Big Cats in UK
- Thread starter Monty Pigeon
- Start date
John the Savage
Winger
LondonBlackCat
Winger
Shirley a basking shark.
Monty Pigeon
Striker
That's a basking shark. Native to the UK and harmless.
There are regular news stories about great white sharks in UK waters, but according to this research only 12 of the sightings between 1965 and 2016 are credible. The big mystery isn't 'are they here?', but 'why aren't they here?' The waters around Devon and Cornwall are ideal habitat.
Are great white sharks warming to UK waters?
Are great white sharks warming to UK waters? With climate change warming seas, experts predict we could see these endangered ocean predators closer to our shores.
www.plymouth.ac.uk
John the Savage
Winger
It's caused a bit of controversy, Doesn't look big enough for a basking and the white underbelly clearly visible?That's a basking shark. Native to the UK and harmless.
There are regular news stories about great white sharks in UK waters, but according to this research only 12 of the sightings between 1965 and 2016 are credible. The big mystery isn't 'are they here?', but 'why aren't they here?' The waters around Devon and Cornwall are ideal habitat.
Are great white sharks warming to UK waters?
Are great white sharks warming to UK waters? With climate change warming seas, experts predict we could see these endangered ocean predators closer to our shores.
Tuono
Winger
It's easy to get perspective wrong, just ask Dougal. There's nowt wrong with my eye sight but I once mistook 2 sheep for 2 horses. Me and a mate were coming down off a mountain in low cloud and I saw these two horses in a field in front of us and said why don't we jump on them horses and ride down. Me mate just looked at me and said what horses. I said those two in the field. He says do you mean those sheep. All I can put it down to is the trees in the area were all stunted growth so made the sheep look bigger than they were. The sheep had recently been sheared and they did look kind of horsey.
safc9450
Winger
IF there was a big cat on loose. There would be LOTS of carcasses from kills etc. Deer,sheep would be needed to keep 1 cat going .Roe deer,fallow deer.Maybe 2 a week .Not lot's of carcasses being found ,this should be the first clues to a large predator on the loose . No dead large cat carcasses found EVER.
Meeeoooooow !I asked for that really, didn't I
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Monty Pigeon
Striker
There's certainly a flash of white, but it is more likely to be a basking shark with its mouth open. The behaviour is wrong. Great whites don't drift like that.
(I see the video was actually filmed in 2012. It's only risen to prominence because there's now a dedicated community trying to establish great white sightings in the UK.)
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John the Savage
Winger
These have tagged a load of great whites in the US and they believe they could head into our waters -Interesting app where you can track the movements of great whites. OCEARCH Shark Tracker
Monty Pigeon
Striker
The theory in the paper I posted above is that the US northwest Atlantic population is self-contained, and that the great whites seen in UK waters are likely to have come from the Med. Tracking data will prove it one way or the other.
Leon Solent
Striker
Not necessarily. Nature leaves nothing to waste. Something always provides food for something else further down the food chain and not a trace is left. I recently had a roebuck die in my back garden. It was taken to the bottom of the garden where it was first pecked at by crows and magpies at the soft bits. Then overnight the foxes moved in from the fields. By morning there was little left. By the second day there was nothing left at all. Nature wastes nothing and it leaves no trace.
Jon Dough
Winger
Extraordinary how the evidence, even now - with most people carrying high quality phone cameras - tends to be blurry and inconclusive.
A new documentary on Amazon is supposed to have irrefutable evidence in the shape of a photo allegedly taken in Staffordshire. However, there is only partial information about when it was taken - 'March 17', but no year is given - and the scale looks completely wrong. It looks like a zoo black leopard photoshopped into a close-up of a lawn.
Documentary makers find 'clearest ever' photo of panther-like creature
The picture was discovered in the files of a zoology organisation and shows a large muscular black cat lying in long grass in Smallthorne, Staffordshire.www.dailymail.co.uk
The source seems to have been identified.
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YohanKebab
Central Defender
They were definitely a thing, as exotic pets were released into the wild, when people were banned from owning them over here.
There is some very good photos and videos about. Not sure how they'd of survived this long. But again, some photos and videos are very convincing, who knows, but it they definitely were wild in the 80s/90s.
There is some very good photos and videos about. Not sure how they'd of survived this long. But again, some photos and videos are very convincing, who knows, but it they definitely were wild in the 80s/90s.
Jon Dough
Winger
I asked a big cat expert once how there’s no leopard or mountain lion killed on UK roads,he said the government have a special squad of people whose job it is to remove the carcass and sanitise the scene so as not to scare people
MonkeyLove
Striker
I think people are underestimating the capabilities of big cats.
Apart from being largely nocturnal and night hunters they also have characteristics that suggest they could survive undetected in some rural parts of the UK.
They are largely loners and live on their own so wouldn’t attract the attention and make the noise that a large pack would.
They also have exceptional senses. Sight, hearing, smell and also their whiskers are incredibly sensitive. They would be aware of any presence before a human even got near them.
And, they typically actively avoid human contact at all costs. In the US even in areas where there are loads of big cats the number of attacks has been pretty much non existent for decades.
Whether they exist in the UK I don’t know but their natural behaviour suggests that if they do they have probably migrated to highly remote areas. Dartmoor, the lakes, Scottish highlands etc… and if they want to stay hidden in those types of environments they probably have the skills to do so.
Apart from being largely nocturnal and night hunters they also have characteristics that suggest they could survive undetected in some rural parts of the UK.
They are largely loners and live on their own so wouldn’t attract the attention and make the noise that a large pack would.
They also have exceptional senses. Sight, hearing, smell and also their whiskers are incredibly sensitive. They would be aware of any presence before a human even got near them.
And, they typically actively avoid human contact at all costs. In the US even in areas where there are loads of big cats the number of attacks has been pretty much non existent for decades.
Whether they exist in the UK I don’t know but their natural behaviour suggests that if they do they have probably migrated to highly remote areas. Dartmoor, the lakes, Scottish highlands etc… and if they want to stay hidden in those types of environments they probably have the skills to do so.
LondonBlackCat
Winger
To me it looks more like the white inside a basking shark's mouth when it opens to feed.
Jon Dough
Winger
Are there really big cats roaming the UK countryside?
The documentary Panthera Britannia Declassified claims to show clear evidence of a black leopard or panther in the UK, but most experts remain sceptical
www.newscientist.com
Jon Dough
Winger
Barber stunned after spotting wild black cat as 'big as a German Shepherd'
Dave Harrison said he spotted the black creature when he was driving to work on Wednesday morning
www.chroniclelive.co.uk
