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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
Neighborhood bobcat in my backyard:
For months my elderly neighbors (I live in an Arizonan retirement community) have been telling me of a bobcat that they see coming out of my yard. I have not entirely believed them. A few days ago, I saw it. About 25 pounds, very sleek and well-fed. About 15-16 inches high at shoulder. Unconcerned as it strolled around.

Of course I didn't get a photo!
You should put out a trail cam. It's always fun to see what is cruising through the yard. I've had a few surprises.
 
Our local paper's terrible website has another alien big cat story - this time it's a panther, definitely a panther. Oh yes!

And there's a reasonaby clear - at least by the standards of these things - video footage of it.

To me? Looks like a big domestic moggy, as most of them do. It's hard to get scale from the footage, but it doesn't look 2m long or in the region of 200kg. Or anything like it. Maybe a teeny-tiny panther, or a bit more Father Ted perspective...

https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/local-news/panther-caught-camera-field-busy-8215948
 
Our local paper's terrible website has another alien big cat story - this time it's a panther, definitely a panther. Oh yes!

And there's a reasonaby clear - at least by the standards of these things - video footage of it.

To me? Looks like a big domestic moggy, as most of them do. It's hard to get scale from the footage, but it doesn't look 2m long or in the region of 200kg. Or anything like it. Maybe a teeny-tiny panther, or a bit more Father Ted perspective...

https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/local-news/panther-caught-camera-field-busy-8215948
Moggy, Kellas at a push.
 
Our local paper's terrible website has another alien big cat story - this time it's a panther, definitely a panther. Oh yes!

And there's a reasonaby clear - at least by the standards of these things - video footage of it.

To me? Looks like a big domestic moggy, as most of them do. It's hard to get scale from the footage, but it doesn't look 2m long or in the region of 200kg. Or anything like it. Maybe a teeny-tiny panther, or a bit more Father Ted perspective...

https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/local-news/panther-caught-camera-field-busy-8215948
yeah.... definitely looks like a "Garden Tiger"... aka a house cat. Maybe 20 pounds, probably less.

This kitty is doing some serious prowling. Definitely looks to be aiming to find small beasties to murder.
 

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yeah.... definitely looks like a "Garden Tiger"... aka a house cat. Maybe 20 pounds, probably less.

This kitty is doing some serious prowling. Definitely looks to be aiming to find small beasties to murder.
It is always interesting that people never stand in the field in which these cats are seen, in order to show what the flora is that they are prowling in. This field looks like it consists of small grassy clumps that if someone was to stand in it, the clumps might come to their ankles.

The person's reasoning to why no one gets a closer picture is because of fear of a big cat. Come on, they got out of their car.:roll: And the cat is across a field. They can't teleport (I don't think).
 
As regards the numerous big black cat sightings from the UK -

https://bigcatconversations.com/panthers-pumas-explained/

- and that are not images of house cats, some researchers and commentators believe them to be paranormal, which explains the lack of credible photos, road kill etc. Have to say I also veer towards this paranormal theory and so it was interesting to come across reports of black panthers being seen in conjunction with Bigfoot sightings in the 'paranormal hotspot of Chestnut Ridge, Pennsylvania:


(12:30 onwards)
 
To me the paranormal is the only explanation that fits, just the work of the great trickster having a laugh at humans again
 
To be the voice of down-to-earth reason here, like it or not, it is far more plausible that the witnesses were mistaken in their interpretation than to posit paranormally-placed large black panthers. (I'm quite familiar with the culture of the folk who live around Chestnut Ridge. They want to believe in an enchanted land. And Small Town Monsters has really gone down the toilet lately.)

But -- You do YOU.
 
hmmmm based on the description I'd guess the cat weighted around 20-25 pounds. :p
 
I wonder if we're just not so able to judge the size of an animal these days. I mean, we no longer have any real need to be able to tell a large animal from a smaller one. How many people can tell a large deer from a smaller animal at a distance? I've mistaken a deer for a hare before now, when it's been in quite high barley. Maybe we are out-evolving our need to be able to distinguish big cats and are therefore losing something of our 'snap' ability to judge size at a distance.

See also how many people see a Muntjac deer and have literally no idea what they are looking at, despite them now being quite common.
 
I wonder if we're just not so able to judge the size of an animal these days. I mean, we no longer have any real need to be able to tell a large animal from a smaller one. How many people can tell a large deer from a smaller animal at a distance? I've mistaken a deer for a hare before now, when it's been in quite high barley. Maybe we are out-evolving our need to be able to distinguish big cats and are therefore losing something of our 'snap' ability to judge size at a distance.

See also how many people see a Muntjac deer and have literally no idea what they are looking at, despite them now being quite common.
I certainly feel that once big cats in the UK became a media 'thing' then the door was opened to a multitude of dodgy sightings and hoaxes.
Then you have the self-styled 'researchers' and 'research' organisations, of which North Wales Puma watch deserve a special mention:

https://pumawatch.co.uk/glastonbury-puma-photo/

Perhaps there might be a one or two genuinely anomalous sightings in amongst their veritable menagerie of sightings, but the vast majority are borderline laughable (see photo above).

However, as ever there have been and continue to be some reputable sightings by people who would not be easily fooled. For example, the testimony of the owner of the Dartmoor Wildlife Park, who actually kept big cats and then witnessed along with others an adult puma on the loose in the area that was also seen by local landowners and affected the behaviour of livestock. Also the Forest of Dean deer census men who watched two big cats through night vision cameras and went on the record to state what they had seen.

Personally, I have no doubt that there have been big cats on the loose in the UK in the past and in the present, but in nowhere like the numbers claimed by some. Also, I do believe there is a paranormal element to this that is in some way linked to the Black Shuck legends and would account for why so many melanistic cats are seen (many of the more reliable sighting of 'real' big cats aren't black in colour).
 
Edit: oh look, right on cue:

"Some of the more memorable reports I investigated included a chicken farmer who came face to face with a panther that had got into his long shed by digging underneath the end wall. I inspected the scene down in Somerset and it will stay with me forever. The shed had a door at one end, and a row of around six large chicken coups raised off the ground with floorboards and a corridor running along the left hand side. At the far end, where the seventh coup would be was a store area. Underneath this, an animal had got in by scraping away beneath the wooden wall at the end, but then found itself unable to get into the actual coups. The farmer reckoned it had spent a night underneath his poor chickens. The claw marks on the wooden boards were around twice the size of a fox’s paw."

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/big-cats-live-among-dont-8290323
 
Edit: oh look, right on cue:

"Some of the more memorable reports I investigated included a chicken farmer who came face to face with a panther that had got into his long shed by digging underneath the end wall. I inspected the scene down in Somerset and it will stay with me forever. The shed had a door at one end, and a row of around six large chicken coups raised off the ground with floorboards and a corridor running along the left hand side. At the far end, where the seventh coup would be was a store area. Underneath this, an animal had got in by scraping away beneath the wooden wall at the end, but then found itself unable to get into the actual coups. The farmer reckoned it had spent a night underneath his poor chickens. The claw marks on the wooden boards were around twice the size of a fox’s paw."

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/big-cats-live-among-dont-8290323
Hmm.. "claw marks the size of a Foxe's paw"? that.... doesn't sound like a particularly large animal to me.
I wonder if we're just not so able to judge the size of an animal these days. I mean, we no longer have any real need to be able to tell a large animal from a smaller one. How many people can tell a large deer from a smaller animal at a distance? I've mistaken a deer for a hare before now, when it's been in quite high barley. Maybe we are out-evolving our need to be able to distinguish big cats and are therefore losing something of our 'snap' ability to judge size at a distance.

See also how many people see a Muntjac deer and have literally no idea what they are looking at, despite them now being quite common.
Well, observation is a learned skill, not an innate instinct.
 
I certainly feel that once big cats in the UK became a media 'thing' then the door was opened to a multitude of dodgy sightings and hoaxes.
^this^. I am more curious, after reading this thread for a while, as to why so much media coverage is on unconfirmed and poorly researched ABC sightings.

The majority, if not all, posted here look nothing like a cougar, lynx or bobcat. These cats may be relatively like house cats, but the smaller lynx and bobcat have distinctive features from house cat - ears and tail.

The cougar is a fairly large cat in comparison and imo more dangerous than the smaller ones. Here, we rarely have reported cougar sightings and many of the reports are often thought as possible lynx or bobcat. I would think that we'd find deer eaten if it were a cougar. A few more clues would be present as to what we are really seeing.

We have never to my knowledge had any media coverage regarding a house cat mistaken for a larger animal. Even today, my mom and I looked out the window to a feline sitting by my mom's pond. Probably 400-500 ft away. We did not mistake it for a big cat.

I think that if we dis see a bobcat from a distance, we might mistake it for a dog, but again bobcats have very short tails.

I do find it mystifying why so much media time is spent on this one odd subject.
 
Hmm.. "claw marks the size of a Foxe's paw"? that.... doesn't sound like a particularly large animal to me.

Well, observation is a learned skill, not an innate instinct.
I suspect that our tendency to see 'a big cat' when faced with things ranging from a normal sized cat to a dog, or even shadows, is an innate instinct. Back along a few hundred thousand years, a big cat would be pretty much the main danger facing humans.*

*The main 'predatory' danger, that is. Our main dangers were probably bogs, food poisoning and broken limbs.
 
I suspect that our tendency to see 'a big cat' when faced with things ranging from a normal sized cat to a dog, or even shadows, is an innate instinct. Back along a few hundred thousand years, a big cat would be pretty much the main danger facing humans.*

*The main 'predatory' danger, that is. Our main dangers were probably bogs, food poisoning and broken limbs.
Also snakes, I have more than once had a split-second's shock when seeing a small branch pretending to be a snake - and I don't particularly have a snake phobia.
 
Also snakes, I have more than once had a split-second's shock when seeing a small branch pretending to be a snake - and I don't particularly have a snake phobia.
This is true. I wonder if there's even more of a 'tendency to see snakes' in countries where snakes are still a threat to life?
 
'Big black animal' spotted on two separate occasions in Wrexham

Two members of the public have reported witnessing a "large black animal" roaming around Wrexham. The reports claim they encountered a large black cat in Rossett and on Wrexham Industrial Estate.

The first report was submitted by Mr O, who was driving on Cox Lane, Rossett, on March 3, 2023, at 2pm. He said he saw a huge black cat, bigger than most dogs but definitely a cat, run across the road and into a hedge about 20/30 metres in front of him. “Driving on Cox Lane and a huge black cat (massive…bigger than most dogs but definitely a cat, ran across the road and into a hedge about 20/30 metres in front of me.”

The second report was submitted earlier this month by Simon, who was working on a timber yard on Wrexham Industrial Estate on January 10, 2023, at 1.30am. He said he saw a big black animal standing between rows of timber, which seemed to be dazzled by the truck lights.

He said it ran away into the fields when he approached. He thought it was a large German Shepherd-type dog at first, but later realised it was a big cat, possibly a puma. Simon told Puma Watch: “I was driving a folklift truck on a timber yard just past mid night surrounded by miles of fields when in-between rows of timber there was a big black animal standing there, it seemed to be dazzled by the truck lights then ran away into the fields.”

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/big-black-animal-spotted-two-26626477

maximus otter
 
It’s funny that most of these UK ABCs are black. My googling tells me that only around 5% of all wild cats are melanistic. The most common is the quite small & slender Jaguarundi of which around 80% are black. If it’s large & black it would have to be a melanistic leopard or jaguar.

So we have the rarest types of wild cat spotted. That alone must cast a doubt on these puma/panther reports.
 
It’s funny that most of these UK ABCs are black. My googling tells me that only around 5% of all wild cats are melanistic. The most common is the quite small & slender Jaguarundi of which around 80% are black. If it’s large & black it would have to be a melanistic leopard or jaguar.

So we have the rarest types of wild cat spotted. That alone must cast a doubt on these puma/panther reports.
I have wondered about this too. Although I wonder if it's mostly 'quick glances' that lead people to believe that a creature is black, as a very stripy tabby can look black at first look, and sun shining on darker fur might look black.
 
I have wondered about this too. Although I wonder if it's mostly 'quick glances' that lead people to believe that a creature is black, as a very stripy tabby can look black at first look, and sun shining on darker fur might look black.
A beast like this one already looks nearly black in shadow. Oh hey, I have a pic of him at night. :D

Kinda hard to see except the white parts.
 

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A beast like this one already looks nearly black in shadow. Oh hey, I have a pic of him at night. :D

Kinda hard to see except the white parts.
And I bet he hides on the stairs in the dark to attempt your death? Sigh. Cats...
 
It’s funny that most of these UK ABCs are black. My googling tells me that only around 5% of all wild cats are melanistic. The most common is the quite small & slender Jaguarundi of which around 80% are black. If it’s large & black it would have to be a melanistic leopard or jaguar.

So we have the rarest types of wild cat spotted. That alone must cast a doubt on these puma/panther reports.
Hence the paranormal element and the tie-in with the large black dogs that have been encountered throughout Britain and usually with some element of red eyes and/or vanishing etc. You could argue that the big question here is why did our forebears see Black Shuck and our generation see big black cats?

Yes, we can say that people are seeing large house cats and being mistaken, however in this aspect of all things Fortean I actually know two daylight sight witnesses who are adamant about what they have seen, one of whom was on a familiar route and the other who grew up on the farmland in question. Both know their badgers from their foxes and both had the single sighting (as opposed to claiming repeated sightings) close up and, as already mentioned, in broad daylight (I have posted both their encounters on this forum before but will repost them if anyone asks).

Also, I went to a rural primary school in North Devon that as about 8 miles from one of the sheep killing locations and were the Royal Marines were deployed. The farm boys were talking about a big cat on the loose killing sheep and lambs before the media got a sniff of it, and the farmers themselves had organised armed patrols. This was before July 1979 (probably 1978?) and being 10-years-old I kind of filed it all away as "odd'. It was only later when the "Beast of Exmoor*"was all over the news that I made the connection

*actually the "Beast of the high ground approaching Exmoor", although the evidence from the sheep kills was that the animal had moved down from the high ground of Exmoor over a period of time
 
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