Big cats UK

[gunter 1,511]

4 minutes ago, chartpolski said:

Why I asked you where in Northumberland that was mate , is because I got thinking about places like Wooler, where I have followed the College Valley Hounds and did a bit of beating.

It’s a huge expanse of wild and desolate, sparsely populated land ; heather fells, woodland, hills and the Cheviot mountains, few roads.

There are abundant amounts of hares, rabbits , roe, and even herds of wild goats.

So if there are big cats in that area, it would be a perfect place for them to thrive and go unnoticed.

Cheers.

Aye 

[Timmy H 512]

2 hours ago, mC HULL said:

i’ll be honest mate without him and few others it would be dead on here some the laughs you get threw them and whats posted 

everyone abuses each other we should be able to give and take it  

just because he has different beliefs to some it shouldn’t make him liable to persecution .he should come back as the muslim lol 

 

Childish and crude insults aren't fun, just pathetic. Disagree with someone by all means but there's no need to ruin threads like he did.

[Greyman 31,239]

1 hour ago, Councilestatekid said:

Do you find most of your findings are to Pacific areas or all over the country like say more in the south rather than the North or Midlands Wales Scotland etc. 

The environment is the key factor mate and I see the same geographical features in nearly every consistent area from Scotland to Cornwall also see consistent behaviours patterns like most animals they follow a food pattern the otters near me move in February march time when the pike move in to spawn after they have eaten that harvest they move on to the nesting waterbirds eggs and so on the cats appear to spend winter in the cover of woods and valleys taking deer and large prey but in spring move down into the crops taking smaller young naive stuff like young rabbits pheasant hares and even mice and voles and even though they are elusive and very hard to see they do leave footprints and corpses behind which is a good sign  especially when they turn up in the same places at the same times of year 

[gnasher16 31,310]

On 05/07/2025 at 21:07, Pardus said:

 That's the problem with you, too slow to cotton on to things. I mean it's quite clear that it's me when I come back from a ban, I say so immediately. I don't need to be an international man of mystery squire. 

 

If by too slow you mean this forum is not my whole life and i dont spend every hour of every day regardless of work/family/fun posting on here like you do then yes i guess im too slow......if on the other hand you think people scroll through your first 1000 posts to see if you have acknowledged that its you or not then no im afraid i dont do that.....a,i have a life and b,you're not that memorable that id straight away know its you !......if your not a man of mystery then just tell us what your new name is going to be,not too difficult is it ?

[gnasher16 31,310]

On 06/07/2025 at 12:25, WataWalloper said:

In all years I been out an about with mutts or rods in the country side iv only ever saw one thing I couldn’t explain, still can’t, luckily enough the few lads I would have told about it, where all with me at the time, none of us claimed to know what it was, but all agreed it wasn’t anything we had saw before, an we had saw the likely culprits time after time so we wasn’t no strangers to critters in the dark

 

been out countless times with hounds an stuff, all over the dales an a fair bit of lakes an stuff an never saw nowt j couldn’t explain, but spoke to folk on those outings who swear they have saw stuff that they thought was a big cat

 

 

an a side note, I know of a few otters local to me, I can literally watch them most days if I decide to, but speaking to lots of locals, even folk I yak to regular as they do or done same morning walk as me, an they have never saw them an even went as far as to say I was wrong, couldn’t possibly be, but guess what, a quick point out, or even just telling them where to go an they all come back an said sorry they was wrong I was right, showed me that the biggest majority of folk wouldn’t see nowt of it wasn’t pointed out to them, or it pissed up there leg haha 

At last,a good an interesting post on the subject.

Shame really i always thought this was a good countryside subject to have a natter about.....no reason to believe big cats are out there myself but heard a few stories people who are totally convinced have told and think it makes a real interesting subject personally.

[Timmy H 512]

13 minutes ago, gnasher16 said:

At last,a good an interesting post on the subject.

Shame really i always thought this was a good countryside subject to have a natter about.....no reason to believe big cats are out there myself but heard a few stories people who are totally convinced have told and think it makes a real interesting subject personally.

Like I said earlier, I've seen a cat twice. The last time was at dusk when we were spud harvesting. The farmer and I were cleaning down the machine, sun was going down and it was bloody cold. The field was sloping upwards and I saw the cat on the skyline silhouetted against the sky. It was walking slowly. I nudged the farmer and pointed, we watched it for maybe 20 seconds, no more than 100 yards away.

There was other sightings around the area around the same time so people were actively looking for the cat, quite a few wanted to shoot one as proof. We decided to keep quiet about it and leave the animal in peace rather than be chased and maybe killed.

Heard very little from this area since then but I reckon they have been seen, just not reported for the same reason we kept quiet.

[gnasher16 31,310]

2 minutes ago, Timmy H said:

Like I said earlier, I've seen a cat twice. The last time was at dusk when we were spud harvesting. The farmer and I were cleaning down the machine, sun was going down and it was bloody cold. The field was sloping upwards and I saw the cat on the skyline silhouetted against the sky. It was walking slowly. I nudged the farmer and pointed, we watched it for maybe 20 seconds, no more than 100 yards away.

There was other sightings around the area around the same time so people were actively looking for the cat, quite a few wanted to shoot one as proof. We decided to keep quiet about it and leave the animal in peace rather than be chased and maybe killed.

Heard very little from this area since then but I reckon they have been seen, just not reported for the same reason we kept quiet.

How long ago are we talking there mate ?....would you put your house on it definitely being a big cat ?

I imagine its the sort of thing you'd second guess yourself about ( well i would anyway as my countryside knowledge isnt up to much )....but folk who the countryside is second nature to something odd like that would stand out a mile surely.

I get how it could become like a " hobby " and how folk could get the bit between their teeth as regards finding out for sure and how that might misguide them.....but just normal everyday bods out for a mooch or whateverand who know what they're looking at i just cant see what reason there is to lie about it

[Timmy H 512]

13 minutes ago, gnasher16 said:

How long ago are we talking there mate ?....would you put your house on it definitely being a big cat ?

I imagine its the sort of thing you'd second guess yourself about ( well i would anyway as my countryside knowledge isnt up to much )....but folk who the countryside is second nature to something odd like that would stand out a mile surely.

I get how it could become like a " hobby " and how folk could get the bit between their teeth as regards finding out for sure and how that might misguide them.....but just normal everyday bods out for a mooch or whateverand who know what they're looking at i just cant see what reason there is to lie about it

It was mid 1980s. Yes I would bet on it. We are both country people, used to seeing wildlife. We saw it and agreed that it was a big cat. Sizewise, we reckoned the body was about labrador size with a long tail. The most telling thing was the way it moved, nothing else could move like that.

[Councilestatekid 2,112]

Would you not expect alot of livestock to be took if a big cat was in the area say especially if had cubs as easy pickings say around lambing calfing time and things with amount of livestock about wouldn't they be taking regular? 

[Timmy H 512]

4 minutes ago, Councilestatekid said:

Would you not expect alot of livestock to be took if a big cat was in the area say especially if had cubs as easy pickings say around lambing calfing time and things with amount of livestock about wouldn't they be taking regular? 

In my area it was mainly arable or dairy, plenty of wildlife though, deer in abundance, rabbits, hares, pheasants. In places like Exmoor, Bodmin and Dartmoor there were carcases found, probably not all of them though, many more went unnoticed, deaths happen with livestock and few farmers look for a reason particularly with flocks that run the moor and only get brought in for lambing or shearing.

 

[Councilestatekid 2,112]

19 minutes ago, Timmy H said:

In my area it was mainly arable or dairy, plenty of wildlife though, deer in abundance, rabbits, hares, pheasants. In places like Exmoor, Bodmin and Dartmoor there were carcases found, probably not all of them though, many more went unnoticed, deaths happen with livestock and few farmers look for a reason particularly with flocks that run the moor and only get brought in for lambing or shearing.

 

Yes we used to have the cows n sheep up on the hills but what I mean is if was like big cat in the area and taking say a lamb every day or other day or few calfs a month or something wouldn't take you long to notice something didn't add up and it wouldn't take long for the cat to realise sheep lambs etc easier to take than say deer or even rabbit or pheasant I suppose. So with the sheep always up on the hills wouldn't they become the main food source

Edited July 7 by Councilestatekid

[Greyman 31,239]

21 minutes ago, Councilestatekid said:

Would you not expect alot of livestock to be took if a big cat was in the area say especially if had cubs as easy pickings say around lambing calfing time and things with amount of livestock about wouldn't they be taking regular? 

It does happen but in my neck of the woods it’s predominantly deer but last two sets of dna we have had were both from sheep kills and when I was in Cumbria I found lots of sign of sheep predation but they are hill sheep seldom dipped and left to wander I also think the cubs come in early spring when there is an abundance of young everything so not hard to sustain them and teach them to hunt without getting injured 

[Bosun11 537]

Like others, I find this an interesting topic. In all my years i've never seen anything, but i'd never say never.

I enjoy pondering the 'probability' of them being able to survive for so long under the radar.

And whilst I agree that the huge rise in the deer population could keep any amount of them fed. Wouldn't that then trigger a population rise, through the abundance of food, and increase the chances of definitive sightings...

[Timmy H 512]

5 minutes ago, Bosun11 said:

Like others, I find this an interesting topic. In all my years i've never seen anything, but i'd never say never.

I enjoy pondering the 'probability' of them being able to survive for so long under the radar.

And whilst I agree that the huge rise in the deer population could keep any amount of them fed. Wouldn't that then trigger a population rise, through the abundance of food, and increase the chances of definitive sightings...

Possibly, but you have to take account of territory. If you take Exmoor, barely 700 square kms. The most likely big cat will be of the leopard family, 1 animal needs a territory estimated at 35 kms2 at least, they are solitary creatures. In the wild it can be up to 1000kms2. If they ever did breed the youngsters are driven out to find their own territory. 

Lets imagine that in the peak there were possibly 3 cats on Exmoor, feeding on wildlife but also the odd sheep? Current estimates are that there are 15,000 breeding ewes on the moor, that means possibly 22,000 lambs in the spring, that is a huge amount and farmers expect losses. If you estimate that the 3 cats each take 1 sheep a week for a year that is only 150 sheep gone, probably less than natural mortality and in an area where it would go unseen and unrecorded

[gunter 1,511]

50 minutes ago, Bosun11 said:

Like others, I find this an interesting topic. In all my years i've never seen anything, but i'd never say never.

I enjoy pondering the 'probability' of them being able to survive for so long under the radar.

And whilst I agree that the huge rise in the deer population could keep any amount of them fed. Wouldn't that then trigger a population rise, through the abundance of food, and increase the chances of definitive sightings...

Mate I need to get the number for whatever drug dealer these boys use come on now there's lunatics about keep pets the odd pet can escape would explain the odd sighting now the uk isn't no massive place do you think if someone really went looking with all the technology that's about nowadays they wouldn't find one or a good sighting