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Alien Big Cats ('ABCs')

In your opinion what are alien big cats most likely to be?

  • Escapees from collections, breeding in the UK countryside

    Votes: 57 48.3%

  • A species of endemic British big cat somehow overlooked by science

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Zooform Phenomena - animal-shaped manifestations of paranormal activity

    Votes: 6 5.1%

  • Misidentifications of big dogs, normal cats etc

    Votes: 28 23.7%

  • A big hoax

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Summat else

    Votes: 4 3.4%

  • All of the above

    Votes: 23 19.5%
  • Total voters
    118
As I remember the thing what done the chickens and sheep in Northumberland (second indebted moment to NS Fletcher), there were reports that pens were opened and closed again.

Now, to some folks, that says 'werewolf'. Specifically, the folks that have never lived with a domestic cat and watched it open doors, turn taps on and ring bells when it wants to go out.

ABC for sure. They should have checked litter bins next with comedy fishbones next to them.

Actually, I'm serious (about the first point).
 
I've seen cats open all sorts of things, but I've never seen one close them after.

Which is not that surprising to us two legged tinopeners, I suspect!
 
Ah, but these are *Fortean* cats. They probably turn into black helicopters or something.

You know what really stirs me up re. ABCs? You get a mystery that looks almost certain to have a rational, zoological explanation. Then the rotten things start hanging around with UFOs and Bigfoot. They *are* domestic cats, I tell you, winding us up.

Don't you reckon that Cattle Mutes are just the equivalent of having dead mice and birds proudly presented to you by a friendly cat?
 
DanHigginbottom said:
Don't you reckon that Cattle Mutes are just the equivalent of having dead mice and birds proudly presented to you by a friendly cat?
Click to expand...

lol!
 
And what about the Pyramids? I saw on telly where they were the ears of gigantic cat heads buried under the desert.
 
They're not just in the UK, we have them in Australia too!

That would put the theory to rest that they are a native UK species as I don't think one could have stowed away unnoticed on a convict ship. There was a big thing about them on TV and in the papers a couple of months ago - and some good footage was shown on TV. I think they are just feral (wild) cats - most people seem to underestimate how big they can grow.

You can find some fairly good coverage on

http://www.internetezy.com.au/~mj129/blackpanther.html
 
They're not just in the UK, we have them in Australia too!

That would put the theory to rest that they are a native UK species as I don't think one could have stowed away unnoticed on a convict ship. There was a big thing about them on TV and in the papers a couple of months ago - and some good footage was shown on TV. I think they are just feral (wild) cats - most people seem to underestimate how big they can grow.

You can find some fairly good coverage on

http://www.internetezy.com.au/~mj129/blackpanther.html
 
Dan - That's actually a damn good point, Dan. I'll add it straight away (if it'll let me...).

Noworries - didn't I read somewhere that most of the Australian ABCs came from a derailed circus train or something? Of course there's always the tantalising option in Australia of prehistoric survivors... there were some pretty feline-looking carnivorous marsupials in times gone by!
 
Dan -

Circus escapee would be possible, but that's a theory, no case of that as really been reported anywhere - and as far as marsupials go - these are not marsupials, it it quite clear from the pictures and the video footage that they ARE cats.

Now, if you are referring to the Tasmanian Tiger and if that is still alive - the answer is YES - but ssshhhhhh... people aren't supposed to know that...
 
Ok, it's certainly not one of them, I saw the video footage and all the fotos in the papers - for all I could tell, it was a cat. A very big, very black and very mean looking cat - but a cat none the less - and what I have seen of the UK cats - they look much the same.

Sorry, but I am not convinced that there is anything that unusual about them, it is just that in the densely populated urban areas like Sydney or the UK, people aren't used to seeing wild animals amymore - add to that the old stories about black cats and bingo - there's your "Alien Big Cat" mystery. :D
 
I don't know about Australia, but several people in the Uk have owned up to releasing Big Cats into the wild when the law changed a while back and peohibited the from keeping them.

But the other thing that intrigued me about ABC's (and has already been entioned in the forus I think) is that they often crop up close to places with Phantom Black Dog legends...
 
Found more references to historical ABCs, if anyone interested, in an article I'd overlooked, by Michel Meurger, in Fortean Studies 1. ['Leopards of the Great Turk', pp198-209].

It largely tells of French examples (including the Beast of Gevaudan, which tinfoilpants mentioned right at the beginning of this thread), but it starts with some interesting ones in Irish and Welsh mythology.

The first is a beast that resembled a "cat as big as a year-old calf", that had burning breath and a blazing tail. Saint Abban, a Dark Ages Irish monk, threw the beastie into a lake, where it appears every seven years as a demonic cat.

This story compares with the Welsh Chapalu (also known as Palug's Cat), which was a vicious kitten, which was thrown into the sea at birth, but taken back and reared by the sons of Palug. The cat, when adult, became a man-eating monster cat!

However, the article mentions that Sister Mary Donatus in Beasts and Biards in the Lives of Early Irish Saints (1934) puts these critters firmly in the dragon/water beast catergory, even though they are cat-like.

Another example given of this motif is in a 14th century French romance called Livre d'Artus, in which Merlin tells King Arthur of a killer cat that came around after a peasant brought a black kitten up on his fishing rod. He reared it and (of course) it grew to monsterous proportions, killed that family, and went to live on a mountain (there's controversy whether it was over Lake Geneva or Lake du Bourget in Savoy). Arthur, god bless his soul, went and slayed it.

There's loads more examples of French cat-like legends, but Meurger quotes from an article from Michael Goss, who looked into legendary big cats in Britain:

Accounts of significantly large felines which cannot be interpreted as unusually developed wildcats or feral equivalents are curiously scarce [in britain] prior to c.1969
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Awwwww!
 
I wonder if the absence of historical ABC's in the UK is due to the fact that the Lynx became extinct here early on? It survives on the contintent to this day. Isn't it a common feature of mythological monsters that they're huge distorted versions of creatures familiar to the original audience?
 
Good point. On the same note, we do have a load of dog-like legends, and the wolf didn't die out completely until the mid-late 18th century (if I remember rightly).
 
A very large black cat specimen is still in a museum or collection in Dorset I think. I don't remember much about it except that it was very similar to a domestic or wild cat but much larger, and classified as a seperate sub-species. Called the Kimmeridge Cat, after the area, I'm sure a photo of the preserved body has appeared in F-T at some point. Ring any bells?
 
Not heard of that... sounds reminiscent of the Kellas cat, but obviously a totally different part of Britain (and one without native wildcats to interbreed with!).
 
The History & Lore of Freaks has a bizarre woodcut of a
cat-woman from a work by one Schmuch or Schmach of 1679.

Unfortunately the text by C. J. S. Thompson is silent about
this amazing creature. She appeared to be the top part of a cat
grafted onto the ample bottom half of a woman.

The picture says Schmach and the booklist says Schmuch,
maybe they had worked out who would look it up. :(

Can't find mention of it on the Web.
 
I saw that woodcut in an FT article once. I'll have a look for it.
 
Just found this at http://www.bigcats.org/swc/what.html

Then there are the genuine big cat sightings. There have certainly been cats on the prowl in Scotland. Three lynx were reported to be have been shot or trapped near Inverness as far back as 1926, although it may have been a journalistic hoax.
Click to expand...

Anyone know about this?
 
Hey, Flower here,

For a long time now there have been strange goings on in the small village of Verwood in Dorset, which is where i live...

Strange black cats have been seen, and as well as livestock mutilations, horses have also been found severley injured! So somthing pretty big and strong has been lurking around. For a while my mother banned me from going out to feed my horse on my own because she thought i would be eaten or somthing!! The mystery continues........

Take care

Flower ;)
 
wintermute said:
In parts of Africa leopards are a real problem in urban fringe areas . . . they are very powerful animals, and an unarmed human would have no chance against one.
Click to expand...

I read somewhere that they are one of the few species of wild animals that will carry our an unprovoked attack on humans - those powerful back legs disembowelling you . . . if there were any ABC sightings of a leopard there would be no chance of mistaking it for Mrs Smith from Next Door's Tiddles . . .:eek:

Imagine one of those coming through the cat flap!

Carole
 
'Breaking News' today contains a link to the Bristol Eve Post site and a story about big cats in Somerset. The article ends by stating that pumas have been living wild in this country since Victorian times, when they escaped from menageries! Anyone ever heard this one before? What is the source?
 
Aaaaargh! The story's turned into "Huggy Bear to star in Seaside Panto"!!!!!

The version in the archive seems to have had its last sentence changed to 'There have been other sightings of big cats in the area before', which is odd.

The only verified puma on the loose that I know of is the elderly and very tame puma caught in Scotland in the 20's (?) which was named Felicity after it was caught, and spent its retirement in a wildlife park.
 
Nope... still getting Huggy Bear in panto when following that link!
 
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