[HesterF]

One of my neighbours came round today to let me know he'd seen a lynx or similar sized big cat on our field about an hour before. He's pretty down to earth, was sober and had been with his brother who'd also seen it so despite my initial scepticism, I'm erring on the side of believing him. I think he was 20 to 30m away and described it as being twice the size of his dog (spaniel sized), with tufts on its ears (lynx like). Since then I've also remembered a friend mentioned driving past last summer and seeing what she thought was an enormous fox (again twice the size of a dog) running up the bank onto our field - same area. I also posted on facebook and somebody else replied to say she'd seem something she thought was also an enormous fox on the same bank last week when driving home late at night.

It also turns out that there's a big, black, panther type cat regularly seen in the next village.

Have any of you come across big cats in the English countryside before? (I know Scots have genuine wild cats to contend with). Any threat to humans? Or poultry (that are within a seven foot high fence with a barbed wire overhang at the top)? Or am I just being to gullible and really there is just a huge fox around?

I'm now wondering once again about getting a movement activated camera set up in that area in the hope of capturing something.

H

[Q]

I'm now wondering once again about getting a movement activated camera set up in that area in the hope of capturing something.

Please do that - I would love to get to the bottom of the big cat thing - only thing missing is real evidence.

[Lesley Silvester]

Yes, that's a good idea.

[shygirl]

theres supposed to be big black cats on the mountain near us. i spoke to a lady who had seen it.

i did see what i thought was a fox the other day, saw it again the next day in the same place and it was a ginger cat. its easy to mistaken size if you only see it for a glimpse.

[sokel]

Kent seems to be one of the most popular places for big cat sightings infact there is an article on Your County dated today and another one on the kent online dated 31/1/14
http://www.yourcounty.co.uk/Kent51/kentbigcats.html
A friend of ours spotted a big black Cat in Northumberland close on 15 years ago, several other people reported sightings days after they spotted it

[HesterF]

I do have a big ginger cat that goes in that direction on occasions. Certainly after the first person mentioned it last summer, I just assumed she'd either seen him or a fox because she was just whizzing past on the school run. But the guy today was absolutely sure of the size and was close enough to see detail - and is also not the sort of person to imagine it, if you know what I mean. He just thought he'd best tell me because I have small children who are regularly outside on their own. He was convinced enough to be prepared to ring our local zoo (we're about five miles from Port Lympne which is one of the Aspinall zoos) to see whether they'd lost an animal. Personally I think it extremely unlikely that they'd 'lose' any of theirs - and they're professional enough that I think they would alert the police and general public if they did - but I guess others have owned the smaller big cats on private land in the past with less diligence.

Trouble is I guess this animal just passes through every few weeks because the only place he could live on our land is that bank which is road side and would be a weird choice when he has miles of open country in every direction - including far more wooded areas. So chances of catching him on a camera are slim but worth a try.

[HesterF]

Oooh, great link - thanks Graham!

[HesterF]

Same chap has a more recent blog:

http://kentbigcats.blogspot.co.uk/

I've mailed him!

[shygirl]

do you remember this?   
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13507026

[Fleecewife]

My OH and eldest grandson saw a Kellas cat locally a few years ago.  It sauntered across the road in front of them with great confidence so they saw it clearly. After that we looked it up and Kellas cats are known to occur in this general area.  Haven't seen one again, but we're not usually about at night.

My feeling is that most of these big cats down in England are former pets which people can no longer keep, or can't get a licence for, so they let them loose.  This might be why they are sometimes seen near humans - not scared as true wild ones would be.  I wonder if that means they would be more likely to raid a hen house, or if they quickly adapt to hunting?  It might also make them dangerous to children.

[shygirl]

has any skeleton been found from a dead one?

[tizaala]

There is a large black leopard living in the Radnor forest a couple of miles from us , sheep carcasses are found dangling in trees , and our local fox shooter has photos of pud marks in mud, several level headed locals have seen this animal.

[devonlad]

my brother and I saw a black leopard about 10 years ago. at the time I was visiting him near Bangor on Dee and we both saw it about 100 yards away in  a neighbouring field. despite our attempts to get closer it evaded us. prior to that time I would have had a hefty dose of suspicion re any big cat stories. having seen one I have no doubt they are out and about. very private and keen to keep away from us, but there nonetheless

[bigchicken]

My question is whey has there never been one found dead roadkill or hunted be hounds. I once saw something jet black for a moment going through bracken which was about 3 feet high the thing was making no noise which was the strange thing as the bracken was brown and very noisy under foot, I ran towards the thing which was only 15 yards away and when I stopped it had vanished completely and I never heard a noise. I thought it might have been a black dog but there was no noise. All I saw was its back no head or tail the light was very good and the sun was high in the sky casting very little shadow. Was it a black panther well I could not be sure, but it made no noise as it slinked away. It made no noise.

[HesterF]

Reading the reports from around Kent, there has been one that was hit by a car but the report didn't say what happened to the body - whether it slunk off to die or something. Apparently the car was badly damaged. There was also one that was captured and put into a zoo but that was a good long time ago. I guess it would make sense if there were a few released when the dangerous animals regulations came in in the 80s. This is the sort of region where people might well have kept them in private collections their back garden - much as John Aspinall did when he started out (in fact most of them seem to have been in the house with him).