ABC anyone

[minkhunter]

I dare say most of our pw comunity spend alot of time in the field be it night or day so we are in a prime position for sightings.has anyone actually seen an ''alien big cat'' as they are so called or think they have may seen one..there are around 2500 reported sightings each year from across the country..

[garyb]

Never.

[SSS]

I have, but I dont talk about it because no-one seems to believe me. It was many moons ago, in the middle of the day, drinking from a cattle trough. It scared the **** out of me and my mate!

[minkhunter]

it seems alot of people dont want to talk about it for the same reason.but these animals are not from another planet and can live in the uk fine with the abundance of wild food,and its usually only when they take livestock that there presance is known..getting a sighting of one of these cats in the wild be it puma,leopard or lynx should be classed as a privalege..

[Highlander]

Oh no not again There are NO big cats living free in the UK!

 

2500 sightings isn't a patch on the number seeing alien UFOs

Edited August 1, 2010 by Highlander

[fluke2]

Ive carried a camera for years now since my brother and his mate

swore blind they came face to face with one on a shoot we have

in the borders,he said it was only ten feet away drinking in a stream

and the size of our lab,never seen it myself but I carry a camera

maybe they can smell the camera eh.

[Dave-G]

Oh no not again There are NO big cats living free in the UK!

 

2500 sightings isn't a patch on the number seeing alien UFOs

 

Your perfectly entitled to wear blinkers or go around with your eyes and mind closed if you want dude.

 

I know what I saw when I posted up a sighting some two or three years ago now - but like most shooters - we don't go around with our camera's on standby for the odd few seconds we might get a glimpse of something. Thats partly why I sometimes have a camcorder on the dash making clips of my rabbit bashing but odds are I'll never see one again, especially as I'd need to be in the car in order to have both rifle and camcorder on standby.

 

I can't find my original post on here but for the benefit of anyone without blinkers here are the paw prints I photo'd the following morning:

 

 

 

 

The area is well used by dog walkers so there were umpteen different types of paw prints about the place - I took photo's of one I thought might be the most relevant. The soil was only slightly moist so the pads hadn't sunk in very deep. Bear in mind therefore that there would be substantial amounts of flesh either side of the pads that had not sunk deep enough to show their full width.

Edited August 1, 2010 by Dave-G

[covey]

After nearly 30 yrs of either being lamping or just night watch on various shoots around the south east i have never heard or seen anything.

[Highlander]

Dave-G

 

Look chap I don't doubt what you saw was a big cat but please a 3" paw print is just a big moggie (think Main Coon). If we had BIG CATS such as pumas, leopards, panthers etc in the UK the paw prints would likely be 5"-6" or more. Have you ever been tracking in Africa? A lot of people have stories to tell, you know the ones that start my uncles sisters cousins brother and 'brother' is about right. There are NO BIG CATS living wild in the UK!

[SSS]

Dave-G

 

Look chap I don't doubt what you saw was a big cat but please a 3" paw print is just a big moggie (think Main Coon). If we had BIG CATS such as pumas, leopards, panthers etc in the UK the paw prints would likely be 5"-6" or more. Have you ever been tracking in Africa? A lot of people have stories to tell, you know the ones that start my uncles sisters cousins brother and 'brother' is about right. There are NO BIG CATS living wild in the UK!

I would like to agree to disagree with you. I know what me and my mate saw that day, and there is absolutely no way you can say we didn't see it, he can and will back it up. It was a cat, and it was big and black.

Please go about your life with the blinkers on, as has been said, but please don't tell me it isn't true!

[Paddy Galore!]

Dave-G

 

Look chap I don't doubt what you saw was a big cat but please a 3" paw print is just a big moggie (think Main Coon).

 

 

I've got a "maine coon" Highlander, he's a bloody big cat but his paws are only a fraction larger than normal, approx 1.5".

A 3 " paw print is quite likely a puma, maybe not fully grown, but certainly not a domestic cat.

[lordhardup]

I have seen big black cats, twice and in different parts of the midlands, but I never run around telling people, cause I dont want to be classed as a nutter. But I know what I (we ) saw.

But , and this is a big but... why has a body never been found, lots of sheep etc, but never a cat.

Now I am sure that if you spent your life in the hills you would from time to time find dead animals. Old or injured that have lain down to die of even old age, but never a big cat.

 

The car must be the biggest killer of all wildlife, with no respect for size or age.Every thing from red stags, badgers, rabbits, rats and mice are mown down in their thousand every year but still no BIG CATS.

 

Having said all of this, I KNOW WHAT I SAW AND IT WAS NO MOGGY.

 

Happy hunting.

 

Clynt

[minkhunter]

any non believers please read the quote at the bottom of my signature.......and no alot of us havent been big game hunting in africa but we still know a big cat pad mark when seen.. any cat prints can be identified from dog/fox etc as they have retractable claws and dont leave a claw hole at the end of each pad as the others will..there are a few incidents of gamekeepers that have shot cats on their land but never openly reported it,one kept a leopard in the freezer for a number of years after bieng shot then sold it on to a taxidermist..

[RED BEARD]

i'm a believer,not seen one myself but my old man saw one at work.

[Dave-G]

Dave-G

 

Look chap I don't doubt what you saw was a big cat but please a 3" paw print is just a big moggie (think Main Coon). If we had BIG CATS such as pumas, leopards, panthers etc in the UK the paw prints would likely be 5"-6" or more. Have you ever been tracking in Africa? A lot of people have stories to tell, you know the ones that start my uncles sisters cousins brother and 'brother' is about right. There are NO BIG CATS living wild in the UK!

 

 

HeH heh - I respect your belief that they do not exist in the UK, and I have never been tracking in africa nor anywhere else where big cats are widely known to be.

 

Take a look at the prints again please, the point I think you are not absorbing is that the print was nowhere near deep enough to show any more than it's width at perhaps 1 or 2 mm above the very base of its pads if the raised "squish" were flattened. If the print had been in much softer mud I'm certain it would show at least another 2" or 3". Obviously some "BIG CATS" can be adolescent at some time in their life as I don't think it was a fully grown one.

[Dave-G]

I just found my original thread via Google search:

 

http://forums.pigeonwatch.co.uk/forums/ind...=53392&st=0

[al4x]

cats live for up to 15 years, it was the 70's when they were rumoured to have been released when you needed a license to keep them. So from that to the present day means we don't have one about we have a breeding pair and they have a fair sized litter so we have lots of big cats about. Then look at the number of different types of big cat sightings we have and we have all sorts of wild cats running round the countryside and none have been run over or shot by anyone that has come forward. Though the rumour mill abounds of keepers with them in freezers

Like Highlander I reckon there may be the odd lynx escaped or people are seeing maine coons or fellting glimpses of foxes / dogs and getting mistaken but even lynx's aren't proper big cats.

In a lot of the really remote areas people think they could remain hidden don't forget a lot of it is hunted and shot over and I'm yet to hear of beaters driving a tiger past guns in this country, In the US they have no problem hunting their big cats with dogs simply because the cats end up up trees, if we had so many about we could have a new side to our sport.

[Crouch valley]

I am afraid I am a non believer even more so after talking to the warrener the other day for those that don't no Pat he has been a professional rabbit and fox controller on Dartmore for over fifty years and he has never even seen a glimpse of a big cat no prints no other sighs he is probably on the moor more than any other person at all times of the day and night. If they were out the there would have been a clear photo by now what with stealth cams and digital cameras every where. :look:

[Bing-Bong]

Definitely saw a lynx, and no one will convince me that is not what i saw, ran out in the road in front of me.

[Ozzy Fudd]

when i was a kid i used to see puma's and lynx's hanging around near my house all the time

 

 

 

 

:good:

Edited August 11, 2010 by Ozzy Fudd

[Blacksheep]

These are a couple of pics of Jaguar footprints i took in Belize last year , might be handy to use as a comparison

Edited August 14, 2010 by Blacksheep

[soreshoulder]

i thought it was a load of bull until i saw one

[al4x]

Definitely saw a lynx, and no one will convince me that is not what i saw, ran out in the road in front of me.

 

 

Lynx aren't that big and definitley not quite the black puma everyone seems to see. Its quite possible they will escape from time to time as there are a fair number kept in captivity here, by smaller private collectors and funnily enough though you have to have a dangerous wild animals license to keep them they never know how many you have. Because of the problems if one gets out I can happily see why they wouldn't be reported.

[aj85]

Lynx aren't that big and definitley not quite the black puma everyone seems to see. Its quite possible they will escape from time to time as there are a fair number kept in captivity here, by smaller private collectors and funnily enough though you have to have a dangerous wild animals license to keep them they never know how many you have. Because of the problems if one gets out I can happily see why they wouldn't be reported.

 

 

i personally have never seen anything, but there certainly could be. as you rightly said you need a dangerous wild animals license for any big cat wildcat or f1.

in order to obtain the license you need to satisfy the licensing officer that you have the relavant experience, knowledge to keep one etc and also that your enclosure is secure enough to prevent escape. the varying criteria and requirements vary greatly between different councils.

and i could see how if someone did have an escape they wouldnt report it for fear of losing something that has cost so much time effort and cash to obtain.

plus possible fines or prosecution.

 

it is also a fact that many dwa listed animals are often imported illegally into the uk and this could well include big cats, once people realise what they've gotten into or even having inadequate enclosures im sure escapees or those released would be able to survive in the darkest corners of the uk countryside.

[Home Guard]

Me and a freind saw one after an evening bunnybashing one summer evening last year. We spotted it leaping across the road in front of us up a 4 foot bank, it left paw marks that very much match the description of big cats. My friend also spotted another a couple of weeks ago.

 

Pretty scary things.