[Closed] Big wild cats!

looks cuddly 😀

I do have a tale, which I've related here before; are you sitting comfortably?

I took a job near Kildrummy in rural Aberdeenshire. The brief was to run to the top of various large hills / mountains in the region and take panoramic photos (for wind farm developments). Most of these hills were of no interest to ramblers and the only way up them was to heather-bash, often up near vertical inclines. Careful study of OS maps usually allowed me to join estate landrover tracks at various points and when I found such a track it was a huge relief to me. I worried also about my dog's ability to run up cliffs through rough, snow-laden heather all day.

Anyhoo, on one such jaunt, on day 12 of the expedition, Kasper the dog jumped a good foot in the air. We had been going a good two hours at a very fast pace and had finally found the landrover track bisecting the hill. There was a massive poo. There's no other way to say it. It looked like a fox poo but much fatter, longer and full of deer hair.

I took a photo of it next to my foot for posterity (it was a good few inches longer than my size nine boot) and we carried on at breakneck speed to finish the job in hand. All the way up this remote and uninteresting path, Kasper behaved like a puppy - leaping and hunting and frequently looking back down the path, growling. As the gloaming set in on the descent, I spent more time looking behind me than looking forward and had a few tumbles - I felt watched.

Three days later I ran into the water baillif for the local area. I'd been trying to avoid him. He was a big lad, with a big beard and a crimson whisky drinkers' face. I'd seen him several times over the course of the job - he always seemed to be trying to encourage his ancient Landrover into ever greater feats of speed to catch up with me but we only ever saw each other in passing.

On this day though, the viewpoint I was instructed to capture was a roadside one (easy money!). He pulled up and basically demanded my life story which didn't take long. Disappointed that I was not a poacher, he drew the story (and the photo) of the big, hairy poo out of me.

According to him, there are two big cats running around the Cairngorms but he's only seen one of them. "Ye never ken fit's stravaigin' aboot in those hills", he warned. Cue 40 minutes of big cat sighting stories and thereafter a whole evening of fishermans' tales round the fire later in the evening in the local hotel. The telling factors for me were; the unusual poo and the correlating details of "...the white tip on its tail twitching from side to side as it stuck its nose in a bush"; details which were corroberated by both the bailiff and many guests at the hotel.

Sadly, all the images I took on the memory cards, including the giant poo, are the property of an Edinburgh-based consultation company. Personally, I'm convinced that there are plenty of big cats raking about in the less visited regions.

TLDR is perfectly acceptable.

That sounds like an epic job! How did you land that one?

It's funny how all video and photo footage is very blurred, people have plenty of tales about them but still no definitive proof. I'm not convinced a smelly turd and a spooked dog is any proof either.

Ok there may be some escaped but then by some chance to meet up with others and breed, nah sorry.

I think the bloke has been to Woburn and is having flashbacks.

Leighton Buzzard - a very strange place indeed. I was more afraid of the locals than anything they imagined!

there is one in hertfordshire. been seen from time to time

Been a few sightings in Aberdeenshire where we ride. I've never seen anything... but badgers running at you are scary.

An RAF dog handler caught some good video footage of a large black cat crossing the railway tracks at Helensburgh. The railway tracks give a good sense of scale, and the picture clear enough to make out that your looking ar a large cat, as opposed to a Labrador or similar.

There's also been a couple of sightings close to us on the Campsies, one by Bob Sharp, who was a lecturer in outdoor ed at Strathclyde uni, and spotted a tan cat around 5ft in size near Meikle Bin, and possibly the same cat was seen by a woman who was parked at Crow Rd about 3 miles from Bob's sighting.

Considering most Africans never see a leopard in ther lifetime, nor most Americans a puma, the likelihood of any good photos of a handful of non-native big cats roaming the UK is minimal.

That sounds like an epic jobbie!

Considering most Africans never see a leopard in ther lifetime, nor most Americans a puma, the likelihood of any good photos of a handful of non-native big cats roaming the UK is minimal.

So because 2 cats that live in some parts of 2 continents away from the huge built areas aren't seen by the populations that live there this justifies why no one has any photos here but people say they have seen them.

Considering most Africans never see a leopard in ther lifetime, nor most Americans a puma, the likelihood of any good photos of a handful of non-native big cats roaming the UK is minimal.

UK very small, Africa/America very big 🙂

A group of us were riding along a hedgerow from Retford (Notts) towards clumber park one warm summers evening. Two of us were about 40-50 metres ahead. We heard something big running along side of us in the fully grown corn field the other side of the hedge. Both immediately stood on our pedals and looked over to see a BIG black cat turn away and run off towards the trees at a tremendous pace. It was as big as a labrabor (but longer), jet black and frighteningly fast.

As big and black as Labrador ay.

There was one caught on video on the MSN homepage a few days ago in Glouscestershire
Another was seen round our way in north Warwickshire

There have been numerous sightings round by me in the local green belt and I have seen something a few years back.
It was dark and its huge green eyes reflected back from my lights and when it ran off the cows went apesh1t

The truth is out there people

There was a big cat in the new forest a while back, one of the rangers found a bit of fur on a barbed wire fence. Cant remember what it belonged to too though.

'Beasts with 2 Backs' are frequently reported on Cannock Chase.

As are-
Cavemen,
Aliens,
Grey Ladies,
Wild Boar,
Lights in the sky,
Wallabies,
Pumas / Pathers / Leopards / Cougars
Bulk purchasers of KY.

If anyone wants to go looking for a large predator, there may be one in the glens on the northern side of Ben Wyvis. It's an area with lots of deer. There's no path and it probably only has humans pass through a few times a year, if that.

Last week I was heather bashing through it when I came across the detached leg of a deer. Judging by the teeth marks it had been chomped on by something with large jaws bigger than say a fox. I was running out of light and in a hurry to reach the track before dark, so no pic.

in a hurry to reach the track before dark

Before them there demons get yee!

Found the original piece about [url= http://outdoors.caledonianmercury.com/2010/05/02/big-cat-sighting-leaves-experienced-hillwalker-baffled/00783 ]Bob Sharpe's sighting[/url]. I can't remember the details of the aftermath, but he did end up with a photograph of the pawprint, which the folks at the university were able to identify as a cat of some description. I think his colleagues thought it was more likely to be a puma, rather than a lioness.

Having said that, the Campsies are my regular dog walking area, and I've been up and down them umpteen times and never seen a thing.

Stroud has a blurry [i]BEAST[/i] not been seen to eat deer.

I thought this thread was about a chain of gentlemens clubs 🙁

As above, not really surprising there aren't any good photos of any wild cats. If they're out there there'll only be a handful, and AFAIK people don't often come back with good photos of, say, deer and badgers they've come across them walking their dogs and there are loads of them- probably a lot less shy as well.

Not sure I'm a believer- I wouldn't dismiss it though.

Photographed not far from Laggan Wolftrax last year...

[img] [/img]

http://www.worldpressphoto.org/photo/2012salilberasn-hm?gallery=2634&category=57

Seem to remember Chris Packham saying something along the lines that he has a problem with the idea. If it were Pumas then they're only black for part of the year and a tan colour for the rest of the year. He therefore wanders why there aren't sightings of large 'tan' cats which there generally aren't. For [i]most[/i] species to survive and breed you need a population of between 20 and 40. 20-40 large cats, even in a large rural area, would incite a lot more sightings and evidence.
If these are lone animals, then there's a lot of private owners not letting the authorities know they've escaped and indeed that they owned them in the first place!
So a breeding population? - doubtful
Loads of single lone animals? - even more doubtful

I think this is like a lot of 'mysteries' out there. 99% are wrong identification but 1% have some founding. Somebody, somewhere probably has seen a large escaped cat but most haven't.

Don't get me wrong there probably has been cases of them but most of the sightings are bollocks. People seeing something and their imagination feeling in the details. No doubt escaped ones may survive for awhile but then breeding and continue to breed, don't think so.

There was one sighted here about 14 years ago chasing rabbits on the industrial estate, a one right next to the main road into town. I mean come on really?

Two good friends of mine have said that theyve seen one it was 'bigger than a doberman, black and definitely a cat'. They arent the sorts to make something like that up either. That was in ashridge hertfordshire

If these are lone animals, then there's a lot of private owners not letting the authorities know they've escaped and indeed that they owned them in the first place!

I seem to remember reading somewhere that part of the rationale for there being a number of these animals is that the law was changed a number of years ago to make it illegal to own large cats as exotic pets - apparently very few were 'handed in', leading to speculation that the majority were simply abandoned.

Seem to remember Chris Packham saying something along the lines that he has a problem with the idea. If it were Pumas then they're only black for part of the year and a tan colour for the rest of the year. He therefore wanders why there aren't sightings of large 'tan' cats which there generally aren't.

I think I'm right in saying that pumas/mountain lions are generally a tawny colour and their coat doesn't change seasonally. Not sure what he'd be talking about there?

user-removed, do you know Adrian Davies? He is a wildcat specialist I've worked with in the past on jobs up north, I wonder what he thinks of this kind of thing!

When I was young I lived in the African bush in amongst plenty big cats. It was very difficult to see them even if you knew where they were. Plenty of evidence in the shape of pawprints etc though.

Big cats have a distinct carriage and if you see one even fleetingly it's hard to mistake it for anything else, so I'm prepared to believe that people are seeing them.

[i]I seem to remember reading somewhere that part of the rationale for there being a number of these animals is that the law was changed a number of years ago to make it illegal to own large cats as exotic pets - apparently very few were 'handed in', leading to speculation that the majority were simply abandoned. [/i]

Yep, the law did change in 1976 and there was some well documented cases of private owner releasing animals. I well remember Wallabys bouncing around parts of St Leonards Forest in the late 70's. Big cats but namely Panthers (see below) have a life-cycle of around 12 years so they'd all be dead now unless they were breeding (needing between 20-40 in the same rough area)

[i]I think I'm right in saying that pumas/mountain lions are generally a tawny colour and their coat doesn't change seasonally. Not sure what he'd be talking about there? [/i]

Sorry, my fault, substitute Puma for Panther

Big cats have a distinct carriage and if you see one even fleetingly it's hard to mistake it for anything else, so I'm prepared to believe that people are seeing them.

Only if the people seek this know.

The one spotted up here I was talking about was my dog. The father in law was walking her at the exact time it happened, he let her chase the rabbits as it tired her out.

They're probably werepanthers, which would obviously make them rather hard to track.

El Chupacabra of Britain, maybe...

Why would you need 20-40 to breed?

Surely it only takes two to tango [img] [/img]

I have spotted in my garden, a large long haired cat. Almost the size of a labrador. Most likely a Maine Coon.

[img] [/img]

Typically most big cats are mingers so you need a certain number before you get one that is fit enough that the man big cats go phworrrrr.

There was a reported sighting by the former Head of Lomond Mountain Rescue last year of a big cat near the Meikle Bin in the Campsies.

I was out a week later on my cross bike riding the singletrack at the base of Dumgoyne where I found three dead sheep in close proximity to each other. About two to three hundred yards later, I found the remains of a sheep which appeared to have been killed and dragged up the hill by something reasonably substantial. It could have been a big dog I reasoned to myself in the gloaming but then my overactive fear gland kcked in, I shat it and got the hell out of there. 😀

I called the local police to advise the local farmer that something may have been worrying his sheep but heard nothing since. Was it a big cat? Who knows but I wouldn't say 100% no.

There has also been a sighting by a policeman of a big cat crossing railway tracks near Dumbarton a couple of years ago which he captured on his mobile phone.

Perhaps that is why all the other Loch Ness Monsters became extinct ? Predated by big black panthers...

I saw one near Gloucester a few years ago. Apparently the area is a hot spot for sightings. I tell EVERYONE who will listen 🙂

There was a large cat killed/ run over near Ludlow a few years ago, can't recallwhat type exactly.
It is googleable.

The Surrey panther?

Aaaye Surrey had one - my Uncle, who lived in Godalming, saw it in the late Sixties.

I also saw lot's of evidence for one when I lived and worked on Exmoor during the Eighties.

My friend owned a farm not far from Lynton & Lynmouth. He/we found several carcasses of dead sheep that had been killed and the meat had been removed clean from the bones - local Vet confirmed them as likely Cat kills because only cats have the abrasive tongue required to clean meat from bones.

I actually like the idea and hope there are a few out there 8)

(so long as I never meet one in 'awkward' circumstances of course!)

I live right next to the Gloucestershire sightings and keep my eyes peeled. I have seen two tigers in the wild before. You cant miss a big cat once it breaks cover but when they are still, no chance. One time I was driving through the thick forests of Southern Madhya Pradesh after dawn when me and my friend stopped for a slash. As we were both peeing my friend(local to the area) whispered 'keep still' and said there is a massive tiger checking us out. I couldn't see a thing, just bushes and trees. My friend clapped and made some odd guttural noises, then I saw it, 3 meters away and massive. As it turned, while still looking at us, I saw its huge face and beautiful markings, perfect camo for the forest. It then just wandered off!
That day got stranger as we narrowly avoided being kidnapped by naxalite terrorists further down the road. I wont bore you with the rest of the day but just as strange!

I actually like the idea and hope there are a few out there

Borllix to that 😯

Solo night rides are bad enough ,without worrying about big cats stalking ya 😀

There was a large cat killed/ run over near Ludlow a few years ago, can't recallwhat type exactly.
It is googleable.

So it is, it shows up on forums people talking about it, can't see any official reports thought unless my google skills failed.

There is some about a big cat in Gloucster though. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-16760593

fasthaggis - Member
...Solo night rides are bad enough ,without worrying about big cats stalking ya

Don't worry, if they're stalking you, you won't see, hear, or feel a thing.... 🙂

Drac - I saw a picture and report of it online somewhere, cant recall when 🙂 It happenend before I moved here.

I was out in the woods once (on the bike!)and got spooked by a big black dog, it sparked my imagination and I did some internet searching for sightings around here.

The Surrey panther?

My wife is 6 years older than me - the Surrey Cougar?

Nothing like being mauled by a Couger in the woods 🙂

Indeed 😀

Apparently seen on edges of Hankley, Frensham in the last few years. Friend in Rushmoor has had shredded deer in his garden and massive scratches on his trees! Makes me feel nervous riding/running alone at dusk.

Ben Mee, the owner of Dartmoor Zoo, tells a story in his book of how he was driving through the Devon lanes back to the zoo and got a clear view of a young male puma (iirc!). This is a man who knows what a big cat looks like and was able to identify the type and sex of the cat. Apparently he rushed back to the zoo expecting to find one of their cats missing and they were all there. The older zoo workers told him that they often found big cat poo outside the cat enclosures when the females were on heat.

I'd also point out that if you go on a game drive in Africa you aren't guaranteed to see big cats even when the reserve has large amounts of them. Big cats are very difficult to find and almost as difficult to see if they don't want to be seen. I don't think it's unreasonable that there might be numbers of larger cats in the UK that don't get photographed. After all most people have never seen a wild otter/seal/badger...

Fwiw, two of my fellow MTBers claim to have had definite sightings of lynx in the forests around Neath, not far from Afan.

1997 I was riding up a route to Ben Venue from the East side...a 'new' path had been created through the forest...we got about 300 yards from the edge of the treeline and we saw a fresh bone, looked like a big hip bone but it was still moist but didn't have much more than just the bopne to it.

Anyway, got the treeline and the fog started to come down...decided as we hadn't done this before we'd play it safe and turn round and head back...turned the bikes round and about to head off and we heard a gutteral sounding 'growl'...we set off down the trail at a reasonable pace and the sound followed us for about a minute...we weren't fast so given the trail at that time we must have gone about 600 yards or so...then it stopped...we saw nothing but the noise was rather disturbing.

Anyway, no idea what it was but the bone did make us think it was a big cat!

Then about 12 years later, I was riding up a trail from Kinlochard and came across 2 carcasses stripped clean...didn't look fresh that day but looked maybe a day or so old (going by untrained eye!)...freaked me right out so I turned round and went another route.

Personally, I think there are things out there, but no idea where or how many. Suspect unless they are truly starving, they will leave us humans well alone...I mean, how hard is it going to be to get a human hand prised off an Easton EC90 handlebar to eat???

You can see the puma caught at Cannich in 1980 in Inverness museum
http://www.ambaile.org.uk/en/item/item_audio.jsp?item_id=38933

Just been for a quick solo night ride, and thanks to this thread my imagination has conjured up a continuous stream of big cats hunting me down!

been told tales that back a few years ago that the para's (that are stationed in Colchester),that in one of the woods that form part of the training grounds round here that they used to see a large tan coloured cat both in late evening and they used to see a large cat in there night vision scopes at night couldn't shoot the thing as the training ground around here don't allow live rounds hasn't been seen for a few years mainly because the para's are in afgan alot at the mo 😯 😐

(2004) A mountain lion was shot and killed after it attacked two bicyclists in an Orange County park, critically injuring one woman in what authorities said was the 13th such incident in California since 1890.

The 2-year-old male cat may also have mauled to death a man whose body was found nearby, said Steve Martarano, a spokesman for the California Fish and Game Department.

That happened in a little strip of wildlife park between 2 housing developments. The guy killed was a biker and reportedly was either fixing his bike or taking a crap when attacked 😯

I've ridden there alone for years when my holidays - too hot to ride midday so I go early am or lateish afternoon. Couple of times has got a bit closer to the darkish end of dusk than I'd like, and I once had to fix a puncture in there while it was getting pretty dark.

User-removed - what a great job. Would love a job where I get to be out all day with my dog. Was looking for something similar but engineering related (renewables or something else)

andyl - yes it's a bit of a dream job, but it's also [i]very[/i] sporadic. Some jobs involve living in a tent for a few weeks - you need 50 miles clear visibility and after a 12 mile walk in before you get to the bottom of a summit, you don't want to head back, knowing you've got to do the same thing the next day if the weather clears up - you also only get paid for the viewpoints you photograph, so whole days go by with no pay.

The last few jobs have been a bit more civilised; self catering cottages (dog friendly) and hotels. All expenses are paid for too, but it does get wearing being away from home for so long with often just the dog for company for days on end!

Going to try getting into it properly this year - love shooting weddings but would always rather be mooching about in the mountains 🙂

Been a few big cat sighting near liff ( outskirts of dundee )
And the sidlaw hills

Liff cat was spotted by a taxi driver ... So not sure how reliable that is lol

I'd also point out that if you go on a game drive in Africa you aren't guaranteed to see big cats even when the reserve has large amounts of them. Big cats are very difficult to find and almost as difficult to see if they don't want to be seen. I don't think it's unreasonable that there might be numbers of larger cats in the UK that don't get photographed. After all most people have never seen a wild otter/seal/badger...

Yes as the UK is very similar to Africa with it's sparse population and everyone goes out of their way to spot badgers, seals and Otter.

I bet I can get take anyone out to see a seal within an hours, Badgers probably take a weekend and I'll have to check my old otter spotting areas so maybe a week or less once I know where they are now. The old area I was guaranteed to see them was destroyed in some floods about 3 years ago.

My buddy Malcolm dines saw one near Neath, other side of whites level. Was unsure of the scale so climbed to the rock it was stood on and found that it was a big rock and therefore a big cat.

And I heard the boneyard / grave yard section of the wall at afan is named because they found loads of sheep skeletons in one single spot.... Any one else heard of this?

I used to live near Brechfa 10 yrs back.
I remember there was a spate of big cat sightings, all from pretty level headed farmers with a uncanny understanding of what is going on on their land, there were sheep going missing.
a foal got killed and taken at a friend of my mothers farm. the mare had claw marks down her flank and there were cat tracks everywhere. i saw these personally.
police came out and got in a guy from bristol zoo who was some kind of cat expert. he said took casts of the prints and said it was leopard/panther and that generally consensus was that there were solitary cats breeding in the uk.
he mentioned it being purposefully dumbed down in the media to discourage trophy hunter types.
still hear of the odd sighting but much less then it used to be

iv spent time in zimbabwe and can attest to the comments that you can walk right by a big cat that doesn't want to be seen.

[img] [/img]

he mentioned it being purposefully dumbed down in the media to discourage trophy hunter types.
still hear of the odd sighting but much less then it used to be

Was this the guy?

[img] [/img]

I once had a night out in Shipley and saw a massive pussy. I was scared that night!

I can corroborate the Hertfordshire Big Cat. a couple of years ago I was riding around the Broxbourne woods area of south herts. We popped out of the wood moving at pace & sprinted along a short piece of tarmac between singletrack sections. So anyway, we get to a junction in the road & I stop & look for Dean, but Dean has stopped 30yards back and is pointing at the bush up & off to his right. I ride back & Dean quietly says "fuuuuuck duuuuuude, lion." so i say
"stop being a dick" and look along the line of his point. and as god is my witness, above the 12 foot fence, is a mother ****ing male african white lion, looking at us & considering his options.

Turns out we were on the eastern edge of Paradise Animal Park & Thabo the white lion's enclosure is just by the road. Thabo likes to watch the deer in the wood & can get an uninterrupted view from the highest point of his climbing frame.

It shit me up - i kid you not!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/yorkslincs/series4/index_big_cats_yorkshire_lincolnshire_sightings.shtml

Round the corner then!!!!!!

My mate was telling me the other day that he bumped into an old friend who now works for the forestry and told him he saw a big black cat in the hills above port talbot not very long ago.Forestry people are well aware of them apparently.I,m no expert but dont they travel miles,sure they could travel up and down wales and rarely get spotted if they so wished.

How feasible is the whole of Scotland being it's patch? Or whole of Wales, etc.

The FC have confirmed 2 big cat sightings on thermal imaging cameras being used for a deer population census in the Forest of Dean.

Apparently a freedom of information request made them admit it.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/reliable-big-cat-sightings-revealed-1229204.html

A police inspector up here in Co Durham is convinced we have big cats up here. He's gathered over 450 sightings over the last 22 years in Co Durham!

I really shouldn't gone on this thread just before going out for a solo night ride 😕

There are occasional reports of a Beast of Belper, but that one seems to have gone quiet for the last couple of years.

although the probability of a breeding population of 'big cats' is utter bolleaux as proved by scientific fact.. could there be a breeding population of medium sized cats.. maybe feral.. or perhaps descendants of a Lynx type cat..

maybe sometimes the human imagination adds a bit more flesh to sightings of an undiscovered native 'medium sized cat' species

[b]"I couldn't tell you how big they were [/b]or what they were. They were just large, full cats.

Proof right there then, I seen a big cat but I don't what size it was.

Pretty much it Yunki, peoples imagination adds a lot to something they see. Ghost sighting for example.

TooTall - Member

Leighton Buzzard - a very strange place indeed. I was more afraid of the locals than anything they imagined!

We're not too bad. Most of us have stopped throwing rocks at the moon now.

(Technically I don't actually live in LB but close enough to be called a local) 😉

[url= http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=leighton+buzzard ]This makes made me laugh[/url]

Having seen the Leighton Buzzard link, what made me think looking for the Urban Dictionary's definition of Ilkeston would be a good idea? 🙄

Cats are expert trackers and hunters, however if you reverse these traits, they are also experts at evasion/camouflaging and will see us as a serious threat.

Any that are out there will avoid humans like the plague, let's face it the ones that have survived this long will be the ones that are genetically inclined to avoid us, the others will have been killed by now because they will not naturally or instinctually avoid humans!