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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: 58 47.9%

  • 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 5.0%

  • Misidentifications of big dogs, normal cats etc

    Votes: 30 24.8%

  • A big hoax

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Summat else

    Votes: 4 3.3%

  • All of the above

    Votes: 23 19.0%
  • Total voters
    121
Druk said:
Underground men are troglodytes so no,that’s a different discussion,plus that theory is yours and yours alone,we need to get to the bottom of this.
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I think people keeping illegal cats and letting them out for a run in the woods and getting them back again is @catseye 's conjecture. People who are still keeping illegal big cats is a slightly different matter. They certainly won't report an escape and maybe the whole ABC story actually helps them. If no one thinks ABCs roam the British countryside then an escape will be unusual and may be extensively investigated. If ABC stories keep turning up in the press then it's just another silly season story.

After all Felicity must have been an illegally kept big cat.
 
Tunn11 said:
I think people keeping illegal cats and letting them out for a run in the woods and getting them back again is @catseye 's conjecture. People who are still keeping illegal big cats is a slightly different matter. They certainly won't report an escape and maybe the whole ABC story actually helps them.
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That is exactly what they wouldn't do. As I mentioned in my earlier post, the tiger owner never reported that his animals escaped, it was the neighbours who saw them out who reported it.
 
Tunn11 said:
After all Felicity must have been an illegally kept big cat.
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Felicity was an illegally kept cat,a vet concluded she hadn’t been living wild long,and she used to purr when stroked,that was 43 years ago,I suspect there are less unlicensed cats in the UK currently,and better secure accommodation for any that are kept.
Who was the bloke years ago,DEFRA licenced him to try and find evidence of big cats,used belisle foot-snares,used to be on TV at times?
 
Sorry guys, there has been so much conversation recently, I tried to scroll back to remind myself - who is Felicity?
 
Quentin Rose quote from 23 years ago,he also appeared in a BBC program on ABC’s.
6F9977D0-4765-45C1-8827-598AEB95502F.jpeg
 
It’s not possible to ‘prove’ there are no ABCs in the UK. All we can do is examine each case as it comes along, most of which are found wanting.
 
catseye said:
I think this statement is missing the addition of 'In My Opinion' in a few places...
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He never found proof of an ABC and passed away without ever getting the evidence he sought.He is on this program from 20+ years ago and still Nada.
 
Also, At dead bodies least two Lynx have been found in Britain, one was preserved in the basement of a museum (1. below) and one more recently found by Police in a Norfolk gamekeeper's freezer (had been shot). So we know of another two escapees or illegal pets dumped in the 'wild' (2.)

1. "April 2013

The rediscovery of a mystery animal in a museum’s underground storeroom by an undergraduate at the University of Bristol proves that a non-native ‘big cat’ prowled the British countryside at the turn of the last century."

So unlike UFOs we do have proof of ABCs in Britain but they are almost certainly escapees.

https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2013/9321.html

2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/4830320.stm#:~:text=The Norfolk Police report supports,police operation, the report says.
 
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Paul_Exeter said:
Also, At dead bodies least two Lynx have been found in Britain, one was preserved in the basement of a museum (1. below) and one more recently found by Police in a Norfolk gamekeeper's freezer (had been shot). So we know of another two escapees or illegal pets dumped in the 'wild' (2.)

1. "April 2013

The rediscovery of a mystery animal in a museum’s underground storeroom by an undergraduate at the University of Bristol proves that a non-native ‘big cat’ prowled the British countryside at the turn of the last century."

So unlike UFOs we do have proof of ABCs in Britain but they are almost certainly escapees.

https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2013/9321.html

2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/4830320.stm#:~:text=The Norfolk Police report supports,police operation, the report says.
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Quite a while ago Paul,and only two specimens in decades.Canadian lynx are a lot smaller than leopard or mountain lion which in Canada are often huge,I it’s a stretch to believe specimens like this are mouching around the Dorset countryside.
2730434F-2BC4-42A5-9B6F-1A6E3B492222.jpeg
 
Druk said:
Quite a while ago Paul,and only two specimens in decades.Canadian lynx are a lot smaller than leopard or mountain lion which in Canada are often huge,I it’s a stretch to believe specimens like this are mouching around the Dorset countryside.
View attachment 70397
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But I don't think we can move the goalposts by saying 'it was ages ago' or 'those cats are much smaller'. The topic is ABCs, not 'only ABCs in the last ten years that are bigger than an Alsatian.'

There may well be smaller ABCs (not housecat sized, bigger than that, but smaller than, say a cougar) that are about, crossbreeds between moggies and the more exotic pets like Bengal cats or Maine Coons. They are alien (to the UK), big (bigger than a housecat) and definitively cats.
 
catseye said:
But I don't think we can move the goalposts by saying 'it was ages ago' or 'those cats are much smaller'. The topic is ABCs, not 'only ABCs in the last ten years that are bigger than an Alsatian.'

There may well be smaller ABCs (not housecat sized, bigger than that, but smaller than, say a cougar) that are about, crossbreeds between moggies and the more exotic pets like Bengal cats or Maine Coons. They are alien (to the UK), big (bigger than a housecat) and definitively cats.
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But they aren’t “Big cats” and one of the lynx was over 100 years ago,why stop there,why not go back to sabre tooth tigers?Because they are history,and not modern history,I am talking about the here and the now,what’s mainly reported which is normally mountain lion and black leopard,and does anyone actually believe mountain lion live and breed in the UK?
DBC2B810-88A4-441B-9553-AC9F916BEDB5.jpeg
 
Druk said:
But they aren’t “Big cats” and one of the lynx was over 100 years ago,why stop there,why not go back to sabre tooth tigers?Because they are history,and not modern history,I am talking about the here and the now,what’s mainly reported which is normally mountain lion and black leopard,and does anyone actually believe mountain lion live and breed in the UK?View attachment 70416
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I think what are reported are only described as mountain lion and black leopard as frames of reference. Everyone has a mental image of a mountain lion and a leopard. Given the tendency of humans to overinflate, I think we'd less be looking for ACTUAL mountain lions or leopards, and more 'larger than average, to dog-sized cat-shaped creature in a sandy colour or black'.
 
catseye said:
But I don't think we can move the goalposts by saying 'it was ages ago' or 'those cats are much smaller'. The topic is ABCs, not 'only ABCs in the last ten years that are bigger than an Alsatian.'

There may well be smaller ABCs (not housecat sized, bigger than that, but smaller than, say a cougar) that are about, crossbreeds between moggies and the more exotic pets like Bengal cats or Maine Coons. They are alien (to the UK), big (bigger than a housecat) and definitively cats.
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Cough! "Kellas cats" cough!

Technically a puma isn't a big cat either. Perhaps just Out of Place Cats is a better term?
 
Tunn11 said:
Cough! "Kellas cats" cough!

Technically a puma isn't a big cat either. Perhaps just Out of Place Cats is a better term?
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True, true, didn't mean to diss the Kellas, but I assumed they were a bit smaller than the cats we're talking about here?
 
catseye said:
True, true, didn't mean to diss the Kellas, but I assumed they were a bit smaller than the cats we're talking about here?
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:) Just using it as a proven example of an interspecific hybrid and although they are not big by definition or actual size they may have precipitated all sorts of stories and legends, cat-sith, etc.
 
catseye said:
I think what are reported are only described as mountain lion and black leopard as frames of reference.
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No,two of the go-to big cat experts for news reporters in the UK,both authored books on the subject,specifically say mountain lion and leopard are thriving in the UK,one was stalked up to a few meters away by a mountain lion recently in Dorset.
 
Published author on big cats,seen litters of leopard cubs in the UK,saw big cats often in the UK and even found a dead 9 foot long cat on a UK road,now stalked by a mountain lion in Dorset.
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMjQjAYNV/
 
I'm in touch with a lady who (in the USA) once kept a Mountain Lion as an exotic pet! However as we only play a version of Scrabble-alike online at a distance I am cautious of plying her with too many questions.
 
Druk said:
Published author on big cats,seen litters of leopard cubs in the UK,saw big cats often in the UK and even found a dead 9 foot long cat on a UK road,now stalked by a mountain lion in Dorset.
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMjQjAYNV/
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I can see the toenails in those 'pug prints' so not a mountain lion, see for example:

https://www.thebangoraye.com/big-cat-or-big-dog-online-debate-after-paw-prints-found-at-rhiwlas/

Also would maybe be better for field researchers to stay away from gimmicky platforms like TikTok if they want t be taken seriously
 
Paul_Exeter said:
I can see the toenails in those 'pug prints' so not a mountain lion, see for example:

https://www.thebangoraye.com/big-cat-or-big-dog-online-debate-after-paw-prints-found-at-rhiwlas/

Also would maybe be better for field researchers to stay away from gimmicky platforms like TikTok if they want t be taken seriously
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He isn’t just a researcher,he is britains foremost ABC expert,but anything a little quirky he latches onto,been in national newspapers for eating roadkill (that’s why he stopped when he found the 9 foot leopard dead on the road),used to get alien visitations to chat to him about the future of the planet,seen more big cats and litters of cubs than anyone else in the UK.
 
AnonyJ said:
I'm in touch with a lady who (in the USA) once kept a Mountain Lion as an exotic pet! However as we only play a version of Scrabble-alike online at a distance I am cautious of plying her with too many questions.
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Go on - ply/pry away! - we need full details.
 
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