Big cat sightings , again!

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Thistle

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Today I heard that there have been 3 or 4 independent big cat sightings less than a mile from me. 3 of the 4 are within the last fortnight. I'm very pleased my lot are in at night. No wonder the small dog barks alot when she goes out at night!

Seems that it is probably a panther!
 
I live in an isolated house, nearest neighbour 1/2 mile away, have chickens and ducks as well as horses so shall keep a look out. Wish I knew about this before the snow had melted as I could have gone tracking
 
I saw something weird at the yard earlier - no idea what it was as it was in the distance and it was dark. It looked roughly the size of a cat, but shaped more like a dog? Think it was too small to be a fox but I was a bit confuzzled as to what else it could be!
 
WoW Thistle - whereabouts in the country are you? For some reason I think you are in my county but I might be wrong! The only big cat around here is sparko on my bed!!! I actually thought I saw a fox the other morning so stopped the car to photograph it - literally a metre from me. Hopped out of the car and it was a bloody ginger cat! I could have sworn blind it was a fox - it looked like it had a brush, foxy head and it was a ginger moggy. It did get a shock when I was eyeballing it at 0600!!!
 
They're going crazy about it here in the Cotswolds! Photos and videos of this 'big cat' and dead animals. (Daily Mail is having a field day). They took out a post mortem and all they found was fox traces though, so the Gloucestershire 'big cat' is unproven. I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few panthers or similar around the country though!
 
There was supposed to have been one sighted on our farm years ago and there was a spate of sightings round MK, near where we live, again years ago. On our old farm we occasionally had a sheep killed and licked clean to the bone in a single night. My friend used to live near Lampeter and they had a 'beast' that dragged sheep carcasses up into trees! I saw somewhere speculation that it was a modern version of the 'black shuck' legend..
 
I saw one in Devon when I was about 10, we were driving along (dad and I) and this black cat walked across the road infront of us, it wasn't overly big, but the giveaway was the tail, it was as long as the body!! Dad and I just said OMG did you see that, hehe never told anyone!! Around the same time my nan (RIP) saw one in her garden and the dog went mental, but wouldn't chase it... so we are talking 25 yrs ago!
 
They've been going on about the 'Beast of Buckinghamshire' in the paper the last few weeks, apparently someone found prints in their garden(!) in the snow. Although there might be something in it, I do suspect largely that a big thing is made of it because there is nothing else to report aha
 
We had "beast prints" at our old house! The neighbours came round all excited saying that they'd found some and wondered if we'd had any - so we went looking and found a track going across the muddy paddock, through their field and onto the moorland! Was all very exciting, they were saying that the newspaper reporters were coming round but can't remember if they did. There are supposed to be quite a few around here but I've never seen any (don't think I'd want to either!!)
 
I found some huge paw prints round the house once and got quite jittery... ran inside with dog before realising they were the dog's prints enlarged by the snow.
Embarrassed?
Muchly :o
 
RebelRebel said:
I found some huge paw prints round the house once and got quite jittery... ran inside with dog before realising they were the dog's prints enlarged by the snow.
Embarrassed?
Muchly :o
Click to expand...

A cat's print won't have claws showing, dog's will but I guess they aren't as defined in snow as much as mud?
We are supposed to have a panther in Surrey, some of my friends have seen them over the year round here and in Dorking.My auntie on the IOW has had fiends out there not only sighting them but actually getting knocked flat by one running past after her dog (they like to eat dog's so I have been told).I go out in the woods on the North Downs all hours of the night walking my dogs, have yet to encounter any but I don't doubt they are out there.
Oz :)
 
Last summer, just before 6am, there was one in the field next to the mile-long driveway up to our yard. It kept up with my car for the length of a field, and disappeared into the next hedgeline.

It's not something I've mentioned too widely. I'm sure the general consensus would be that I'm 'on wacky baccy' etc and I don't feel the need to convince anyone, tbh!

But it was a big black cat. It had a distinctive shaped head and tail, and a distinctive way of moving - it was not a domestic cat/fox/labrador etc.

We are very remote (Wales), but yes, they are out there :)
 
Cremedemonthe - I live on the North Downs (well at the foot of them) near Dorking so I guess I was right to run indoors screaming :o then :)
 
hcm88 said:
They're going crazy about it here in the Cotswolds! Photos and videos of this 'big cat' and dead animals. (Daily Mail is having a field day). They took out a post mortem and all they found was fox traces though, so the Gloucestershire 'big cat' is unproven. I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few panthers or similar around the country though!
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Yep..that's the one I'm on about as well...blimey so there are panthers everywhere then...aren't they an endangered species..there must be more here than in their natural habitat!! ;)
 
I've seen them at home a few times over several years. So has my sister and very reliable neighbours saw it walking passed his garden office almost every evening for years (they have moved since).

Black panther- chocolate coloured with leopard markings under the fur! It's no bother! we had old horses for years (one 11.2hh) and it never caused any harm to them!
 
Many years ago, I was on a 'ramble' with my class from school. Going alnog a footpath in a field of cows, we came across a dead calf, which looked, um, well eaten :( Not that we were allowed to get too close of course.

We did have a debate about what could have done it- we didn't think a fox could have killed it or eaten/ carried away that much?
 
cremedemonthe said:
We are supposed to have a panther in Surrey, some of my friends have seen them over the year round here and in Dorking.My auntie on the IOW has had fiends out there not only sighting them but actually getting knocked flat by one running past after her dog (they like to eat dog's so I have been told).I go out in the woods on the North Downs all hours of the night walking my dogs, have yet to encounter any but I don't doubt they are out there.
Oz :)
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I used to help manage the land there, and I can say that there is definitive evidence of a big cat in the Holmbury Hill area (and most likely Leith Hill) as I personally saw a fully grown dead sheep half eaten and pulled up against (and partly over) stock fencing really close to Ockley.

There have also been sightings of Wild Boar in Ranmore Common.
 
My horse see's BIG cat's ALL the time judging by the spooks I get out hacking ... or maybe they are just teeny little birds?
 
There was a report of one up here (Yorks a few years ago) that was killing lots of livestock and a guy I knew stalked it for six weeks before being able to kill it.

Turns out it was a huge rottweiler, with a face biger than a steering wheel (thats what he told me anyway!) I don't doubt there are big cats out there somewhere, but some of the killings could be down to rogue dogs :)
 
Jzee said:
My horse see's BIG cat's ALL the time judging by the spooks I get out hacking ... or maybe they are just teeny little birds?
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^^ this, and if you believe my pony, there are Big Cats (or some other horse-eating demons) all along the far side of the outdoor arena, hidden in the bushes. :D

ETA I have a friend who has often seen a big cat of some sort, on her smallholding. About 10 miles from Oxford so not even that remote.
 
I have seen one Oxfordshire/ Berkshire border. Was in the passenger seat of a car driving along a country lane and looked across into one of the fields and saw a large black cat walking along the hedge line. The whole shape of the animal from the head to the way it carried its tail was definatly of a cat. I told the local taxi driver who said that she and her friend had seen one while out dog walking about a week before.
 
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