The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: CameronS on January 29, 2012, 09:25:09 pm
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Do they or do they not exist??
after another recent sighting here in fife (Kilmany, St Andrews) it started me thinking.....
i personally belive they do exist, what do others think??
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Yip! Although how no-one has got a bloody decent picture of one yet I don't know?!?
A work colleague of mine spotted a lone 'black cat' the size of a Labrador on a remote road near Glen Eagles a few years ago. He was in no doubt it was a 'big cat'
Sightings everywhere... But still no 'proof'
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I'm sure there are some but I also know that dusk light can play tricks with perspective and make regular cats look huge.
Everywhere I have ever lived has had a 'Cat of..." - and until very recently, everywhere I have ever lived, a black cat of mine has lived with me... Co-incidence? ;)
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Radnor forrest has one residing local to us, sheep half eaten hanging 15 feet up trees is not the work of a dog.
huge pud marks by the side of streams are regularly seen.
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I guess that there are reports from several areas in the UK.
In Cambridgeshire there would be occaisonal TV reports of the Fen Tiger. - not much livestock out on em Fens but the folk tales and reports go back a while.
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In Cambridgeshire there would be occaisonal TV reports of the Fen Tiger. - not much livestock out on em Fens but the folk tales and reports go back a while.
Ohhh - that'll be my old Maine Coon -type cat, Myc. ;) :D I left him with a lovely family in Cambridge some years ago. :D
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In Cambridgeshire there would be occaisonal TV reports of the Fen Tiger. - not much livestock out on em Fens but the folk tales and reports go back a while.
Ohhh - that'll be my old Maine Coon -type cat, Myc. ;) :D I left him with a lovely family in Cambridge some years ago. :D
My mum bred Maine Coon's when I was a teenager! lovely *huge* cats!
we've currently got some investigations into half eaten deer (3 of them) not far from here - Oooooh! and apparently there's a large black cat (panther sized as opposed to just big fat tom domestic type) just behind Katie's house (did you know that Katie?!) lol
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I definitely think they exist. I work for an outdoor activity centre and we are always in the Kerry forest and surrounding areas. Two of my colleagues have seen big, puma sized cats fairly recently. My farmer neighbour has lost sheep and he is convinced that it was by a big cat. In fact a big cat was shot on Dolfor Moor back in the seventies, but that may well have been left behind when people who owned such animals released them when licensing laws came into force.
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I have to say I am a bit sceptical but would love to be proven wrong.
I just can't help thinking that we have (dodgy) pictures of the yeti and fairies but nothing on them. Not one has died of old age or been hit by a car or been caught on someones iPhone!
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yep, definitely. if you want the evidence feel free to pm me.
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Ok, let's just be a wee bit logical here........... All of these areas, including Insch where I lived near until four years ago, have ONE large cat. So how does it survive on its own, does it procreate once in it's own lifetime and by self pollination? ::) ;) Virgin birth? Yeah right! ;D
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doesnt a big cat in its natural habitat have a large territory?
from wiki;
Captures and remains
A Eurasian lynx was shot in summer 1991 near Norwich, Norfolk. It had killed around 15 sheep within two weeks. The story was only reported in 2003, and the lynx is apparently now in the possession of a collector in Suffolk (as taxidermy). For many years this incident was considered to have been a hoax, particularly by the hunting community, But in March 2006 a police report confirmed that the case was true. It was probably an escapee from a facility in the area that bred animals, including Eurasian lynxes.[7] Another lynx and a puma have been captured alive.[8]
[edit] Video and photographic evidence
In June 2006 a large black cat was recorded in the countryside of Banff, Aberdeenshire. Footage of the cat was broadcast by the BBC on the 24th May 2007.[9]
In July 2009, photographs and video footage of a large black cat were taken by an off-duty Ministry of Defence Police officer. The animal was walking along a railway line in Helensburgh, Argyll. Large cats, either black or tan, have been reported in the area before.[10
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...we are always in the Kerry forest and surrounding areas...
I've seen one near Kerry. It was a big cat - end of. We spent 5 years on/off working in Kerry Forest and surrounding areas. In that time we saw 1 deer, 2 foxes. I am sure there are loads more deer.. you just don't get to see them.
We did ring the police to report it "I've just seen a big cat & not one that eats KittyKat neither". Honestly, that's what I said. This was 15 years ago.
*edit* ps it was black & larger than our lab.
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my theory - is that there is a large handful spread out across the country, that spend 90% of their time in solitude like as they do in native habitats but range hundreds of miles to find a mate - again like they do in native habitats, because if there are cats out there they can't all be the same gender.....
males and females = babies = more cats = more sightings??
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I've never seen one but am fully prepared to believe there are some around, though probably not enough in one area to meet and breed.
The only time I heard of one,(bigger than a Labrador and with a long, long tail) it turned out to be an abandonded Greyhound. Their tails often reach the ground and are a bit curved.
Photos that I've seen could be anyone's old pussy cat, taken from a distance.
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Ref odd sightings of animals.
Someone mentioned Yetis....my uncle was Eric Shipton (the explorer and mountaineer ) He took that famous photo of the Yeti footprint beside the icepick, amoungst many not even published. I remember, as a child, him talking about his sightings of the Yetis how the shurpars reacted, how he felt, etc. Uncle Eric was not given to sillyness, or hysteria...in his line of business that would be fatal!! I totally beleive in these things.
Furthermore, when we lived in the States we saw bigfoot footprints in the forests of Washinton State and went back and took casts of them, it was quite spinchilling!
My view is that we shouldnt disbeleive things just because we havent proved the absolute certainty of their existance...perhaps i am a figment of your collective imagination. Most of you couldnt prove my existance at this precise moment!! ::) ::)
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Ok. where are all the kittens then? I'm led to believe that cats are prolific breeders and even with a wide territory and these cats travelling miles to mate, then back to their own area to kit, you'd think you'd see an increase in numbers fairly rapidly. But it seems only one is ever seen at any one time an always mature animals of dog size. I'm not saying they don't exist, I'm just surprised there aren't a lot more sightings if they are real.
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I believe they exist but would not be keen to search for them ;D
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I saw 'something'; big cat. Never given the subject any thought before that day. It paused, and (fortunately) ran off in the opposite direction.
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We really do have a proliferation of feral and semiferal cats around here - an increasing problem ??? ???. However we very, very, seldom ever see the kittens or even very young cats. They seem to be very well hiden by their mums. I would imagine that would be the same no matter what size of wild or feral cat.
Also, if someone spotted one of the Big Cat's kittens they would probably dismiss it as a normal size cat!.... wouldnt they :-\ :-\ ?? so those 'sightings' are unlikely to come to the fore, or be reported in the papers!
Emma T
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We really do have a proliferation of feral and semiferal cats around here............ However we very, very, seldom ever see the kittens or even very young cats. They seem to be very well hiden by their mums. I would imagine that would be the same no matter what size of wild or feral cat.
I agree.
:farmer:
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there are a number of reports here in the west country, they (the local govenment) are looking at the remains of two deer that people beleive have had a good chewing from a big cat, they are trying to get some DNA
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We really do have a proliferation of feral and semiferal cats around here - an increasing problem ??? ???. However we very, very, seldom ever see the kittens or even very young cats. They seem to be very well hiden by their mums. I would imagine that would be the same no matter what size of wild or feral cat.
Also, if someone spotted one of the Big Cat's kittens they would probably dismiss it as a normal size cat!.... wouldnt they :-\ :-\ ?? so those 'sightings' are unlikely to come to the fore, or be reported in the papers!
Emma T
Sorry, I wasn't clear - what I meant was when these kittens grow up, why are there still only a few random sightings of the adults when they get to that stage. Say there were 20 sightings over the whole country in one year, and these 20 or so adults breed, in about a year there should in theory be around 4 times that number seen around the country.
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my friend swore blind she saw a big cat up bennachie. wev only seen foxes here three times in 7 years but i know they live here so im a believer, no-one found a body yet?
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Gotcha Annie, yeh see your point I fink ::) ::)
ie. they should be multiplying yet the sightings are not increasing correspondingly..yeh? Mmmm, dont have an answer cos I dont know how often this size of cat would produce a litter. Do pumas/cougars/leopards etc breed every year ?? and if so how many cubs would they have - that would give clues for population levels and any expected increase!
Emma T :cat: :cat:
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This gives information on mountain lions, other big cats much the same as far as I can gather - live for about 12 years, produce about 2 to 3 at a time, start breeding at around 2. Kittens start hunting with mum at around a year, so they should be visible - even if only one kit survives from a litter.
Has no-one done a survey on these sightings and a calculation of how many big cats there would be and where? Doesn't sound too difficult a task to me. ::)
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A man staying here said he saw one on the way to work and fell off his bike and was so scared he Dare not tell anyone...I have actually forgot where that was, then people are often on about them in Devilla Forest and some sightings and also there was a planned big cat hunt, not sure if it took place but certainly nothing was found...I often wonder where all the animals hide when we walk in Devilla, some times we do see a couple of Deer but otherwise nothing, so, with all the undergrowth etc, they could hide away.
When we lived in Woodhouse Eaves, there was supposedly sightings of big cats there, one day, my husband was in the garden and I was in the kitchen, my rich, single, middle aged neighbour (it was a posh area) leaned out of her bedroom window (showing off her ample boobies!!) and shouted to my hubby that there was a big cat in the allotment behind the gardens, I was just on my way out with a cup of tea and she popped in instantly..so not sure if that one was just an attention grabber..that and the booobies!!!
Anyway, I think there may well be some that are breeding but not sure where, they quite easily could have escaped from their owner and if a pair of male and female met up, then possibly several...I also wonder if anyone notices dead animals half eaten etc!!! Um!!!
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See
http://scotcats.online.fr/abc/index.html (http://scotcats.online.fr/abc/index.html)
a charitable organisation logging big cat sightings in Scotland primarily, I am aware of plenty previous big cat sightings in the Kilmany / Rathillet area in north east Fife from grounded people not known for "flights of fancy", haven't seen one myself but from history many cats were apparently released when the government introduced the dangerous animals act in 1976 which banned people from keeping big cats etc without a licence. There have been a number of instances over the years of cats being shot / recovered etc. George Redpath one of the committee members of the trust was a police officer and dealt with these sighting in the course of his duty and now in his retirement, without wishing to put my house on it I would say they have been out there and there's no reason why they are not there now especially with the vast tracks of expansive forrest in this country
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@pikililly HOW COOL!!!!!!!!
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Don't think they can be pumas - most people say they are dark/black even
http://www.animalcorner.co.uk/wildlife/puma.html (http://www.animalcorner.co.uk/wildlife/puma.html)
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this is how i know theres a big cat here....
http://www.ukbigcats.co.uk/bigcattracks.asp (http://www.ukbigcats.co.uk/bigcattracks.asp)