976. It is thought that when faced with the restrictions introduced, some collectors simply released their animals into the wild.
Surely though these animals cannot have an indefinate life span and unless you get a mating pair these cats will die out, so we should se a decease and eventual stop of sightings.
Has anyone found the remains of any dead big cats? If they have been on the lose for 30 years some must have died by now.
Big Cats
Since I’ve been deeply into cryptozoology for the past few years I think I am qualified (?) to answer.
Yes, there have been a number of "corpses" over the years.
The most famous one is "Nellie the Lion", a female puma (Puma concolor), was caught alive near Cannich, Scotland, in 1980 by Ted Noble. This was probably a "hoax" since Nellie was elderly, well groomed and slightly lame, so it’s strongly suspected somebody pulled a fast one by planting an unwanted exotic pet in Ted Noble’s trap.
At least two Eurasian lynxes (Lynx lynx) were killed in Britain in the 1990’s. One was run over by a lorry near Sheffield (if I remember correctly) and the other was shot on the Isle of Wight. A third one is rumoured to have been killed by a marksman of the Ulster Constabulary but nobody has been able to find proof.
Four Leopard cats (Felis bengalensis) were shot or trapped in the 1980’s in Southern England alone.
Then we have the so-called Kellas Cats, those mysterious black felines from Scotland. These are now commonly accepted to be introgressive hybrids between Scottish wildcats and domestic cats (as Karl Shuker predicted back in the ’80s… give the man some credit!).
Of course except for Nellie these are "small" cats but if you ever saw a lion, a tiger or even a leopard (the usual suspect) up close (a zoo enclosure for example) you’ll have some idea of how really big these cats are. Their pawprints (especially a lion’s) are truly enormous.
Working in the cryptozoological field for years has taught me that most persons tend to overextimate measures, often a lot.
Moreover most persons, when shown a black profile of a leopard and a domestic cat have problems telling them apart, despite the leopard’s bigger, squarer head and much more muscular body.
I am personally convinced that there quite a few exotic cats at large in the British Isles, maybe even a few viable populations, but these are mostly "small" cats, for example Jungle cats (Felis chaus), that can hybridize with domestic cats. There’s even a remote probability that there are quite a few lynxes roaming about, though it’s very hard to tell (unless good, fresh genetic material is taken) if they are an indigenous population or released pets: in Central Italy a small population of lynxes has just been discovered. Funny thing, while most researchers and conservation experts considered them extinct since the Pleistocene, the old hunters of the Appenines knew them well and occasional shot and ate them!
There’s also a remote possibility of the occasional big cat being turned loose in the countryside: for example in Australia a puma was shot in the 1950’s near Maryborough. It was then stuffed and it’s still in existence.
There’s also a third possibility, highlighted by yet another Australian case, of giant feral cats, possibly a new species in the making, larger than your average Devon Red and perhaps close in dimensions to a lynx, but until now they are unknown outside Australia.
Big Cats
There are a few problems with the release/escape theory revolving around the Dangerous Animals act of 1976. There is very little evidence of such animals being released. The second problem is that leopards are possibly the most dangerous big cats to man (or at least have been hinted as!); why haven’t there been any human fatalities or even reports of attacks? There have been attacks on dogs, and of course livestock. Thirds problem would be that popular pets were smaller cats like pumas, however there has never been a case, even in wild populations in their native America, of melanistic, or "black", pumas/cougars/mountain lions. Melanistic leopards (ie. panthers) would have indeed made fine pets, owing to their unusual colouration. Leopards displaying normal colouration seem to never be reported, but since the melanistic phenotype would most likely be dominant, breeding pairs of panthers would, of course, be more likely to produce offspring exhibiting melanistic coats.
Another interesting fact is lack of carcasses, but this rings true with lions in the savannah. Indeed, you rarely see animal remains, even in the UK.
Of course, the supernatural theory is that akin to black dogs. Indeed, Scotland does have its own "Fairy Cat", the Cait Sith. Since the description sounds suspiciously like the Kellas Cat (black with a white bib), I would presume that hybrids have been with us for longer then we assume, unless the Kellas Cat was an indigenous species?
I have little doubt that there are specimens still running arnound. Angus, at least, is supposedly chock full of them, and it’s amazing just how many people claim to have seen them (I, myself beleive I have seen one, as well as possible evidence, and my Dad also reckons he might have seen one; I have spoken with much more alleged witensses too!).
Known escapees are invariably caught relatively swiftly. I believe the longest AWOL was from Howlett’s Zoo in Kent, by a clouded leopard for just short of seven months? It was eventually killed.
In the past few years there have been increasing amounts of photos finding their way into local papers, and videos to local news rooms. Looking at some of them seems to releav that they are little more than very large domestic cats (despite the eyewitness claiming the size to be apparently twice the size of what it looks), going by nearby fenceposts (which are generally of a standard height etc). I wonder even if the number of "big" cat sightings and the decline in Scottish Wildcat numbers parallel each other? Could it be that our beloved Fluffys and Sootys are breeding out the wildcat and producing something new? It does not really explain how the hybrid is larger than both the wildcat AND the domestic cat however…
Big Cats
I have only been approached by one Big Cat witness, thouh I think Dan may know another. He was a security guard in a mobile van driving out to locked premises late at night to do a short patrol. He says he was eithier going to or returning from a mill in a wooded area when a large black cat was seen crossing the road and going into the undergrowth. I cannot remember the size he said but it was not in his opinion a domestic cat. I was not in a position to investigate the case at that point. I never heard of any other sightings of it and I think the security firm generally dismissed his claims.
What got me is the proximity of the sighting to a major residential area, ie a big mill town in Greater Manchester. The wood it was set in was really a small park area. I know foxes are now a common sight in our urban areas but big cats? I thought they would stick to rural zones.
It also makes you wonder that if big cats are breeding with our domestic cats, surely it must have been a feral animal otherwise the owners may have noticed some strange kittens. I mention this because I’m not sure Britian has a large feral cat population like many other parts of the world.
The website gets quite a few cases and witness accounts sent in each week. Mainly UFO’s and ghosts, perhaps if we made a more prominent cryptozoology section we might get some big cat sightings as well, which would be interesting.
Big Cats
The Scottish wildcats (Felis silvestris grampia) was wiped out everywhere in the British Isles by the 1860s except for a few pockets in the Highlands. It started to make a comeback in the 1920s but hybridizations has been a problem and right now not more than 400 pure-blood Scottish wildcats are believed to live in the Highlands. A few pure-blood wildcats have been spotted as far south as Kilmarnock and hybrids are believed to have recently reached the Borders.
Shuker, Naish and other experts suggested that the hybridization process which gave us the Kellas cats started quite recently when long-limbed, long snouted, mainly dark purebred cats of Asian origins started to become popular in Britain.
Melanism is a common phenomenon in cats but it seems to be confined to tropical regions but the mechanisms are by no mean clear: for example leopards show a high tendence to melanism in South East Asia but melanistic leopards are so rare in Africa that natives treat the occasional specimen as a different species (ie the Damasia in Kenya). Melanistic pumas, the most popular candidates, are unknown to us: there have been three cases from Latin America but none of them has withstood investigation. Pumas from Patagonia tend to be bigger than their norhern brethrens and are silvery-gray in colour but are very poor substitutes for the typical large black cat.
The giant ferals is a very recent phenomenon. Bushmen hunting in the Gibson Desert of Australia were the first to report them but of course nobody believed them, despite more reports (and killings) coming from all over Australia. The "smoking gun" was finally obtained in 2005 when Kurt Engel shot a giant black feral cat in the Gippsland area, cut off the tail (previous hunters had never bothered saving anything) and sent it to Melbourne to have it analyzed. Lab analysis confirmed that it came from a domestic cat with a 99.9% degree of accuracy though the tail was triple the size it should have been. Engel got nothing out of this experience and, moreover, had to pay the laboratory fees himself.
It’s curious to note that, despite feeble evidence, the Victoria and the New South Wales states of Australia have both included the Puma in the list of animals "known to attack livestock" though this may well be a political move to appease concerned ranchers.
PS: I seem to recall that in some areas of Scotland the wildcat was considered a man killer, can anyone confirm this?
Big Cats
Yep you’re right. There are no confirmed cases of melanistic pumas.
As for melanistic leopards (ie. Panthers) being localised; it may well be something to do with popularions. Melanism in just about every other animal is a genotypic phenomenon. I believe it is a dominant allele that would therefore take priority in showing itself over recessive and mixed alleles. Of course under some circumstances dominant alleles can be ousted from a generation as other phenotypes (the "physical" representation of the genotype, as dark fur would be the phenotype of the genotype that is expressed) are expressed.
So what I’m saying is that in a population where the melanistic geotype is more common (whether it’s dominant or recessive) there is more chance of such animals displaying melanism.
Seeing as it’s been so long since I studied genetics and heredity, this is about as far as I can remember
I suppose I can go and hunt out my old books though. If I’m feeling brave 
Big Cats
There are quite a lot of sightings on the West Coast of Scotland, eg, ‘the Beast of Beith’ makes headlines every now and again with each witness sighting.
Urisk, I know of a couple of alleged attacks on people by big cats in the 1990’s, on Bodmin moor in 1993 a woman walking a labrador was stunned by a blow to the head by a big cat, and also in 1993 a Couple called Nick and Sally Dyke were attacked while in St Peter’s Churchyard in Inkberrow Here & Worc, Nick was knocked down by a cat ( he apparently stood on it) and the cat then took a swipe at Sally and left her with 3 five inch wounds to her rib cage, This appeared in Fortean Times with a picture of the wounds. Sally was a veterinary lecturer, and the couple had been on the look out for the "Beast of Inberrow" and had laid out food for it the evening before. I will see if I can track down the issue.
Don’t know of any cases of the Scottish Wildcat having reputation as a man killer, they are reputedly fierce and cannot be domesticated, but they are quite small and resemble a stocky tabby cat. I am interested in any evidence that they have been seen as far south as Kilmarnock.
I have interviewed a few witnesses of ABC and they were convinced at what they had seen but as has been mooted estimating size is difficult unless you have a reason to do it regulary. In one bizarre sighting a local witness saw a large black cat pass in front of them when walking a country path at dusk. The sighting was bizarre as the cat (they assured me that is the only way they could describe it) was walking on its hind legs,
which can only have a non physical explanation (whether psychological or something else) It certainly scared the crap out of my witness.
Big Cats
DJP, the Scottish Wildcat Trust mantains a sighting database. Here is their website: http://www.scottishwildcats.co.uk/index.html .
The reputation of the Wildcats as a killer is probably rooted in folklore like the Stoat Packs: it would be interesting to find out how such small animals, no matter how fierce and strong for their size, have acquired such a reputation.
Big Cats
Mauro, just found a good website on the Scottish Wildcat: http://www.scottishwildcats.co.uk Suggests that the wildcat is one of Britain’s top predators and explains a bit about the man killer reputation: "The most common victims of wildcat attacks tend to be over confident dogs used to chasing domestic cats and unprepared to back down, or wildlife park keepers trying to get hold of a wildcat for veterinary inspection; some vets opt to use a tranquilising blowdart as wildcats are well documented for biting clean through gauntlets and hands. Legends of cats hanging from tree branches by a hook at the end of their tail, dropping onto passing crofters and tearing out their throats are the stuff of fantasy, left over from the Middle Ages’ suspicion of cats as agents of witches and maintained through the Victorian era to fuel and justify the persecution of the cats."
DJP
I see you have beaten me to it in the above post
Cheers
Big Cats
It seemed we came up with the same idea…
Funny thing, I seem to recall the whole hanging cats story from somewhere else!
Big Cats
Is the Scottish wildcat also know as Jefferys cat ? I ask this as i remember an article in the FT quite some time ago refering to Jefferys cat and with the article was an old photograph with a chap that had shot one, he was standing with the dead cat held up by its tail and it head nearly touched the ground.
Big Cats
Never heard of Jeffreys Cat, but that sounds awfully big for a wild cat. Wild cats tend to be basically cats just that bit bigger than a domestic cat.
When was it? If it was within the last 4 years, there is a slim chance I might have the issue.
Big Cats
Now, wasn’t the Jeffreys Cat supposed to be killed near RAF Fylingdales? I don’t remember much more.
I’ve looked into some material written (among others) by Di Francis, Ian Bond and that fantastic fellow whose name is Darren Naish, PhD, and there are some interesting files.
The Royal Ulster Constabulary did shoot a lynx in Fintona on the 17th February 1997. The animal was wearing a collar and was believed to be a recent escapee from a private collection.
Over the years there have been a number of persons claiming to have released exotic cats in Britain.
Former lion tamer Leslie Maiden said he turned loose a jaguar and a puma in 1973 near Snake Pass. An associate of Maiden later said that "a few friends from Shieffield" turned loose their own big cats in the Pennines.
Stoke Gabriel said that between 1974 and 1975 he turned loose four pumas and two leopards but failed to give more details and his account has some inconsistencies. This is now believed to be a hoax.
Five pumas were rumoured to have been set loose in the woods near Lampeter, Wales, in the late 1970’s. This is regarded as a piece of urban folklore.
Ian Bond was told that in 1996 three "big cats, two tan-coloured one black one" had been set loose in Lancashire. He’d appreciate to hear more about this.
As for bodies and evidence… there’s more than we can handle!
The lynx I was talking about before was not run over by a lorry near Sheffield (silly me!) but shot in Suffolk in 1991. Local police asked the farmer to destroy the body and keep quiet about it, but he took some pictures and sold the body to a local animal dealer. The stuffed animal is still in existence (in a rpivate collection).
A few animals were caught alive: apart from the aforementioned Nellie, two leopard cubs (one melanistic) were caught in two separate occasions in 1975. One had been stolen from Colchester Zoo.
In 2001 a young lynx, nicknamed Lara, was caught after a "chase worth of the Keystone Cops" in Colindale.
There have been scores of Jungle and Leopard cats shot or found dead over the years; the largest cat ever found dead was a lioness in Lancashire in 1980.
(Thanks to Ian Bond for the precious informations and hard work!)
Darren Naish named a large number of evidences: apart from the bodies, large droppings from County Durham were positevely identified as a puma’s by Hans Kruuk, a world authority on carnivorans and an ABC skeptic (until then); hair samples recovered in Lincolnshire in 2003 have been identified as belonging to a cat of the genus Panthera (ie lion, leopard, tiger etc); deer skulls bearing leopard teeth marks have been found, as well as deer carcasses wedged in trees (typical leopard behaviour).
There’s litterally an enormous body of physical evidences pointing towards something strange happening in the British countryside.
Apart from "pet owners" (how is a leopard supposed to be a fine pet?) there have been rumours of "canned hunts", rumours nobody has been able to substantiate, as well older rumours of eccentric Victorian gentlemen trying to introduce various exotic species in Britain during the second half of the XIX century. I remember hearing rumours about some breeding coyotes introduced in the Eppingham Forest during the 1890’s .
Big Cats
Urisk, i’m sure it would have been within the last four years, i’m thinking the front cover would have had something to do with ABC’s on it.
I asked the wife about it as she has a better memory than me, she thinks that Jefferys cat may have been an Australian thing, but i’m not in agreement.
Big Cats
Front cover, ye say? Was it black and green, with two rather vicious looking panthers sitting on top of a poor soul’s vintage car, by any chance? I believe that might well have been over the summer.
If you can’t find it, I
If you can’t find it, I should have a copy on my shelf, but don’t forget FT do (or at lease use to) publish the annual ABC survey.
I visited Inverness museum
I visited Inverness museum yesterday and they had a stuffed puma (called Felicity!)which was originally caught at Cannich (near Beauly/Inverness) in 1980! The label was extremly poor in the museum and had no information on whether it was thought to have come from a zoo or collector! However the Highland Council online archive has a bit more info http://www.ambaile.org.uk/en/item/item_audio.jsp?item_id=38933
i herad this thery wiche
i herad this thery wiche thort thay were werwolf”s
Kim and I had a sighting of
Kim and I had a sighting of a large cat in Kent two years ago I think.
We posted it on our forum, which Neil Arnold from KentBigCats identified for us. If only I could remember what it was identifed as – unfortunately the forum is no longer in use.
I can contact Neil and ask him as he keeps meticulous records.
Dave
Another angle and a sighting
Another possibility for some larger than usual ‘domestic’ strays is unusual breeds such as the Norwegian Forest Cat and Maine Coon. They’re not common by any means, but they are incredibly BIG variants of domestic cats, often twice the size of a normal breed. Norwegian Forest cats in particular are very hardy, despite being normally kept as a pedigree house-cat. I think I also read somewhere that they are excellent climbers and have a tendency to leave kills in trees. They would be able to hybridize, and could be mistaken from a distance as something more exotic. The main problem is that they’re expensive as hell and any missing cat would surely be reported. They’re also certainly not capable of killing anything as large as livestock, but it might explain some of the lesser sightings.
Which brings me onto my sighting story. This was about 7-8 years ago in Gloucestershire at a farm (pretty rural but not isolated, bordering on private woodland), where I used to livery a horse. I never saw it personally, but the lady who lived in the farmhouse reported seeing something from the kitchen window, slinking along a wall. It was about 5am, summertime so it wasn’t so dark, and at first she thought it was the black tomcat from the yard. It covered about a quarter of the wall and then paused. It was then she realized it was far too big to be the tom (which was tiny, being half feral). She could give a pretty accurate guess at it’s size as next to the wall, which was about waist height, there was a six foot stake for fencing propped up, and as it passed, only a few inches of it was visible. So about the size of a smallish alsation dog. She was pretty sure, as well, that it was neither a dog not a fox as she’s familiar with both (and keeps a close eye for stray dogs and foxes in case of the sheep or the chickens). The movement was altogether more fluid. We never saw it again, probably because the foxhunt was out in force only a few days later, but there was a report of a large cat being seen some miles away, and some missing livestock reported.
Big Cat Welcome 🙂
Hi Columbine and welcome to the forum 🙂
If there are big cats out
If there are big cats out there, wouldn’t they operate as we see the big cats do in Africa. Have a territory in which they hunt. I know it is differant because some cat types would be following herds of grazing animals, but others are very territorial. So couldn’t the size of the territory be worked out and then checked for further sightings?
I think we need to get a few sighting cases together and get them on our maps.
Cat behavior
Most modern felines are very adaptable. For example most people think that all lions behave like the Serengeti lions just because so many books have been written about them and pretty much every other nature documentary is about their lives. But the truth is that the Serengeti lions are an anomaly: for example lions in many parts of Africa have a preference for larger preys (buffaloes, giraffes, even elephants) and so the larger males play a vital role in the hunt.
Leopards are very stealthy beasts capable of astounding feats and usually hunt at night. They are also "generalists", able to feed without problems on a variety of preys: sheep, large birds, rabbits, deer etc. As their geographic distribution points out they have no problems adapting to a variety of enviroments. I wouldn’t be too surprised if a serious sweep of Britain’s countryside turned out more than a couple of melanistic leopards.
But the problem with leopards is that they are large (and I mean alarmingly large) and most sightings hint at considerably smaller beast.
That’s where problems kick in. The Kellas cats are well documented and, although they have different body proportions from an ordinary feral, they are no bigger than an ordinary tomcat or wildcat. A lynx would be a good match in size but these beasts are unbelievably stealthy and have such marked characteristics (long legs, stubby tail, prominent ear tufts etc) as to make them unmistakeable when sighted. Pumas (the usual suspects) are too big, too muscular and, what’s more important, melanism have never been confirmed, so they cannot account for the ubiquitous black beasts.
Which leads us back to Kurt Engel’s colossal feral: how large can a feral cat grow?
As far as cat size goes
As far as cat size goes (can’t comment on big wild cats, the Puma being native around here) domestic cats can grow fairly large, depending on the breed or breeds involved. I do recall having heard of domestic cats in excess of 30-40 pounds. How big is the biggest? I do not know.
Summum Nec Metuam Diem Nec Optima
Latest sighting of a big cat
Latest sighting of a big cat below. Have read a couple of accounts of this story today and they seem to differ in reporting the cat as being a domestic, a domestic/wild cross, a wild cat, and a Big Cat!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7791419.stm
Apparantly “New information
Apparantly "New information revealed under the Freedom of Information Act by the Forestry Commission has confirmed two reliable sightings of large cats" in the Forest of Dean area.
Sauce:
http://www.stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk/search/?search=big+cats
http://www.stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk/search/4026338.Big_cat_fears_sparked_by_official_sightings/
What do people think?
Thanks Columbine. I think
Thanks Columbine. I think I had better start getting some of these big cat sightings up as gazetteer pieces and start mapping them.
I wonder if the “Jeffries”
I wonder if the "Jeffries" cat is the same as the Geoffry Cat. The Geoffry cat isn’t a very large wildcat, average 10 pounds and is native to S. America. They do have a black phase.
Personally I’m beginning to wonder if there isn’t a very rare black phase to the cougar. My vet tech has seen a very large black cat that got up under her porch. Diane and her family leave next to Wattensaw Wildlife Management Area and this cat ran back in that direction. This black cat was as large as the rescued Rottweiler she had at the time. Her son William also saw a large black cat on a different area of the property. Both times the cat had a tail so were not black bobcats. Other family members plus their neighbors have heard the "panther scream" from time to time. My thoughts on it have run from it being an escaped black leopard or jaugar, black jaugar that managed to migrate up to Arkansas (farthest north they have been reported is along the Mexican border), a black phase cougar (previously undescribed) or an undescribed wildcat or hybrid.
Firedance wrote:
I wonder
[quote=Firedance]
I wonder if the "Jeffries" cat is the same as the Geoffry Cat. The Geoffry cat isn’t a very large wildcat, average 10 pounds and is native to S. America. They do have a black phase.
[/quote]
I didn’t see the article they are referring to above from Fortean Times but perhaps your right and it was a Geoffry Cat.
Girls chased by ‘big cat’
A report of a fresh sighting, which I spotted in the Daily Mirror yesterday:
A big black cat pursued two schoolgirls after they saw it by a tree in woods, scared 15-year-old Kim Howells said yesterday.
The "Great Dane-sized" animal followed her and cousin Sophie Gwynne, eight, home to Ruspidge in the Forest of Dean, Glos – where puma-like beasts have been sighted before.
Re: Big Cats
That does sound like something a Puma would do, though only if it was more curious then hungry. Otherwise one of those young ladies might have met an unfortunate end. I know they can chase a dirt bike over short distances, if they’re really determined.
Summum Nec Metuam Diem Nec Optima
Re: Big Cats
In the US where we do have large mountain lions living wild…..it strikes me interesting that no human being has been killed by these cats. Or have I just missed this report?
Mountain lions are known to be man killers and have run down and killed joggers in the desert hills of California. Plus we see jaguars on the border every now and then…another big cat. I live in Texas where we have cougars/mountain lions and bobcats..which are actually quite common. The smaller wild cats we have avoid people unless their kittens are threatened. But not mountain lions. Young males are particularly dangerous.
And I remember seeing a program some time back about a cat keeper in GB who has some legal mountain lions. He sword his cats were visited by one that didn’t belong to him.
Re: Big Cats
Well, the problem is that in the case of big cats in a country they arn’t native, the cause of death might be mis-identified.
Summum Nec Metuam Diem Nec Optima
Re: Big Cats
that is certainly a valid possibility.
Re: Big Cats
Fears that black panthers are roaming the Scottish countryside following the release of the Helensburgh mobile phone footage have been firmly debunked by international experts. According to big cat conservationist Dr Luke Hunter, And the lack of evidence leads Dr Hunter to remain unconvinced about the existence of big cats in Scotland.
But experts have examined the shaky footage and say the animal’s characteristics are typical of a domestic cat.
Rob Weaver, a BBC wildlife presenter and film-maker, said it would be very unusual for a big cat to calmly walk around in a public place.
“The small, almost dainty steps the creature takes along the rail are not characteristic of a puma, or a similar big cat, which tend to have a far more loping gait,” he said.
The footage looks very much like a very well fed domestic cat to me. ‘Leopards (black panthers are melanistic leopards) do not carry their tails upright, which you see in the footage, while domestic cats characteristically do. He added ‘I’ve seen big cats –leopards, lions, cheetahs, jaguars, tigers and cougars – in the wild thousands of times and nothing about this footage has the appearance or look and feel of any of those species. No way is this a big cat.’
Graham Law, a zoologist at Glasgow University who has worked with leopards for 23 years, also said the animal was more likely to be of the domestic variety.He said: “The video isn’t of a good enough quality to verify exactly what the animal is. A leopard would not confidently walk down a railway line. It would more likely move along the sleepers or stay in heavily forested areas.
Application of Locard’s Exchange Principle as well as the Application of the Simons Test. Then we have Dr Luke Hunter of Panthera (well respected) & Dr Alan Rabinowitz, as well as Dr Graham Law as well as Prof McDonald, and so on who disagree completely and have shown this in the Black Beast of Exmoor Documentary. Until there is fact and proof then this myth will continue as a crank subject. Even Mark Fraser said it was a crank subject before he closed down BCIB.
After all these years of these mythical big cat sightings in the UK and still no fact and proof. Tunbridge the so-called big cat tracker from Stroud still can not show any of his big cats. Then we have McGowan and the rest of the fantastists who swear that these cats are here and breeding? Such fools try to use ego, hype, big words and "I am an expert" or "I know what I am talking about" rubbish. They say big cats are breeding in the UK; big cats are doing this and that in the UK. BS..
Despite the usual dross from others saying that big cats frequent railway lines, really? Since when do cats read train time tables…? Saying that zoo keepers and the lady in the monster quest documentary taking about what is and is not a big cat. She never "forced" her opinion on anyone. Unless these UK big cat crypto groups and groupies can come up with real hard science fact and truth, showing that such mythical cats do exist. breeding and wild, then sadly they have no reply. No big cats..
Scott Lope of Big Cat Rescue, who was used on the MonsterQuest: Black Beast of Exmoor TV episode 2008 said: "these are seen as minor scratches, not consistent with any width or claws of any big cat or wild cat. I would seriously doubt that this was caused by a big cat other than a domestic cat or by oneself." Then we have Dr Luke Hunter of Panthera (well respected) & Dr Alan Rabinowitz, as well as Dr Graham Law as well as Prof McDonald, and so on, who all disagree with this myth hype.
Cryptozoology concerns itself with unknown species for which there are "myths" and with supposedly-extinct species. Strictly-speaking, a species that is simply unknown is not cryptozoological. Cryptozoology" is that it is not a legitimate field of science. Any idiot can call himself a cryptozoologist as if it means something important and it does not. A zoologist is a legitimate title, as is geologist, biologist, etc. Cryptozoologist means nothing.
Dr Nick Royle, a senior lecturer in Behavioural Ecology at Exeter University, said people could overestimate the size of animals, which could explain sightings.
He said that research conducted at the university had shown that when viewing an object that was the size and shape of a large domestic cat at a distance of 230ft (70m) from them 21% of people estimated the ‘cat’ to be the size of a leopard or larger.
Dr Royle said: "The research showed that people can estimate regular shapes such as rectangles of different sizes correctly at distance, but have difficulty estimating the size of cat-shaped objects.
Application of Locard’s Exchange Principle as well as the Application of the Simons Test. Then we have Dr Luke Hunter of Panthera (well respected) & Dr Alan Rabinowitz, as well as Dr Graham Law as well as Prof McDonald, and so on who disagree completely and have shown this in the Black Beast of Exmoor Documentary. Until there is fact and proof then this myth will continue as a crank subject. Even Mark Fraser said it was a crank subject before he closed down BCIB.
Sorry, but no "big cats" wild, free or breeding within the UK.