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Are there big cats wild in Great britain today?


tiercel
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Are there big cats wild in Great britain today?  

125 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you belive it?

    • YES
      86
    • NO
      13
    • Have yet to be convinced.
      22


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I've always been sceptical but about 2 years ago I saw one where I work. I said nothing to anyone for over a year as I expected to be laughed at. Then I over heard a conversation between a couple of dog walkers who wre talking about seeing a huge black cat that morning. Turned out it had been sighted regularly by quite a few people. Nobody seems bothered by it as it just melts away into the woods and avoids any sort of confrontation.

 

I would think the envoiroment is ideal where I am, heavily wooded areas and overrun with deer.

 

Who knows ! I think theres no way to be sure until one turns up dead/shot or decent photos are taken of one.

I dont think that it is impossible.

 

Leeboy

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I voted no. Since the Dangerous Wild Animal Act came into force in 1976 all big cats legally held in the UK have to be licensed and accounted for, so for there to be big cats in the wild now, they would either; have to be 40 years old, or the trade in illegal big cats is thriving. The only other way is for there to be a breeding population of cats in the wild and I think if they were breeding we'd see a lot more of them.

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I voted yes because two people that I trust say that they have seen them. One of them took me to see a sheep carcass that was well up a tall tree. When we looked at the carcass the ewe lamb had been gripped by the throat and was not at all torn otherwise.

 

Unless it was an expensive practical joke and I am being made a complete prawn of, it has to be more than a coincidence.

 

How would you stand legally if you shot one, would you need a variation on your FAC?

 

Ft

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I voted no. Since the Dangerous Wild Animal Act came into force in 1976 all big cats legally held in the UK have to be licensed and accounted for, so for there to be big cats in the wild now, they would either; have to be 40 years old, or the trade in illegal big cats is thriving. The only other way is for there to be a breeding population of cats in the wild and I think if they were breeding we'd see a lot more of them.

 

 

Guns are supposed to be licensed and accounted for but there are zillions of illegal firearms in circulation !

Even more so since the handgun ban !!

 

Leeboy

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I voted no. Since the Dangerous Wild Animal Act came into force in 1976 all big cats legally held in the UK have to be licensed and accounted for, so for there to be big cats in the wild now, they would either; have to be 40 years old, or the trade in illegal big cats is thriving. The only other way is for there to be a breeding population of cats in the wild and I think if they were breeding we'd see a lot more of them.

 

 

Guns are supposed to be licensed and accounted for but there are zillions of illegal firearms in circulation !

Even more so since the handgun ban !!

 

Leeboy

Damn sight easier to smuggle in a gun than a live Leopard.

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There are confirmed reports of puma's breeding wild in England.

 

I wouldn't mind trapping one providing it was a decent trap that an irratated ball of fur, fangs and claws couldn't escape from at any moment and rake my throat out. Perhaps if I set panther traps I would catch foxes as our fox traps seem to catch everything but foxes. :blink:

 

FM :drinks:

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Ive give a yes. Only because Id like to believe their are, just like id like to believe that nessie and bigfoot exsist!

 

And before anyone says it I know theres a fair difference between a big cat in britain and the exsistence of bigfoot!!!!

 

Call me mad but as long as there is no so called "scientific proof" proving theirs no such thing im open minded! Makes life that little bit more interesting! :blink:

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I think there are some, or were. It's pretty clear that when the DWA act was passed back in the seventies, quite a few cats were released. Maybe some of them managed to breed. There are a couple of cases of carcasses of cats being identified - one jungle cat run over by a car near Jedburugh up in the borders, and one shot cat of some kind in a gamekeeper's freezer. I'm not sure what else, but some have been authenticated.

 

The point made about badgers is a good one as far as it goes. Big cats are much more reclusive than badgers and don't let themselves be seen even where they are in decent numbers (which they aren't in Britain). They don't live in easily identifiable sets in groups either, being solitary, reclusive and lying up in dense cover, they would be much more difficult to find.

 

I think a lot of decent reliable types have talked about strange injury to livestock, but many sightings are probably mistakes. It's very easy to 'see things' in the half light when your brain is filling in the gaps between the information your eyes are getting and what 'might' be there a hundred yards away. In bad light, most of what we 'see' is guesswork based on our experience and what we think is likely - and that's a fact of the way our perception works. Then of course there are the hoaxers and the fantasists.

 

So - I reckon there are a VERY few largish cats about, but that our chances of meeting one are slim. They will never be allowed to form a stable population. This is far too controlled a country for anything like that - very little is allowed to be free here nowadays - not even us two legged types, and if conker trees are being chopped down by councils because of health and safety, what chance a leopard would be left at large?

 

http://www.britishbigcats.org/evidence.php

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I guess this thread is an off shoot of the other big cat thread? I got to the end of page one and upon realising there were another twelve pages to get through promptly lost the will to live and started on this one.

 

After my "big cat scare" earlier this year (see thread lost in the annals of time :blink: ) I did a little digging on the subject.

 

In my opinion there are big cats in Britian. To what extent they inhabit this Island is hard to say but I imagine they are not that widespread. One cat can cover a lot of territory so multiple sightings could be just the one.

 

To be honest I cannot understand why anyone would want to shoot one unless they are causing a problem and unless people do then there is a good chance numbers may increase! Probably not to epedemic proportions but it might be a nice story to tell the kids!

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To be honest I cannot understand why anyone would want to shoot one unless they are causing a problem and unless people do then there is a good chance numbers may increase! Probably not to epedemic proportions but it might be a nice story to tell the kids!

 

I agree with that. Why would you want to destroy such an interesting creature unless it was creating a lot of problems. One of the cats that was run over a few years back was a Jungle Cat - bloody beautiful animal, I'd love there to be lots of them. They eat rodents, birds and amphibians across a huge swathe of central Asia and only weigh about ten to twenty pounds.

 

 

junglecatdy9.jpg

 

To be honest though, the fact that our own native wildcat is now reduced down to a mere 2000 animals in the north of Scotland, it's not hugely likely that any introduced species would survive well alongside ourselves.

 

 

Scottish Wildcat - once common all over Britain

scottishwildcatlr0.jpg

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  • 1 year later...
I voted no. Since the Dangerous Wild Animal Act came into force in 1976 all big cats legally held in the UK have to be licensed and accounted for, so for there to be big cats in the wild now, they would either; have to be 40 years old, or the trade in illegal big cats is thriving. The only other way is for there to be a breeding population of cats in the wild and I think if they were breeding we'd see a lot more of them.

 

 

your argument assumes they are not indigineous

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I voted no. Since the Dangerous Wild Animal Act came into force in 1976 all big cats legally held in the UK have to be licensed and accounted for, so for there to be big cats in the wild now, they would either; have to be 40 years old, or the trade in illegal big cats is thriving. The only other way is for there to be a breeding population of cats in the wild and I think if they were breeding we'd see a lot more of them.

 

 

your argument assumes they are not indigineous

 

Its probably pointless to argue with someone who posted on 18th September 2006.

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