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Big cats in britain; Your opinions?
Topic Started: Jun 15 2012, 10:07 PM (5,229 Views)
k9boy
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Apex Predator
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Do you believe that they roam the uk?. My brother has seen one up north and I would trust him with my life. I found an account (can't remember where it is) Of a guy who was driving on a country road, at the side there were police talking to a man in his car. He slowed down and then he saw it. Policemen were loading a very big sandy coloured cat into a van. It was dead, the man must have hit it. He says the police were telling him not to tell anyone. thAside from that there are many sheep kills, some are probably dogs, but others have got to be large cats. There was one case where a sheep was found dead with the hindqaurters eaten and puncture wounds on the neck. It was also dragged for quite a long distance. The goverment knows they are out there, but they hush people who have seen them. What do you think?
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Full Throttle
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It's entirely possible. When people say theyve seen a black panther in the UK they've eithr seen a dog or a panther, we have no other large animals in this country to mistake them for. I live near cannock chase, and for years something has been killing and eating fallow deer in the park. It has been on the news and my dad has a friend who works for the forestry commision, he told me and my dad one night he had seen the one of theese dead deer and there was no way it was a dog, the kill was clean no limbs torn off, no signs of mauling the deer was just lying with a big open hole were it's stomach and intestines should be. The only big predator in the U.K is the red fox, and when full grown deer are found dead and eaten inside of a huge, patrolled national trust park then it's unlikely were dealing with stray dogs, and red foxes surely can't kill a deer.
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Palaeogirl
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It's definitely possible, I don't know why people act like it should be secret information though. There's obviously some sort of large carnivore in the UK.
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Apex
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yeah that act where there was this reall expensive liscence to keep exotic pets so many animals were released into the wild, im a big believer in these cats its only a matter of time toill one is found, also i saw a program and a whole primary school of people saw them, i dont think 30 teachers and a head teacher would lie about something like that
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k9boy
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I found the sheep kill evidence I mentioned earlier. This sheep has been killed with 1 clean bite to the neck, and the punctures matche a leopards canines. And this animal was dragged 50 yards. See here: http://scotcats.online.fr/abc/photoalbum/westwalessheepkill.html
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ManEater
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A leopard is very elusive , it is possible to live in a place with leopard and never see one in his life , so yes it is possible .
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JaM
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I would much prefer to rely on actual expert on the assertion of the identity of sheep killers rather than "UK big cat hunters" who have taken on the task of proving that big cats exists in the UK, or farmers who have never seen a true big cat kill in their life.

Are there released big cats in the UK? That's possible - after all, some have been caught through the ages. In fact, several lynx have been caught - but except for one case, those lynx seemed to be unable to feed properly, which means that the individuals may have been released or escaped from people who had them as (illegal!) pets.

Now, an actual viable leopard population seem highly doubtful. I really don't believe that people in general can estimate the size and identity of cats seen form afar, and in certain conditions, the cats may look much larger than they really are. So, observations of "panthers" by lay people with no real experience with such animals are somehow doubtful, in my opinion, and there are several examples of people who have photographed regular moggies and claimed that they were "panthers".

There are several ways to determine the presence of any big cats, especially if there's a viable population. The most certain way is to collect their scat. It can usually be determined with high accuracy which species made the scat. Footprint is another way, but I remember some show where several photos of footprints and casts were shown to experts, and they were all dog prints.

Also, a big Maine coon or a forest cat can look very similar from a distance to a lynx - the biggest difference is obviously the tail - but if it sits, or the tail is obscured, it can look much like a lynx. Many of the photos taken of the so called "kellas cats" in the past just show variations of the domestic cat, and any individual cats which were released in the eighties when it was made illegal to have exotic cats are long gone. Somehow the kellas cat has become synonymous with dark hybrids between domestic cats and the Scottish wild cat. However, they're not big. Certainly not in any way comparable with a "panther".

On the other hand, I think this is more disturbing: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/4216070.stm
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k9boy
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But thats the thing! The goverment dont want people to know about them, they tell people who have seen them or who have clear video or photo evidence to keep it hidden. I doubt a dog would kill a sheep so neatly, usually they just bite chunks out of them and they die of blood loss.

Dogs will tear a carcass up and eat anywhere, not in any particular places, some dogs wont even eat there kill. And I dont think your average stray dog would have the strength to drag an adult sheep (40-55kg) for 50 yards. This sheep had its hind quarters fed on, which is where cats usually always start on when they kill large prey.
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DinosaurMichael
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I think it's possible. They may of been illegal pets who were released into the wild. How else would they be in Britain.
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k9boy
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Yes, people used to keep them as exotic pets. Once the law that they could no longer be kept passed, some owners decided to let there pets go into the wild. Some of the cats must have found eachother and mated.
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Full Throttle
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Big cats in the west midlands
Expert says big cats have been on chase for years

I live near cannock chase and they're have been plenty of sightings of panthers as well as the odd deer kill there, my dad's friend who is a council worker for the parks even saw the body of a fallow deer that he said wasn't killed by dogs, it was killed cleanly and it's stomach had been eaten. I've often been told that all big cats need are hiding places, prey and a fresh water source, the chase provides all those things, although I haven't heard of a new sighting or deer kill for years now.


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Jinfengopteryx
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Aspiring paleontologist, science enthusiast and armchair speculative fiction/evolution writer
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I too think it is possible, after reading Full Throttle's links.
Altough I don't now so much about that, but I have not seen evidence against it and the posted links convinced me, so I say yes.
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Arovinrac
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theres also that near-mythical cat, the beast of bodmin moor I think
and also the exmoor beast Posted Image
Edited by Arovinrac, Apr 17 2013, 05:34 AM.
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DinosaurMichael
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By the way. This should be in the Crytozoology section.
Edited by DinosaurMichael, Apr 17 2013, 05:37 AM.
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Canis Warrior
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I believe but I don't think they are indigenous
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