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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
Robbrent said:
It's that wonderful ambiguity that the phenomena is noted for, if someone spotted a giant pink cow (other colours are available) most likely people would laugh at them and not take them seriously (some equally bizarre sightings have have been claimed over the years, such as the Liberace UFO )

But mention an Apex predator wandering around the British countryside and see the wild goose chase that ensues, I am old enough to remember the army and big game hunters been called into the chase, the ABC in the British countryside is bizarre but it could be real but on close examination it's absolutely ridiculous , it's that lovely ambiguity
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I agree, like many Fortean happenings, it's the ambiguity that really catches the attention.

And, yes, WHY black cats? I believe that there are large anomalous creatures roaming around out there - I mean, how many people have ever seen, say, a stoat? Or a badger (alive, not roadkill). These definitely exist, but they aren't out there flashing at everyone, and many many people go their whole lives and never see a single one, so I can admit the possibility of large cats. But, why black? Far more likely to be sandy coloured, or speckled than melanistic, because there are far more of them.
 
catseye said:
I agree, like many Fortean happenings, it's the ambiguity that really catches the attention.

And, yes, WHY black cats? I believe that there are large anomalous creatures roaming around out there - I mean, how many people have ever seen, say, a stoat? Or a badger (alive, not roadkill). These definitely exist, but they aren't out there flashing at everyone, and many many people go their whole lives and never see a single one, so I can admit the possibility of large cats. But, why black? Far more likely to be sandy coloured, or speckled than melanistic, because there are far more of them.
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But badgers and stoats are a lot smaller than a panther, and their dietary requirements are a bit smaller, I would expect to see a lot more missing sheep (quite easy prey for a panther) or more remains (yes I know some have been found but again it's ambiguous) it just does not add up to a real physical thing. I have no doubt that people see them though
 
Robbrent said:
But badgers and stoats are a lot smaller than a panther, and their dietary requirements are a bit smaller, I would expect to see a lot more missing sheep (quite easy prey for a panther) or more remains (yes I know some have been found but again it's ambiguous) it just does not add up to a real physical thing. I have no doubt that people see them though
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Sheep go missing all the time though. If a farmer loses a sheep (or even a couple), they have no way of knowing - unless the remains are found - whether the sheep were poached, died somewhere inaccessible or got eaten. Carcasses are found frequently and put down to dog attack (usually quite distinctive, but not always) or natural predation after a death. Big cats could live for quite a while on much smaller prey than sheep after all.

And stoats and badgers are a lot smaller but a lot more numerous. You'd think they'd be seen more often than they are.
 
Thing is with sheep the coat can get so heavy they cant get up then they can die or
become prey to things you would not expect, rolled a few sheep upright that have
been in trouble and if you have not been right up to one you may be surprised
how big they can be.
 
Big Cats live Among Us. Wiltshire Live

‘A farmer in north Wiltshire found one morning that one of his cows had clearly given birth overnight, but the calf was nowhere to be found in the field.

He followed a trail of blood across the field, through a hedge and found what looked to have been a stillborn calf on a branch halfway up a tree. The farmer hadn’t believed that big cats were possible in Britain until that moment.’
 
RaM said:
Thing is with sheep the coat can get so heavy they cant get up then they can die or
become prey to things you would not expect, rolled a few sheep upright that have
been in trouble and if you have not been right up to one you may be surprised
how big they can be.
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Here's one who...escaped muster?

1694130835418.jpeg
 
Fanari_Lloyd said:
Big Cats live Among Us. Wiltshire Live

‘A farmer in north Wiltshire found one morning that one of his cows had clearly given birth overnight, but the calf was nowhere to be found in the field.

He followed a trail of blood across the field, through a hedge and found what looked to have been a stillborn calf on a branch halfway up a tree. The farmer hadn’t believed that big cats were possible in Britain until that moment.’
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Great article, this stood out for me:

"Several times, I spoke to or heard about pilots who fly various air ambulances and police helicopters who spotted and tracked large cats moving around the fields at night."

We seem to have reached an impasse. Those who live and work in the countryside become 'believers' after an experience or when trusted family or friends have an encounter. However, many of these witnesses do not want publicity or are in jobs whereby making such claims could damage their reputations and careers. Those who live in built-up areas and rarely venture out into the countryside or when they do stick to well-worn paths and designated country parks and thus have an incorrect view of Britain as an urbanised island bereft of 'wilderness' i.e. space for a large canine predator to live and hunt without human interference:

"There are other studies that measure land use in the UK. Following assessments between mid-2009 and early 2011, a report was published in 2011 by governments and experts from across the UK. It found that “urban areas” made up around 7% of the UK. However, it reports that in England the majority of urban areas are either greenspace, domestic garden, or rivers, canals, lakes and reservoirs.

They found that the rest of the UK is composed of enclosed farmland (40%), mountains, moorlands and heaths (18%), woodlands (12%), and the remainder a mix of freshwater, coastal and marine.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published experimental land use data for 2010. The data suggests that 12% of UK land is ‘urban and developed’, which would leave 88% for everywhere else. This is land with homes and other buildings, roads, and urban green space. The rest is agricultural land (65%), forest (13%), marine areas and coastland (2%), and the rest is either freshwater or other types of land."

https://fullfact.org/economy/has-92-country-not-been-built/#:~:text=There%20are%20several%20estimates%20of,”%2C%20using%20data%20from%202012.

Journalists are overwhelmingly in the latter category and so the media coverage is almost universally cynical and this article is a breath of fresh air to be honest.
 
RaM said:
I used to fly in light aircraft quite a bit and was often suppressed how much land and water
there is with very little habitation, driving a car about though gives exactly the opposite impression.
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Yes, the vast majority of people who travel through the countryside of Britain do so from the comfort of a seat in a car, coach or train along transport corridors. Very few of us ever venture away from these transport corridors and well-established footpaths and bridal ways, both because of trespass and also accessibility. I've posted on here before about how I discovered the remoter parts of Dartmoor were actually the densely wooded fringes accessed only by minor roads and logging tracks and populated with the occasional cottage or farm entrance. The 'central' Dartmoor roads themselves were busy with sightseers and other traffic during the day, with ice cream vans parked in lay-bys and some tors such as Haytor experiencing a steady stream of walkers throughout the day. If you wanted to find deer and big cats, it wouldn't be Haytor, that's for certain.
 
And on small rural roads the driver is to busy keeping it between the diches to see
much unless it crosses the road in front, the passenger on the other hand will spot
lots of things the driver won't.
 
Paul_Exeter said:
Great article, this stood out for me:

"Several times, I spoke to or heard about pilots who fly various air ambulances and police helicopters who spotted and tracked large cats moving around the fields at night."

We seem to have reached an impasse. Those who live and work in the countryside become 'believers' after an experience or when trusted family or friends have an encounter. However, many of these witnesses do not want publicity or are in jobs whereby making such claims could damage their reputations and careers. Those who live in built-up areas and rarely venture out into the countryside or when they do stick to well-worn paths and designated country parks and thus have an incorrect view of Britain as an urbanised island bereft of 'wilderness' i.e. space for a large canine predator to live and hunt without human interference:

"There are other studies that measure land use in the UK. Following assessments between mid-2009 and early 2011, a report was published in 2011 by governments and experts from across the UK. It found that “urban areas” made up around 7% of the UK. However, it reports that in England the majority of urban areas are either greenspace, domestic garden, or rivers, canals, lakes and reservoirs.

They found that the rest of the UK is composed of enclosed farmland (40%), mountains, moorlands and heaths (18%), woodlands (12%), and the remainder a mix of freshwater, coastal and marine.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published experimental land use data for 2010. The data suggests that 12% of UK land is ‘urban and developed’, which would leave 88% for everywhere else. This is land with homes and other buildings, roads, and urban green space. The rest is agricultural land (65%), forest (13%), marine areas and coastland (2%), and the rest is either freshwater or other types of land."

https://fullfact.org/economy/has-92-country-not-been-built/#:~:text=There%20are%20several%20estimates%20of,”%2C%20using%20data%20from%202012.

Journalists are overwhelmingly in the latter category and so the media coverage is almost universally cynical and this article is a breath of fresh air to be honest.
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And any sighting of any type of animal that is considered as rare to nonexistent by experts, but reported by locals is often brushed aside until it can't be.
 
I still find it very interesting that when i talk to acquaintances about ABCs how many people have seen one. Just normal people commuting to work in Herts or surrounding counties early morning or late at night. They are not going to the police or the papers, but they have seen something that they think is a bloody big cat. It’s just fascinating.
 
Here's the thing, there are plenty of very shy rare animals of both land and sea, but none is so rare or shy that they have never been captured or studied, if there is a population of big cats in the UK, what we need is real physical evidence, what do we get?

Ambiguity?

And as I have repeatedly observed ambiguity is the hallmark of Fortean phenomena, people are more than welcome to go on wild goose chases, and the phenomena will lay lots of false clues that send to down the wrong path, until we stop chasing it and try to understand what it's trying to tell us ( I haven't a clue )
 
Mouldy13 said:
There is at least one high strangeness report concerning an ABC, I'm pretty sure I saw it on here. The report was of an ABC sat in a clearing, surrounded by domesticated cats, almost as if in an act of worship.

Can't find it now though :-/
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That was Bastet.

There are plenty of stories of cats seeming to gather as though to discuss neighbourhood business. I suppose if a big cat turns up they'll want it to explain itself.
 
There’s two self-professed British big cat “experts” estimating that around a thousand big cats live and breed in the UK?
 
JaneD said:
That looks very like a Bengal cat. They are bigger than normal cat and usually mad as bats

those local newspaper websites are almost unreadable due to the ads
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I agree. It's a breed misguidedly (sometimes) kept as a pet. But I do find it hard to believe that none of the neighbours would know that someone in the vicinity had acquired one.
 
Druk said:
There’s two self-professed British big cat “experts” estimating that around a thousand big cats live and breed in the UK?
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To quote Sherlock Holmes

‘…it is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts…’
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Erinaceus said:
An ABC from Hampshire with pictures taken on the usual potatocam.

https://www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/news/23784046.big-cat-spotted-actress-rural-hampshire-village/

View attachment 69622
The 'big cat' spotted in Easton (Image: Charlotte Jackson Coleman)
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Well at least the photo is clear enough to see the spotting and darker markings under the eyes. So for once that you can see that it is a cat.

I agree with everyone that it is a bengal cat. This photo shows the spotted coat and darker colouring under the eyes:

1694810485102.jpeg

And its alert stance.
 
JaneD said:
I still find it very interesting that when i talk to acquaintances about ABCs how many people have seen one. Just normal people commuting to work in Herts or surrounding counties early morning or late at night. They are not going to the police or the papers, but they have seen something that they think is a bloody big cat. It’s just fascinating.
Click to expand...
Exactly the same sort of people who encounter and even get pursued by balls of light/plasma/unidentified craft in the sky, encounter ghosts and experience time-slips...
 
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