Panther DNA found

[smokingdragon]

https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/big-cat-british-countryside

That would get the heart racing if you see one in a thermal spotter 🙂

 

[London Best]

A few years back a friend of mine found a roe carcass which had been carried up a tree and wedged on a branch. Classic leopard behaviour.

[B686]

Took these pics a couple years ago in a wood I shoot with a mate . Looked like something had been using it as a scratching post. Bottom of the mark was about 4ft off the ground. 

[oowee]

I have baited for one not far from Longleat. No show for me but plenty of sightings. 

[bishop]

Many years back now, 1996 i think ,myself and a good friend were fowling under a winters moon on a  shoreline  in Fife. Bitter cold and deep snow.We peeked over the sea wall for the duck coming in on the tide  -this was about 1am .I turned to my right and over on the golfing green i  viewed  what we assumed initially to be a greyhound( i thought poachers after hares as they have done this before).   due to its long droopy tail and being tall to the shoulder until it turned about a bit to afford us another view . It was a large sandy colored  cat. Not really fussed about the ladies  here that scoff about such things. We saw what we saw. we retreated back over the fields to the car quite blunty a bit nervous. Should have pulled the trigger?? I think not. Besides a dose of #4 would have just ****** it off most likely at 40 yards After much debate we decided rather than waste the night we would go back over for the tide dropping .So off we went back over to the sea wall. It was in at 1 high at 3 and out 5am so this was probably 3 hours later More or less same spot but it was still there. It took a leap  across the high scrub onto the golf green  in complete silence and was gone into the moonlight .Now that not it all. We shot another  farm back then  in the area not 2 miles away .The newspapers were full of the farmers encounter with a big cat same time as we saw ours---but the one he saw from his jeep on the farm was Black! not sandy coloured. So figure that one out. We checked his fields after we had read the newspaper article and came across plenty tracks at the time in the snow but being younger and foolish we did not take any casts. Point is this was 2 sightings not 2 miles apart on the same night but not the same cats. I Dont speak of it much, no point . muppets abound and i have better things to do that debate what we saw with idiots.I did advise a guy that collates data some years later  though.I dont have answers just a story of what we saw. 

Edited May 19 by bishop

[Bigbob]

Seen a few things that could of been big cat sightings when lamping but you cant explain them otherwise 

i think somebody somewhere has shot one and buried it as they are  scared its not on there ticket 

[ryle]

5 hours ago, London Best said:

A few years back a friend of mine found a roe carcass which had been carried up a tree and wedged on a branch. Classic leopard behaviour.

I did the same. Found a roe on the floor one day in one of my drives then the next day it had been moved into a tree union around 1.5m above ground. It had been nibbled round its lower jaw to begin with then finished off elsewhere. I don't have the photos any more as they're on a dead hard drive. This was in south west scotland around 2009

[tonker]

Seen three whilst out at night here in the South West. my lamping mate of 5 years Never went out again after we saw the first. Reported second to the big cat society, and was told plaster cast prints were taken. Never told anyone about the third but wasn't believed by some on here when I mentioned it on a post/.

[London Best]

Waiting above a quarry for a fox one misty morning, in an area reputed to have a big cat. On the opposite quarry top along came a black ‘big cat’ 

I readied the .22 Hornet and followed the cat in the scope until it stopped. Fortunately for the moggy in the mist when it stopped it was standing by a house brick, which gave me the scale which saved it’s life!

Having said that, I am a firm believer and have had other encounters.

[Bobba]

7 hours ago, oowee said:

I have baited for one not far from Longleat. No show for me but plenty of sightings. 

As a matter of interest would you have shot it and, if so, why?

[oowee]

2 hours ago, Bobba said:

As a matter of interest would you have shot it and, if so, why?

Definitely. Dangerous animal. 

[Minky]

This old chestnut has been doing the rounds right back into the 80s at least. It's always the same old same old. SOMEONE SAW. ,,, IT'S BELIVED... but in the end no one that I know of has dropped one and put up pictures of it.  All I know is that I  have been out night shooting for many many years and a team of Keepers that I know and have worked with over several thousand acres have never seen any tracks or sign of a beast.  If there's an amount of them out there, at some stage one of them would undoubtedly have had contact with the front of a car.  every other thing out there has from a rat to a wild bore. 

[London Best]

17 minutes ago, Minky said:

This old chestnut has been doing the rounds right back into the 80s at least. It's always the same old same old. SOMEONE SAW. ,,, IT'S BELIVED... but in the end no one that I know of has dropped one and put up pictures of it.  All I know is that I  have been out night shooting for many many years and a team of Keepers that I know and have worked with over several thousand acres have never seen any tracks or sign of a beast.  If there's an amount of them out there, at some stage one of them would undoubtedly have had contact with the front of a car.  every other thing out there has from a rat to a wild bore. 

A professional guide with whom I stalked twice in the very early 1990’s told me he had shot one on Bodmin Moor and never publicised it. He was a man not prone to BS and I had no reason to disbelieve him.

[Minky]

Again  with the best will I the world it's just another 3rd party uncoroborated statement.  With all this big cat stuff its like big foot and nessy. SOMEONE knows SOMEONE who's seen one.and thats all it is. Like UFOS. 

[Dougy]

Seems they have a very long life too , im sure someone would have come across a dead animal over the years. 

[Old farrier]

2 hours ago, Minky said:

This old chestnut has been doing the rounds right back into the 80s at least. It's always the same old same old. SOMEONE SAW. ,,, IT'S BELIVED... but in the end no one that I know of has dropped one and put up pictures of it.  All I know is that I  have been out night shooting for many many years and a team of Keepers that I know and have worked with over several thousand acres have never seen any tracks or sign of a beast.  If there's an amount of them out there, at some stage one of them would undoubtedly have had contact with the front of a car.  every other thing out there has from a rat to a wild bore. 

Had a few run over here all apparently escaped from a zoo 

[Rim Fire]

With todays technology  thermal    NV I think there would be more evidence of one also not enough  sheep being killed not saying  there has never been one but not as many as been reported 

[Bobba]

12 hours ago, oowee said:

Definitely. Dangerous animal. 

Mindset of a trophy hunter. No evidence of danger to or attacks on humans. 

[vmaxphil]

Police used to get called to a woodland near us for a sighting of a black panther, turned out to be a life-size target for a field archery club, they put a sack over it when they finished to stop sightings 😄

[old man]

13 hours ago, oowee said:

Definitely. Dangerous animal. 

I hope your back up doesn't suffer from brown trousers?😆

[Wymondley]

I'm convinced there's at least some "big cats" out there, probably escaped exotic pets or private zoo animals.

In the early 80s there was a fairly well accepted local rumour there was an escaped "big cat" in the south east Herts/Essex border. This had been going around for some time before a sighting was reported around Epping.

Pub wisdom at the time gave various explanation's...

It had escaped from  Paradise Wildlife Park (now Broxbourne zoo) or it had been owned by a "celebrity" that lived in the area, I seem to recall Rod Stewart as a name that cropped up.

The most bizarre one was the rumour had been started by London gangsters to deter people from wandering about in Epping forest, because that's where they killed or buried rivals (there's some truth in the latter part of that).

 

14 hours ago, oowee said:

Definitely. Dangerous animal. 

If you shot one what would that come under on your cert', Vermin, AOLQ? Genuine question, I'm not being flippant.

[Penelope]

56 minutes ago, Wymondley said:

I'm convinced there's at least some "big cats" out there, probably escaped exotic pets or private zoo animals.

In the early 80s there was a fairly well accepted local rumour there was an escaped "big cat" in the south east Herts/Essex border. This had been going around for some time before a sighting was reported around Epping.

Pub wisdom at the time gave various explanation's...

It had escaped from  Paradise Wildlife Park (now Broxbourne zoo) or it had been owned by a "celebrity" that lived in the area, I seem to recall Rod Stewart as a name that cropped up.

The most bizarre one was the rumour had been started by London gangsters to deter people from wandering about in Epping forest, because that's where they killed or buried rivals (there's some truth in the latter part of that).

 

If you shot one what would that come under on your cert', Vermin, AOLQ? Genuine question, I'm not being flippant.

Still sightings in the early to mid 90's in the area.

[old'un]

I am yet to be convinced about big cats roaming our countryside.

[Vince Green]

It's not some big mystery. Until 1976 it was perfectly legal to buy one and keep it as a pet. Lots of people did just that, even Harrods sold them. I can remember seeing a young cheetah for sale in Club Row Market in East London one Sunday morning and being allowed to stroke it.

People kept them in their house or a home made cage in the back garden.  They were a fashion accessory.  Lots must have escaped or were turned loose when the fluffy cute little cub turned a bit scarey.

Then the law changed, people that owned them were faced with big fines but they couldnt even give them away. Zoos didnt want them . So many were turned loose.

it still isn't illegal to keep them now but you do need a licence. I'm sure though there must still be a black market.

When I used to shoot around Hertfordshire in the early 80s they were there alright. The farmers and gamekeepers never stopped moaning about them.But the Ministry of Agriculture were on the case, tracking them down and shooting or trapping them. But they always maintained a wall of silence, they still do.

[oowee]

7 hours ago, Wymondley said:

I'm convinced there's at least some "big cats" out there, probably escaped exotic pets or private zoo animals.

In the early 80s there was a fairly well accepted local rumour there was an escaped "big cat" in the south east Herts/Essex border. This had been going around for some time before a sighting was reported around Epping.

Pub wisdom at the time gave various explanation's...

It had escaped from  Paradise Wildlife Park (now Broxbourne zoo) or it had been owned by a "celebrity" that lived in the area, I seem to recall Rod Stewart as a name that cropped up.

The most bizarre one was the rumour had been started by London gangsters to deter people from wandering about in Epping forest, because that's where they killed or buried rivals (there's some truth in the latter part of that).

 

If you shot one what would that come under on your cert', Vermin, AOLQ? Genuine question, I'm not being flippant.

Why not. Lawful to shoot invasive species. If I were in Africa I would be using a shotgun or a pistol. Gets the adrenalin flowing 😉

11 hours ago, Bobba said:

Mindset of a trophy hunter. No evidence of danger to or attacks on humans. 

I won't wait to be attacked. Would you?