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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
The comparison between cat and the spacing between the tyre ruts sort of gives the size away a bit there doesn't it.

Yeah it kinda does, well spotted :rolleyes::)


Yes they have, but it seems to be black domestic cats that people struggle with sizing most frequently.
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Ah interesting thank you. I saw (with other family witnesses on more than one occasion) a large whiteish cat when I was about 12 or so, it would walk along the edge of the wood some distance from where we lived, and it was too big to be a normal sized cat at that distance. Never did figure out what it was but my family didn't report it. I don't think of it often except when I see mention of ABC cats.
 
I had a couple of double takes at one crossing a farm track two days back,
a big black bugger and no mistake but I am sure it was only one of the semi
wild farm cats and you don't want to tackle one of them in a hurry.
 
Aren't they now the most likely phenomena (perhaps other than ghosts)that are most likely to be spotted by the general public?
 
I was visiting family in the north of Scotland around 14 years ago. A relative of mine described seeing a sandy coloured puma sized cat run across the road in front of her car. At that time there had been several sightings. I looked into history of sightings through different sources. There had been numerous sightings over 40 years. There had been attacks on sheep{which could also be a dog or fox?}Fast forward to around 2-3 years ago and a puma type cat was seen by a class of children and their teacher in a field behind the school. Nearby a deer carcus was found up a tree. 8 miles away from that location a wild life ranger spotted a similar cat which he described as a puma. He appeared to e the most credible witness. The area has several private estates near by owned by very wealthy people, including a wealthy middle eastern fellow. This may have relevance or may be not but people talk of private collections of exotic pets who may have escaped, ut I'm not convinced by that theory.
 
There's still a wildcat population in Scotland, not sure if they get puma sized, though if they're fast enough it may be difficult to judge scale, especially if you're shocked. Think foxes are mostly scavengers, but dogs do worry sheep if their owners aren't careful.
 
There's still a wildcat population in Scotland, not sure if they get puma sized, though if they're fast enough it may be difficult to judge scale, especially if you're shocked. Think foxes are mostly scavengers, but dogs do worry sheep if their owners aren't careful.
Judging scale is the problem with most sightings i think.
 
There's still a wildcat population in Scotland, not sure if they get puma sized, though if they're fast enough it may be difficult to judge scale, especially if you're shocked. Think foxes are mostly scavengers, but dogs do worry sheep if their owners aren't careful.
I was shocked when I saw a wildcat due to its size but they are stripy and not sandy. There is a stuffed puma in the museum in Inverness though, called Felicity.

http://scotcats.online.fr/abc/photoalbum/cannich.html

"Felicity the puma is often cited as evidence that there are non-native cats at large in the UK. Others believe that her capture was a staged event. What seems almost certain is that she was a pet who had been released recently as she was exceptionally tame. Felicity was also quite old and arthritic. After her capture, she was kept in the Highland Wildlife Park where she became quite a celebrity."
 
I bumped into this article from Australia on the issue of big cats LINK, it covers the far from unreasonable possibility that evolution may be producing some feral examples of F. Catus (the common domestic kitty) that have been breeding for larger and larger sizes due to the pressures of natural selection in the wild. Considering that some feral populations could be very old, and cat generations are quite fast, I am giving this one the benefit of the doubt for the moment.
 
I was shocked when I saw a wildcat due to its size but they are stripy and not sandy. There is a stuffed puma in the museum in Inverness though, called Felicity.

http://scotcats.online.fr/abc/photoalbum/cannich.html

"Felicity the puma is often cited as evidence that there are non-native cats at large in the UK. Others believe that her capture was a staged event. What seems almost certain is that she was a pet who had been released recently as she was exceptionally tame. Felicity was also quite old and arthritic. After her capture, she was kept in the Highland Wildlife Park where she became quite a celebrity."
My cat Angelica looked like a wildcat.
 
“Drone films ‘big cat’ prowling around British field in third sighting in one month”

I would say housecat.there is no sense of scale, but when it runs from the drone you can see the stocky compact build of a domestic cat.
 
Aren't they now the most likely phenomena (perhaps other than ghosts)that are most likely to be spotted by the general public?
Only in the UK, where big cats are not supposed to be in the wild; in, say, parts of Africa or Brazil, they would not be noticed by the general public ("With every passing year, there are more of those things here. Meh.").

Out of my... imagination, don't quote me on these, perhaps extraterrestrials and fairies are also at the top of the sightings list.
 

The animal - that Anthony estimated was as tall as his waist

He must be a very short chap.



Still can’t really see the size.
Drone films ‘big cat’ prowling around British field in third sighting in one month
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...o-watch-sighting-cornwall-drone-a8900756.html

That one, to me looks slightly bigger... not puma-sized, but on the large size for a cat. Frustratingly when it runs toward the fence the drone camera doesn't catch it; would have been very handy for sussing out the size.



"Black panther" spotted in Brechin, Angus :

https://mysterycats.blogspot.com/2019/06/sighting-scotland-woman-left-frantic.html

Looking at the satellite map of the area... the "panther" would have had to make its way through several residential areas. Surrounding countryside is mostly cultivated fields with a few small woods. I suspect a fat moggy is to blame.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/S...3a3cb8f6b600f884!8m2!3d56.729688!4d-2.6491869

It's an awfully populated area for an ABC cat to be seen in; and apparently only by these two people? (I love the detail about making pancakes.)

Would be interesting to know if any more reports surfaced (I can't find any after a quick search); surely if it really was something of interest, more people would have noticed it? To get out of that park and back to the countryside it would have to pass a lot of houses..
 
Hmm quite a lot of sightings in the second link (and I wish I'd never seen the picture of the dead animal in the first link.. :( )

These reports are spanning from at least 2001 then... different cats over the years?


Angus man Neil Wood came face to face with the region’s big cat while approaching Edzell in 2001.

He saw the panther-like beast lying on a drystane dyke at the side of the road.

I'm trying to decide whether an actual panther-sized cat could simply lie on a stone wall like that... I would have thought it would be too big?
 
Hmm quite a lot of sightings in the second link (and I wish I'd never seen the picture of the dead animal in the first link.. :( )

These reports are spanning from at least 2001 then... different cats over the years?




I'm trying to decide whether an actual panther-sized cat could simply lie on a stone wall like that... I would have thought it would be too big?


Looking AT that photo SZ, it is unmistakably the result of a cat...and quite a meal for a moggy, in fact if that is the spine of a deer, those are thoracic and lumbar vertebra on show.

That is a hell of a lot of meat and umbles to get through.
 
Looking AT that photo SZ, it is unmistakably the result of a cat...and quite a meal for a moggy, in fact if that is the spine of a deer, those are thoracic and lumbar vertebra on show.

That is a hell of a lot of meat and umbles to get through.


Seeing pictures like that turns my stomach, so your description has (inadvertently, I know :) ) not helped.

Sorry. I'm extremely squeamish about such things.

:horr:

Without using any more icky words... are you saying that would likely have to be an ABC cat, then, as opposed to a normal-sized moggy?
 
Without using any more icky words... are you saying that would likely have to be an ABC cat, then, as opposed to a normal-sized moggy?

A big roe doe might weigh 50 lbs. As a guesstimate, l’d reckon that a carnivorous animal could get 30 lbs. of edible meat off its carcase, depending on how fussy/hungry it was.

maximus otter
 
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