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BIG CATS IN THE UK ??

Ark79

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I’ve watched a few videos on YouTube over the years about this, some evidence is clearly just a big tabby cat or a dog, however some are very convincing, anyone got any thoughts on the matter ?
 
Like most things along these lines buddy, it’s possible... but am a little sceptical about them surviving the winter months. However there’s always contradictions to the rule
 
Also seen a few videos and read the reports in the papers Mark.....like you......sceptical 🤔 🤔
It seems that most escaped were re-captured........but you never know :)
 
I remember a few years back when I was shooting rabbit, the protocol was , I had to phone the game’y the day before I was going to head up to the forest because there was a lot of shooting happening on different days. Anyway, I phoned him up and he’s said before you head up tomorrow, come and see me...

So I did.... he told me that he had to mention (because of his responsibilities)that a puma was spotted not to far from where I was going 🤔 what got me ! was the information and the very formal way in which he gave it to me. He said there was a scouting part and one of the gents shouted on his dog, well as the party got closer they realised it wasn’t his dog it was a big cat (puma) they found prints and a kill not long after.

he told me to be safe and stay calm 🤷🏼‍♂️

well !! I didn’t feel feckin safe and I didn’t remain calm..... it was a funny feeling being up in the forest after hearing this😂...I’m almost sure I mentioned this on the hunting thread on the day it happened 😬
 
Here's a story, as usual without a positive conclusion but true never the less.
Years ago I was involved in a night training exercise on the West Sussex-Hampshire border. It was low key, no blank firing etc: as it was in fact a test of the security of a sensitive premises and involved us doing a sneaky beaky approach.

At some time after Midnight a racket erupted across the fields just outside the exercise area. Lights coming on in farm buildings and 4x4 vehicles bouncing around the countryside and voices raised in the far distance.
We went to ground and waited only to get a Stand Down order about an hour later...back to base for a brew and and a debrief.

An obviously frightened young couple had hammered on the door of a farm house and told the Farmer that a 'Panther' had run across the road in front of their mini causing them to skid and mount the grass verge and become stuck. Both stone cold sober but very scared. Farmer goes out and hears his small herd of Bullocks in an adjoining field bellowing. Farmer's son joins them and taking big torches they go to first the mini and then to the noisey animals only to find one bleeding from wounds to it's hind quarters. So they connect Panther to the injured animal and start dashing around the fields in a Land Rover and a little all Terrain 4x4 both equipped with powerful high mounted lights..which is what we saw.

We heard local Police attended and opinions were divided about the injuries to the Bullock. Panic when trapped in barbed wire causing the wounds was one, others said claw marks, and a Vet later said he found puncture wounds on the Bullock's back. The weather was dry so no tracks found but from the description given by the couple it could have been something Leopard, not Lion sized. No other sightings or reports. Just another unsolved one but it probably left a few people convinced that something unusual and nasty was abroad that night, and I don't mean us, because they didn't know we were there...:lol:
 
There where plenty of the buggers let loose after the law changed on owning them, whatever else was let loose also
 
There has been all sorts let loose over the years.....snakes.....crocodiles........monkeys.......its just not safe out there I tell you.
I would guess that your chances of being killed by a rogue crocodile in Devon are far less than being killed by some falling blue ice from an airplane toilet. The landlady of my old local once discovered a python in her downstairs shower room that was from next door and had supposedly escaped through the loo....she got no sympathy but she did get a lot of Python jokes....
.....Thinking about that it's enough to make you a bit more aware of how much time you spend on the bog and the risks you're taking.
 
Bloody brave snake that comes up my toilet pipe when my errs is parked on it 😱 best hope it can swim backwards 🤔
 
a short video, however it’s definitely bigger than an average moggie 🐈‍⬛
 
I’ve seen articles by vets with big cat experience where they say they’re confident that they could exist in the wild, even if they admit it’s probably not likely to be that many by now. Although lots were released they probably didn’t have the population density to meet and breed therefore most if not all of the released animals are now long gone.
The article that stuck in my mind was one that said the safest habitat for them would be military training areas due to the relatively low footfall; that made wandering around in the dark a lot more fun!

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Wouldn't it be great to go for your little wildcamp in the "cultivated" home counties, yet know there may be a puma, a lynx, a wolf somewhere .............love it :thumbsup:

Mrs Higginbottoms "ShitZoo" has just become a curry and a pair of gloves!!
 
I’ve seen articles by vets with big cat experience where they say they’re confident that they could exist in the wild, even if they admit it’s probably not likely to be that many by now. Although lots were released they probably didn’t have the population density to meet and breed therefore most if not all of the released animals are now long gone.
The article that stuck in my mind was one that said the safest habitat for them would be military training areas due to the relatively low footfall; that made wandering around in the dark a lot more fun!

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If you could have found one it would have made a fine mascot
 
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