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Big cats in britain; Your opinions?
Topic Started: Jun 15 2012, 10:07 PM (5,230 Views)
da pink
Omnivore
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Sounds like they're doing a good job protecting them. . . .though i'd imagine they should flourish - you have a lot of wild space.


(i've sent you some whist pies and a black pudding in return. . . .hope they get their ok :) )
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maestro tomberi
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There are huge wild spaces, along with many cinegetic species, it's an ideal environment for alien big cats. That's why is not discarded at all the chance of finding another big cat. It happened with the crawfish, it happened with the HUGE catfish, so it could perfectly happen with big cats.

Oooh... black pudding. You know, we have many varieties of those (morcillas) being the ones made with onion, lard and blood (morcilla matachana) and the rice ones made in Burgos really exquisite. I'm not a fan of the Asturian ones, because the flavour is very strong (quite smokd), but they're ideal to add in broths for several epic stews :D
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k9boy
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da pink
Apr 25 2013, 10:20 PM
k9boy
Apr 25 2013, 10:09 PM
I posted this earlier, but i'll post it again incase any of you missed it. This is IMO solid proof that wild cats are out there : http://scotcats.online.fr/abc/photoalbum/westwalessheepkill.html
Yeah, I agree. Exciting isn't it? What species do you lean to?
Its gotta be either a leopard or puma. A lynx would not have the strength to drag an adult sheep so far. Awesome to think there out there, guess our countrysides wildlife isn't so boring after all B-)
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da pink
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If one takes the word of the author of the book I linked to (and for some reason I always think books more reliable, though I have no idea whether they have to have authenticise their claims to be published )Lynx are out there, as are puma and leopard, but also a hybrid.

But why no photos?
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maestro tomberi
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Whoever may think wildlife is boring just doesn't pay the proper attention to the environment and also has got to be too much of an ignorant beast. It's an overwhelming concept. Not just fauna (and, per se, with heaps of species in each different country). Add the very different plants and... and... mushrooms and fungus ( of which I'm a fan, can't hide it)
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da pink
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maestro tomberi
May 1 2013, 09:18 PM
There are huge wild spaces, along with many cinegetic species, it's an ideal environment for alien big cats. That's why is not discarded at all the chance of finding another big cat. It happened with the crawfish, it happened with the HUGE catfish, so it could perfectly happen with big cats.

Oooh... black pudding. You know, we have many varieties of those (morcillas) being the ones made with onion, lard and blood (morcilla matachana) and the rice ones made in Burgos really exquisite. I'm not a fan of the Asturian ones, because the flavour is very strong (quite smokd), but they're ideal to add in broths for several epic stews :D

I saw a programme on those catfish in Spain, and we have the signal crayfish taking over rivers, wild boars have escaped and formed breeding populations, as have beaver...and thats an excellent point you've made. If they can do it, why can't a big cat?


I've had the morcilla - it's very similar to our own. I think you're gonna need to send me some more items, don't worry - theyll be very well appreciated lol
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maestro tomberi
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Of course it's something extensible to any nich of the animal kigndom: the gray squirrel taking oer the red squirrel's place, or the terribly dreadful asian wasps who annihilate the european bees. There should be paid attention if there ever could surge. Nucleums instead of aislated populations in order to preview the effects it could have in the local fauna, with special emphasis in local predators... (wolves, mainly).

And you know: as long as I can as the toll enables me to. Now those are real cultural interchanges lol
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da pink
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I'd like to see wolves re-introduced into the UK, not sure how practical it is but be good to see.

With regards the grey squirrel, signal crayfish etc . . .. We're told they're "bad" as they can eliminate native species but is this not just nature at work?





Yeah i'm all about that type of exchange - i'm sending you a pot noodle and balti pie right now


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maestro tomberi
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It may be nature at work, but once again driven by the hand of the man. Let's not forget some of the most epic disasters provoked such as the invasion of toads and rabbits in Australia.In the other hand, there could be like the case of the Cuban Iguana, which was introduced in Puerto Rico ; supposedly to die there, but due to the proper conditions and the lack of proper competence they grew like mushrooms and nowadays Boricuas claim them as an autoctone species.

I think I should send some fabada. It's some epic stuff, but don't eat it at summer!! Lol !!!
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da pink
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One could argue man is a product of nature, and therefore his actions and their results are natural.



We never get summer here...i'm safe.....send it over :0





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JaM
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da pink
Apr 23 2013, 07:15 PM
JaM
Jun 16 2012, 01:02 AM
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".

In the book I mentioned above they did an experiment where they placed life sized cut outs of various big cats at different distances and asked members of the public to turn round and look for a few seconds at each one before trying to identify/describe what they saw.

The majority were correct. If they didn't know the species they had a good idea at it's size
This is a pretty late answer, but I never noticed that you replied, since you managed to make it look like you just quoted my post and nothing else agro .

There are so many variables. In any case, it doesn't matter whether the "majority" can tell. The majority of people aren't the people who report ABC's to the press when they see a moggy. It's just a few people out of many who do that. Despite the experiment in the book you mentioned, I still don't believe that most people can estimate anything beyond about 20 m, because I test people about this all the time, and most people fail miserably.

Another thing is that many of the "panther" observations describe them as uncharacteristically huge, while a real leopard doesn't look all that big, since it's not particularly tall.

There are also many pictures of cats which HAS turned out to be misjudged, so no matter what "the majority" can do, there are still a lot of examples of previous misidentifications.

Where I live, there was a serval (by the name of Siwah) which escaped. People observed this serval occasionally over a long period of time, and because there was a sort of a legend about a puma in the area, they all though that they saw a puma. That's all the suggestion they needed, plus the fact that they had never heard of or encountered a serval before. And let me tel you, a serval looks nothing like a puma at all. But despite this, that was what people saw - a puma. It's just because that's what they had heard of.

Puma
Posted Image
Serval
Posted Image

Don't underestimate the power of the human mind.

Ps. the owner of the serval wrote a book about this incident:
http://bookstone.dk/product.asp?product=6977
Edited by JaM, May 9 2013, 09:50 AM.
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da pink
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Quote:
 
This is a pretty late answer, but I never noticed that you replied, since you managed to make it look like you just quoted my post and nothing else


Yup! I do that a lot!

Quote:
 
Despite the experiment in the book you mentioned, I still don't believe that most people can estimate anything beyond about 20 m, because I test people about this all the time, and most people fail miserably.


It was done at a large Safari Park with 100's of random customers, with several cut outs at several distances.

Quote:
 
There are also many pictures of cats which HAS turned out to be misjudged, so no matter what "the majority" can do, there are still a lot of examples of previous misidentifications.


Oh deffo, that's a given - people see what they want to see, or what they think they know. I can see a lot of people mistaking Leopard for Lynx, for example.

There ARE *(or have been) some leopard and puma in the UK (there's too much proof) but that's not that surprising or interesting. They're just escapees or been let loose. It's possible there is a breeding population but Ive yet to be convinced.

As far as the "panthers" that keep being reported. I agree with you, I think people are vastly over estimating their size. I think, though, there is a breeding population of big, black, wild, cats. But I think they're all Kellas cats http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kellas_cat


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JaM
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da pink
May 9 2013, 05:47 PM


It was done at a large Safari Park with 100's of random customers, with several cut outs at several distances.


Interesting, in that case I stand corrected, and many people can judge the size of animals - at least they could in the conditions available in the test you refer to.

Edited by JaM, May 10 2013, 06:00 AM.
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maker
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Certainly possible, per the evidence already stated, and among the most convincing is this:
Posted Image
Puma captured in the wild in Scotland 1980. Now (2011) in Inverness museum.
http://scotcats.online.fr/abc/photoalbum/cannich.html
Edited by maker, Mar 8 2015, 02:34 PM.
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Cape Leopard
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Of the 1000s of claimed sightings every year and not one unambiguous photograph?

Come on now ... here in the Cape most people never see leopards and only a few ever get to see them even once. Even so, people have managed to take photographs of these elusive animals, and doing so in difficult, remote and rugged mountainous terrain.

There should be at least a couple of clear photographs in the relatively easier landscape of the UK, not including camera traps; yet not even once do we have anything that is recognisably other than a large domestic cat or a dog.
Phantom big cat sightings are a common phenomenon, not just in the UK, but also in the Eastern USA, and in Australia and New Zealand, where no native cat of any kind exists.

To me, this indicates the powerful link between the human psyche and nature - that in places with no large or threatening predators, the human mind will invent such an illusion and though mass hysteria and excitement, spread it across the region's culture. It's interesting that these particular reports do not regularly happen in regions with known big cat presence, such as in Africa, the western USA or South America.
Edited by Cape Leopard, Mar 8 2015, 11:01 PM.
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