• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

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
There was a report I read in the paper today that I can't find anywhere online, not even at the paper's website, that said at the Northern Scottish region around Betty Hill (no, not the UFO abductee) farmers were concerned after over a dozen of their sheep and lambs had been apparently attacked by a big cat. Shoulder injuries followed by eating the heart and lungs were seen on the animals' bodies. Anyone know any more?
 
There's obviously some kind of manual available. Or they copy their elders, who learned through a long process of trial and error lasting millennia.
 
I recalled something I saw last year. It wasn't a big cat unfortunately. However, you know when cats chew glass and then sort of throw it up again and it's all kind of frothy (yes it's horrible). Well I saw something like that, but the grass was too big for any normal cat. However it was in the tunnel leading from Charing Cross station (London) to a bridge back across the Thames, so not really a good area for any wildlife. It was just a bit odd.
 
PHOTOS: Is This Another Big Cat Sighting In Cornwall?

http://www.piratefm.co.uk/news/late...is-this-another-big-cat-sighting-in-cornwall/

Don't get too excited - it's a picture of a paw print, found in China Clay country near St Austell.

But even less exciting is a video at the end of the article about a sighting in West Sussex. Apparently taken by a cyclist with headcam, the You Tube notes say:

"myself and the oncoming blue van were met with what appeared to be a large tan-coloured creature of feline form. The cat crossed the road from the left and leapt into the farmers field.

Whilst it is not possible to see the animal in the road due to the pixel resolution of the camera at 100m distance, it is clear the van slowed down sharply from the 40mph limit to avoid hitting it. As I approached the point where it leapt out of the road, you can see me glancing to the right where the animal is actually visible in the frames."

Not to me, it isn't, and I watched the video several times, at full screen!
 
Next time I'll read the post before going straight to the photo, or in this case video. as above, there is absolutely nothing on that video, except for a glimpse of a tiny little thing in a field, which although barely visible, for some reason strongly says dog to me.
 
It doesn't look like anything other than a domestic cat to me. It's hard to get an accurate measurement of scale, but maybe the height of the foliage it disappears behind can be inferred looking at the securing cables that can be seen coming up through it. The strong impression I get though, is that it isn't outside of the range for a mog.

The tail looks long, but not long enough to be one of the 'big' cats. And it certainly isn't a lynx.
images


Edit: I've just watched the video in full screen, it's obvious that the foliage it's passing behind is very low. This is a mog.
 
It's a tabby. Clearly not a lynx (tail) and it has tabby markings. It's not impossible it's some kind of escaped exotic wildcat species, but highly unlikely since it looks like a domestic tabby. Perhaps it's a verge tabby, but that's not the same as saying it's a 'big cat'.
 
A B&B owner is appealing for help after finding a severed dog’s leg in his garden in St Mabyn
By C_Becquart | Posted: January 26, 2017

A man living in the Bodmin Moor area speaks of "complete mystery" after he found a severed dog's leg on his lawn.
Steve Collop, owner of the The Glebe Cott bed and breakfast in St Mabyn, had the most terrible surprise yesterday evening when he found an animal limb in his garden.

He said: "I went out in the garden yesterday afternoon and everything was normal. I went out again at 8pm to take the dog for a walk and there was nothing.
"But at 9pm, I saw something white on the lawn... and it was a dog's leg."

The dog's leg found in St Mabyn. This picture has been cropped as the original is too graphic to be published.

Steve and his wife immediately tried to see if a dog was missing in the area. They posted a message on the St Mabyn Facebook group page, hoping to find the owner of the animal.
The post said: "We have just found a dog's front leg on our lawn! It is fresh and it looks like it has been ripped off. It is white with brown markings possibly from a spaniel. We'll report it to the police in the morning."

Steve said he reported the gruesome finding to the police and that a vet confirmed the leg was indeed from a dog.
"It is a complete mystery," Steve said. "We don't know if an animal did this or if the dog was caught in a trap. But the foreleg looks very healthy and no dog is reported missing in the area. It is totally a bizarre thing."

http://www.cornwalllive.com/could-t...mabyn-garden/story-30089471-detail/story.html

St Mabyn is a couple of miles east of Wadebridge.
 
Mysterious ‘beast’ believed to be roaming Scottish Highlands stripping all the flesh off sheep and eating them
  • 2 hours ago
In the last five years, about 40 sheep have been found killed in the same way

A large “cat” with a taste for mutton is believed to be roaming the most remote parts of northern Scotland, stripping sheep from their skin and leaving no trace but bones and wool.

The mysterious beast's latest catch is a hefty and healthy ewe of about 50kg. Her wool was neatly peeled off her skin before it was eaten. The carcass was found less than 100 yards from a croft in Swordly at the weekend.
Click to expand...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...ly-sheep-stripped-eaten-mystery-a7616711.html
 
I have seen the way a cat will spread the feathers of a bird across a field like the wool of that sheep, leaving nothing of the prey itself - presumably dragged away for further torment and digestion elsewhere.

Do predators typically devour everything like that? Skin, intestines, everything picked clean? Those bones suggest that carrion crowd have been there and done an unusually tidy job. :huh:
 
JamesWhitehead said:
I have seen the way a cat will spread the feathers of a bird across a field like the wool of that sheep, leaving nothing of the prey itself - presumably dragged away for further torment and digestion elsewhere.

Do predators typically devour everything like that? Skin, intestines, everything picked clean? Those bones suggest that carrion crowd have been there and done an unusually tidy job. :huh:
Click to expand...

The scavengers would undoubtedly be an aspect of the clean bones, but what would kill it in the first place, assuming it did not die of natural causes? Would a worrying dog do that, or is a malicious human more likely?
 
It could have died for any number of reasons, it's pretty hard to tell just by looking at what's left. But, because it's so well cleaned out, I'd say that we see in the photo at least is the work of scavengers. There seems to be confusion according to that article at least, in people's minds between the state the animals were found in, and their cause of death.
 
Up in the hills around here you can find clean sheep skulls occasionally - the art department at my school had a collection of them for drawings. But I've never heard anyone attribute them to ABCs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top