"Panther" sighting in the forest of Dean, UK

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

Yes, when I was a child growing up not far from Bodmin Moor, we could barely walk a step without tripping over a large predatory cat. Bothersome it was. In fact my uncle, a landowner, was forever complaining about the Red and Muntjac deer he'd find on his land mauled and eaten by large cats.

No wait....he didn't. In fact the only time he ever remarked up something attacking either the deer which passed through his land or the livestock he kept was when he shot a stray tourist's dog that had been harrassing his sheep, I spent 18 years travelling and exploring the Moors as a child in the way chilrden do and yet never saw anything that could be classified as a large cat and so I can only be led to believe that you are an idiot.

hahahhahhhahaa, sorry but this just needs repeating.

Especially that last sentence.

[Nuckelavee]

It's always Black "Panthers" isn't it? I wonder why? Is it just these reports that get picked up or are all the mystery big cats out there melanistic? If there was inbreeding in a small population would this cause the gene for melanism to be more readily expressed?

Exactly one of my problems with it. I think it's largely down to black domestic cats seen from a distance that causes the large number of 'panther' sightings.

[Long_Gone]

Thanks. There's been footage of two big cats with two light tan cubs seen on the otherside of a valley. They were visible by a tv camera zoom which showed one adult puma-like cat and another bigger, shaggier black cat which later turned out to be the male. Just the other day in the barbers in my home town, a lady said she saw a labrador-sized panther running away. I've similarly seen a medium size panther from the top deck of a bus on the way to Newquay. Tonight, I'm setting up a trail cam near a hedge-hole which has recently opened right up incidentally, setting it on 30 min video/30 min repeat and leaving it for a few days at least. I'll post the results on you-tube as soon as I can. Wish me luck.

So how did it go last night with the camera?. Caught any chupacabras or dover demons or better?. Make sure nobody steals your camera.

[NatureBoff]

So how did it go last night with the camera?. Caught any chupacabras or dover demons or better?. Make sure nobody steals your camera.

Yeah, I've got a perfect spot which I'm going back to tonight to set it up and leave it for a week. Here's an email I got this morning which mentions the big black cat:

Hey Alan, you should be wowed by that caldera picture. It doesn't show a fraction of the magnificence of the place. The lakes at the bottom had birds on them which, even with the naked eye were pinprick small. It was huge and lush. We walked through a tunnel in the wall of the caldera near the top to look down into it. Amazing.

Re beasts, Ive probably told you this before, but Al and I saw a very large black cat many years ago near St Just. We were in Tregeseal Valley and looking up over the fields below the village. Unmistakably a large black cat. Full daylight.

Glad your getting off on the sea mist. I too have had some amazing experiences with it. Sounds like you are getting off on nature generally which is no bad thingvery healthy!

Stay happy and smiling... Ill see you soon. Looks like the date may be put back by a week again though, but more money will be in the coffers.

Smiles

Gailx

Edited May 22, 2010 by Smugfish

[Cetacea]

Yeah, I've got a perfect spot which I'm going back to tonight to set it up and leave it for a week. Here's an email I got this morning which mentions the big black cat:

No hyrax/hellhound/werewolf yet?

[NatureBoff]

No hyrax/hellhound/werewolf yet?

It may take years before I bag a trail cam shot of a super-cryptid. I'll have fun trying though. Best time of the day 4.00am by miles! Water was like a pancake at first light.

[Connor.]

I remember watching a documentary some time last year talking about these big cat sightings in Britain, im sure it said sometime in the 80's or 90's, not to sure, that people were bringing over many foreign big cats. When the cats were either to big or the owners could not be bothered to look after them they would just release them into the forest.

Does anyone else remember this show?

[Cryptid_Control]

\we could barely walk a step without tripping over a large predatory cat.

Lmao

That is great!

[Dimly]

Displaced big cats have got to be the most boring cryptid ever. It's easy to see how something totally awesome like giant ape men or prehistoric lake monsters could catch on and get loads of hoaxers, false IDs, and so forth, but I almost want to say that this particular phenomenon must have a basis in fact just because it's too lame for anyone to make up.

[Zero2Hero]

Displaced big cats have got to be the most boring cryptid ever. It's easy to see how something totally awesome like giant ape men or prehistoric lake monsters could catch on and get loads of hoaxers, false IDs, and so forth, but I almost want to say that this particular phenomenon must have a basis in fact just because it's too lame for anyone to make up.

So let me get this straight, if you were walking through the forest and you came across a displaced leopard, you'd be thinking, "Yawn! How boring!"

[Mattshark]

So let me get this straight, if you were walking through the forest and you came across a displaced leopard, you'd be thinking, "Yawn! How boring!"

I think a more accurate though would be "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH A LEOPARD"

Edited May 22, 2010 by Mattshark

[ExpandMyMind]

Displaced big cats have got to be the most boring cryptid ever. It's easy to see how something totally awesome like giant ape men or prehistoric lake monsters could catch on and get loads of hoaxers, false IDs, and so forth, but I almost want to say that this particular phenomenon must have a basis in fact just because it's too lame for anyone to make up.

that was excellent.

[Finity]

The theory for them being there is at some point people smuggled them in as pets, but released them to avoid being caught when they got to big. Which has happened before with many exotic other animals, though most can't survive when you do that.

The environment here is perfect for them, plenty of small animals to live on (endless supply of rabbits, in some parks your literally tripping over them) and lots of places to hide. There are some places where people almost never visit, such as the moors where even people still go missing without a trace.

Edited May 23, 2010 by Finity

[xYlvax]

I think a more accurate though would be "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH A LEOPARD"

LOL

[Long_Gone]

I remember watching a documentary some time last year talking about these big cat sightings in Britain, im sure it said sometime in the 80's or 90's, not to sure, that people were bringing over many foreign big cats. When the cats were either to big or the owners could not be bothered to look after them they would just release them into the forest.

Does anyone else remember this show?

No idea dude, But move to britain, There are big cats everywhere, Infact people walk over big cats and build houses on them. People even surf on these big cats. 'Awash' with big cats.

Not sure but i've seen a show on history channel once, Long ago it was about ABCs

Edited May 23, 2010 by Over-Kill

[Blackwhite]

The number of big cats reported throughout Britain is astounding

Between April 2004 and June 2005, there were 104 reported sightings of big cats in Gloucestershire, where the Forest of Dean sighting occurred, 132 sightings in Devon, 127 in Yorkshire, 103 in Sussex and 90-odd in Cornwall, Kent, Somerset and Sussex. There were also 125 sightings in Scotland and 123 in Wales.

And there have been sightings going back centuries. In the 1760s, the journalist William Cobbett recalled in his "Rural Rides" how, as a boy, he had seen a cat "as big as a middle-sized Spaniel dog" climb into a hollow elm tree in the grounds of the ruined Waverley Abbey near Farnham in Surrey.

Further back there is a medieval Welsh poem "Pa Gwr" in the "Black Book of Carmarthen" which mentions a Cath Palug, meaning "Palug's cat" or "clawing cat", which roamed Anglesey until slain by Sir Kay, King Arthur's foster brother and one of the Knights of the Round Table.

Edited May 23, 2010 by Blackwhite

[TheSearcher]

I think a more accurate though would be "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH A LEOPARD"

Erm no I think not, I would rather think the sound would be more like "OH CRAP OH CRAP OH CRAP OH CRAP OH CRAP OH CRAP OH CRAP OH CRAP OH CRAP OH CRAP OH CRAP!"

Edited May 25, 2010 by TheSearcher

[DrunkDwarf]

Some Scottish Wild Cats are surprisingly big, a tad smaller than the average Labrador. The colouration of Wildcats is often dark enough that it'll look black in poor light. You can get all-black ones too though, but they're rarer.

Wildcats have been spotted in the rest of Britain.

But, as far as this account goes, the size of a creature would be easily exaggerated by a young person, relatively small creatures would become terrifying monsters.

Edited May 25, 2010 by DrunkDwarf

[Robin_Shadowes]

I don't care if i'll get mocked for my personal theory. I think they're shape-shifters. They don't disappear. They just shape back to human form again.

[Mattshark]

I don't care if i'll get mocked for my personal theory. I think they're shape-shifters. They don't disappear. They just shape back to human form again.

Not mocking, but for numerous reasons, that is completely impossible, not least for the basic rule of the conservation of mass.

I think you should also look at how much energy would be required to reshape the bones, it is enough energy to immolate all the soft tissue in the body.

[Long_Gone]

I don't care if i'll get mocked for my personal theory. I think they're shape-shifters. They don't disappear. They just shape back to human form again.

Yeah , I know. They work all day in a factory from 9 to 5 and then 'shapeshift' into a cat every night.

[Afro ninja]

Yeah , I know. They work all day in a factory from 9 to 5 and then 'shapeshift' into a cat every night.

lol one minute ur at the till at morrisons with a lovely old lady bar-coding your items then she turns into a panther

[Blackwhite]

There's a big black cat near where I live in Bolton and it terrorises me at least once a week.

Unfortunately, it's just an ordinary house cat that lives with Malcolm and Donna in the flat above mine and, because I live on a ground floor flat, it often tries to climb in through my bedroom window whenever I decide to have it open when I'm in bed at night. But it's strong, so when I dive out of bed to push it back out through the window (which is just above head height) again, I just can't do it, even pushing with all my might. So I have to let it jump onto my bedroom carpet, making sure that it doesn't get tangled in the blinds, and then I open the door of my flat and let it spend the night in the hallway. Thankfully, this week, Malcolm and Donna are on holiday in Great Yarmouth and their three cats, including the black one, are in an animal shelter so I don't have to worry about it for a few days.

I've not seen any actual big cats like pumas roaming around my way, though. But there have been have a few sightings of big black cats over the years on Winter Hill just outside Bolton.

Edited May 26, 2010 by Blackwhite

[Openminded.Ulsterman]

Yes I agree there certainly isn't a significant population of these animals in the UK, but there certainly is a few about for instance a few years back in Gary's wood co Antrim Northern Ireland a motorist caught the beast on camera, there have been few instances of sighting the animals as was believed there may have been several of the big black cats, This was further backed up by livestock deaths over quite a large area, these black cats would travel great distances by night and stay away from populated areas, there have been no recent sightings of the animals but no remains have been found, there is no doubt the animals did exist and have been obviously introduced from captivity, but probably have died by now, a very cold winter may be too harsh for these illusive animals.

[jack regan]

there are more than just big cats living as cryptids in uk, there is also bigfoot in northumberland, werewolf like creatures and many more