Those big cats out in the woods...

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Those big cats out in the woods...

56 posts & 35 voices | Started 10 months ago by rkk01 | Latest reply from molgrips

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rkk01 - Member

Seem to be able to travel considerable distances avoiding detection....

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Some quite surprising nuggets in this BBC article, quite thought provoking in the context of whether the are / could be pumas on the loose in the UK.

Leaving aside the length of this cat's travels, he had skirted around / passed by some pretty populous areas. I was also surprised that no pumas had been sighted in CN for such a long period - extinct in that state, or just present, but very difficult to detect (possible UK parallel)

Posted 10 months ago #
joao3v16 - Member

Big Cats in the British Countryside?

You'll be claiming there's a creature living in Loch Ness next

( )

Posted 10 months ago #
racefaceec90 - Member

am convinced there are big cats living wild here in uk.when the law got passed to make it illegal for (idiots) to have big cats as pets (in the 60's).am sure that more than one may have been released into the wilds of Exmoor e.t.c.from the evidence of paw prints that have been recorded also (which were not made by your domestic house cat i for one welcome our new big cat masters hail pussicus giganticus

Posted 10 months ago #
LHS - Member

You have to really watch out for Mountain Lions in many parts of the US, come across a couple of the last 10-15 years.

Posted 10 months ago #
qwerty - Member

i think they should release more dangerous animals into wild areas, it might stop humans going there and ruining it

Posted 10 months ago #
Daisy_Duke - Member

It's not a case of it they exist in the UK, it's how many.

Posted 10 months ago #
JAG - Member

Yeah - I'm a believer too

Posted 10 months ago #
monstermarrow - Member

"The journey of this mountain lion is a testament to the wonders of nature and the tenacity and adaptability of this species," Mr Esty said

Daniel Esty, commissioner of the state's Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

Totally avoiding the sad fact that this poor cat's journey ended with it being flattened by an SUV.

The lesson learned here, is not so much about the tenacity and adaptability of nature, but more to do with dwindling naural habitat that unique species such as these cats face. Perhaps Mr Esty from the Department of Environmental Protection would have taken this media opportunity to do the right thing, and highlight the more immediate threats that all native big cats in America face.

What on earth IS a "Sport Utility Vehicle" anyway?

Posted 10 months ago #
ericemel - Member

I've seen a wallaby in the Peak District!

Posted 10 months ago #
molgrips - Member

If that lion ventured away from its home, how many others do the same thing?

Posted 10 months ago #
woody2000 - Member

In the UK - whilst I'm sure there's the odd escaped big cat prowling around, I don't see how there can be enough of them to have a breeding population, especially as the sightings often don't seem to be cats of the same species.

Posted 10 months ago #
uwe-r - Member

I have never seen a large pussy in the woods!

Posted 10 months ago #
rkk01 - Member

To me, this was interesting because even where they are a native species, the puma is solitary, ellusive, range very widely and find it very easy to avoid contact with humans.

Yes, the US is huge compared to the UK, and has vasts expanses of forest and other wilderness areas - but also, conservation, outdoor activities, and in particular, hunting are very big. These sorts of activities would / shoud bring people into contact with cats, in the same way that is argued for the UK. The reality is that this species is adept at keeping iteslf to itself...

ETA -
whilst I'm sure there's the odd escaped big cat prowling around, I don't see how there can be enough of them to have a breeding population,

Looking at the wikipedia entry for the puma, they are attributed with being able to maintain a breeding population based on very low and widely dispersed populations.

Think about it - for a solitary creature that lives and hunts alone and by stealth, it's pretty much a given that they need to be able to hook up with each other even over the large territories that they roam. Scent marking etc I guess.

Posted 10 months ago #
kcr - Member

You can see the puma caught by a farmer at Cannich in 1979, stuffed and mounted in Inverness museum. It was clearly a captive release, although they never discovered where it came from.

Posted 10 months ago #
coffeeking - Member

What on earth IS a "Sport Utility Vehicle" anyway?

A vehicle that's a sporty one and can be used as a utility vehicle.(pickup with nice alloys?)
Maybe a vehicle that is a utility vehicle for sports (bike transporter?!)

Posted 10 months ago #
rkk01 - Member

What on earth IS a "Sport Utility Vehicle" anyway?

Popular US vehicle type - think RangeRover, but way bigger, cruder and less economical

Posted 10 months ago #
molgrips - Member

Someone ran over a big cat near Ludlow once - Lynx or something.

SUV = 4x4 or faux 4x4. So anything from a Honda CRV to a Ford Excursion.

Posted 10 months ago #
skiboy - Member

my best mate and his wife and child stumbled across a puma carcass that thier dog had picked up the sent of,

not saying where, but they took a mobile phone photo and popped into the forestry commision hut on the way home, the rangers were not supprised and told them to keep schtum about it as they didn't want to have truck loads of hunters in their woods every night.

same woods same area of said wood where my dad always told me the 'black cat' lived in the seventies,

my dad aslo saw a 'black cat' cross the road in front of his lorry in 1997 near oxford,

Posted 10 months ago #
MrK mkII - Member

The evidence suggests the cat had made the longest-ever recorded journey of a land mammal, scientists say.

i think mark beaumont went further

Posted 10 months ago #
Moses - Member

Mrs M's cousin saw a black puma / panther a few years back in the FoD.
She's a farmer and the puma was on their land so the size was obvious, and she knows the difference between big dogs, wild boar & other animals of the same size.

Posted 10 months ago #
lovewookie - Member

Nearly sh@t myself one early morning (5:30ish) riding across Balmore Golf club, saw a large cat like object cross the track in front of me.

At the rate it was going I figured it had been scared off by me so wouldn't bother me.

I did pick up the pace a bit though....

Posted 10 months ago #
mattsccm - Member

I have my doubts about anything in the FoD.My uncle was a FC ranger, mostly game, for 50 years and spent most of his like in the woods. Never seen a sign of one. Shed loads of Muntjac though which look like a cat.

Posted 10 months ago #
mattsccm - Member

I like the idea though. More would be nice. Could we have wolf as well?

Posted 10 months ago #
uwe-r - Member

Whilst I have never seen a big cat I have also never caught anyone dogging in a lay by, which is rife apparently, and therefore I have an open mind.

Posted 10 months ago #
derek_starship - Member

I've seen a wallaby in the Peak District!

I've seen a wallaby in Wallasey!

I haven't really but there's a garden at Rivington with a couple of them boinging about! I thought I was seeing things.

Big cats in the wild. Yep. After the dangerous animals act in the 70s, loads of people dumped their pet cheetahs and cougars.

There was a guy near us who travelled around in his work van with a leopard in the passenger seat. No shit.

Posted 10 months ago #
rkk01 - Member

There was a guy near us who travelled around in his work van with a leopard in the passenger seat

Was he called Billy Smart???

Posted 10 months ago #
busydog - Member

I have hiked and biked throughout the mountain west here in the USA for almost 40 years and have seen exactly 2 mountain lions---extremely solitary and elusive. Here in Albuquerque, 2 have been hit by cars within the city limits this year. One was older and in poor health and the other a young cat. Due to the drought this year, food supply is scarce and ones in ill health or inexperienced hunters seem to gravitate to the city where the supply of dogs and cats for lunch (not to mention garbage cans) is pretty abundant.
Something my father told me when I was a kid is don't worry about the mountain lion you see--worry about the one you don't see.

Posted 10 months ago #
verses - Member

Night riding through a local forest a few years back. Rounded a corner and found a series of eyes reflected back at us in the light. All but one pair of eyes fled immediately (deer). The remaining pair were lower down, a little away from the pack that fled and stood stock still looking in our direction as we passed.

That certainly upped our cadence!

Posted 10 months ago #
busydog - Member

Further to above post---here in New Mexico, the state is approx.
121,500 sq. miles in area and the estimated mountain lion population is 2500-3000, so about 1 lion per 48 sq. miles. You'd think we would see more, but as said above---extremely elusive. Kind of makes one pedal harder/faster out in the remote areas.

Posted 10 months ago #
MrNutt - Member

My folks own a couple of Bengal's, they're quite big for domestic cats, but then they also look like leopards not black cats.

Posted 10 months ago #
skiboy - Member

Muntjac look like a cat

That's a classic ,

Posted 10 months ago #
boriselbrus - Member

Any animals released in the 60's and early 70's would be dead by now. My mates Dad came over from Canada with a pro tracker a few years ago to make a programme about big cats for channel 4. All the paw prints they saw and photos of prints they were given were from large dogs. As he said, if they're out there they have to eat, sh1t and walk and after 2 months going around Exmoor and Bodmin there was no evidence at all.

Posted 10 months ago #
mrmichaelwright - Member

I've seen a wallaby in the Peak District!

well documented that there are/have been wallabies and caipubara (sp) roaming the peaks

Posted 10 months ago #
ditch_jockey - Member

riding across Balmore Golf club,

That's slightly alarming - I've read about the sighting by Bob Sharpe up on Meikle Bin, but I wasn't aware there had been sightings lower down. Wife was out walking the dogs a couple of weeks ago in the woods on the north side of Milton of Campsie when both the dogs started to get really spooked about something in the undergrowth - normally they chase anything that moves, but this time they were growling and pacing back and forth. the wife could hear occasional slight rustling and started to get a bit weirded out herself, so legged it out onto more open ground smartish. I didn't really attach much significance to it at the time, but maybe I'll be a little more careful up that way in future

Posted 10 months ago #
busydog - Member

Used to do a lot of solo night riding up in the mountains and foothills, and always hearing animals and seeing eyes shining or fleeting shapes crossing the trail---really pretty spooky and, in retrospect, probably not the best thing to have been doing.
The common sense that comes with age and the protestation of Mrs. Busydog finally put an end to that.

Posted 10 months ago #