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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
We're still lacking a scale. That's always the issue. The forward-facing photo looks very domestic-cat-like. I am entirely unconvinced by the pawprint because it could be from anywhere and is not explicitly connected to the animal in the video.
I tend to agree, but the vid wouldn't play for me, so I could only see the pics which have nothing but the grass to guess the size by. I would like to know the grass height. Other than looking very fit and muscular, without scale, it can be a regular cat.

I finally got the vid to play for me. The scale is still a question for me.
 
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I dont get the feel of kitty from that one.

(Dont they have giant ferals in Oz?)
 
An enormous black panther... yeeeessss of course. Looks like a slinky mog to me. Funny how these cats are never walking directly past something of a known size.
 
I dont get the feel of kitty from that one.

(Dont they have giant ferals in Oz?)

We do get some big feral cats here - more the exception than the rule though Kondoru. I suppose that all it would take is one or two of those large forest cats from nor'west Europe to go pinkeye up North, here, and I reckon that we'd be in trouble.
 
I'd hazard that print has clawmarks. And that would make it a dog's not a cat's.
 
Is it just me, or can I see a white chest stripe when It turns for the first time, and looks at the 'filmer', and a partial glimpse the second time?
I thought that as well.
I did a doubletake and watched it again to make sure.
It had looked more like the real thing before that and when it turned, it's head was too fine for a panther.
 
Meanwhile ... And on a lighter note ...
Police responding to loose panther report find stuffed toy

A British police department said officers responding to a report of a "large apex predator" -- a black panther -- in a public park arrived to find the supposed dangerous animal was only a stuffed toy.

Horsham Police said officers were summoned to a park in the Steyning area of West Sussex, England, on a report of a big cat on the loose. ...

The department said the officers who arrived at the scene didn't immediately realize that what initially appeared to be a black panther was actually a stuffed toy.

"Reports of a large apex predator in the Steyning area turned out to be true," Horsham Police tweeted. "It may be a stuffed toy, but the attending officers didn't necessarily know that at first."

SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2020/0...anther-report-find-stuffed-toy/3161595611949/

Tweet (With Photo):
 
Since the caller is unknown, would you guess the prankster called the police or a passerby thought this was real?
I'd say the former is certainly possible, to make sure the act is fulfilled. But there are several cases of the latter being true for toy big cats. It's amazing what people "see" when their brain assumes the worst.
 
Genuine question, given the range, the prey and a few generations, what would be the upper size limit of domestic moggies gone feral?
 
Genuine question, given the range, the prey and a few generations, what would be the upper size limit of domestic moggies gone feral?
Here's a few. (These are all kill shots)


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All proper mammals are considered pests in Australia. Even people.

Except maybe sheep.
 
Do you know why these cats have been killed? Are they considered pests?

G'day stillill,

There are approximately 6.5 million feral cats in Australia.

It has been estimated by the intelligentsia, that one feral cat alone will kill yearly, over 700 birds, lizards, and small quadrupeds each. That is a very conservative estimate at only 2 Australian native animals a day killed.

That will average out at about 4,500,000,000 small native animals killed each year by an ever breeding stock of feral cats...then we have the wild dogs that are decimating small and not so small quadrupeds, then there are the feral pigs...and camels, and donkeys.

I see the need to have any feral cat shot on sight, the same with feral dogs - Note Well: I don't see the Dingo as a feral dog.

The feral Cat is considered by nearly all, as a death machine, and to give you an idea of it's rapacious capacity, google Stomach contents of an Australian feral cat.

The above estimate is nothing when the gut tally of a feral cat is seen.
 
G'day stillill,

There are approximately 6.5 million feral cats in Australia.

It has been estimated by the intelligentsia, that one feral cat alone will kill yearly, over 700 birds, lizards, and small quadrupeds each. That is a very conservative estimate at only 2 Australian native animals a day killed.

That will average out at about 4,500,000,000 small native animals killed each year by an ever breeding stock of feral cats...then we have the wild dogs that are decimating small and not so small quadrupeds, then there are the feral pigs...and camels, and donkeys.

I see the need to have any feral cat shot on sight, the same with feral dogs - Note Well: I don't see the Dingo as a feral dog.

The feral Cat is considered by nearly all, as a death machine, and to give you an idea of it's rapacious capacity, google Stomach contents of an Australian feral cat.

The above estimate is nothing when the gut tally of a feral cat is seen.

Well said.
 
Genuine question, given the range, the prey and a few generations, what would be the upper size limit of domestic moggies gone feral?
There was a famous incident of a big cat in Victoria, I think covered in FT, where all that was left was a 3 foot tail taken as a trophy by the person who trapped it. When the DNA was sequenced some time later, it turned out to be a domestic cat. That's a pretty big tail for a moggie, and suggests a body around 4 or so feet at least.
 
We're still lacking a scale. That's always the issue. The forward-facing photo looks very domestic-cat-like. I am entirely unconvinced by the pawprint because it could be from anywhere and is not explicitly connected to the animal in the video.

The only issue with it is it does not look like an average domestic cat. The pronounced shoulders and hind legs look like they are designed to bring down larger game rather than rats, birds or rabbits.

The face looks domestic though.
 
We're still lacking a scale. That's always the issue. The forward-facing photo looks very domestic-cat-like. I am entirely unconvinced by the pawprint because it could be from anywhere and is not explicitly connected to the animal in the video.
This Cat seems as though it is some kind of hybrid, it has normal cat-like moves but shows that it has much stronger hind muscles than the norm?
 
There was a famous incident of a big cat in Victoria, I think covered in FT, where all that was left was a 3 foot tail taken as a trophy by the person who trapped it. When the DNA was sequenced some time later, it turned out to be a domestic cat. That's a pretty big tail for a moggie, and suggests a body around 4 or so feet at least.

If you had a cat tail of 3 ft it'd give the animal a length around that of a large male lion. The tail was in fact reported to he 60cm, and if that's the only part preserved it sounds to me at least that it's more likely to be a mog with a long tail.

Edit: I've just checked, this tale has a backstory to quite literally send you scrsaming off into the bush at night to find somewhere to hide.

2nd edit: I've just seen photos of this animal, it was a large feral though.
 
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G'day stillill,

There are approximately 6.5 million feral cats in Australia.

It has been estimated by the intelligentsia, that one feral cat alone will kill yearly, over 700 birds, lizards, and small quadrupeds each. That is a very conservative estimate at only 2 Australian native animals a day killed.

That will average out at about 4,500,000,000 small native animals killed each year by an ever breeding stock of feral cats...then we have the wild dogs that are decimating small and not so small quadrupeds, then there are the feral pigs...and camels, and donkeys.

I see the need to have any feral cat shot on sight, the same with feral dogs - Note Well: I don't see the Dingo as a feral dog.

The feral Cat is considered by nearly all, as a death machine, and to give you an idea of it's rapacious capacity, google Stomach contents of an Australian feral cat.

The above estimate is nothing when the gut tally of a feral cat is seen.

The irony is that we brought them over and we are far more destructive.
 
If you had a cat tail of 3 ft it'd give the animal a length around that of a large male lion. The tail was in fact reported to he 60cm, and if that's the only part preserved it sounds to me at least that it's more likely to be a mog with a long tail.

Edit: I've just checked, this tale has a backstory to quite literally send you scrsaming off into the bush at night to find somewhere to hide.

2nd edit: I've just seen photos of this animal, it was a large feral though.
Apologies, I was going from memory. I do remember it was fecking massive, though. 60cm is not to be sneezed at. That's at the upper range for cats I've owned for total body length tail included. (Then again, a Maine Coon easily gets much bigger than that.)

[EDIT] Just found a news article on it from 2005. 1.5 metres is way too big for a domestic cat. You can see why people think there are panthers out there.
 
The irony is that we brought them over and we are far more destructive.
The real irony is that compared to the rabbits and mice, the feral cats and dogs are practically benign.

Still need to get rid of them in whatever manner we can. I like having pet dogs and cats, but I'm keeping the cats inside, and the dogs in the backyard, and spaying them.

Wouldn't say no to a pet quoll, though. Probably not at the same time as a cat or a dog.
 
There was a famous incident of a big cat in Victoria, I think covered in FT, where all that was left was a 3 foot tail taken as a trophy by the person who trapped it. When the DNA was sequenced some time later, it turned out to be a domestic cat. That's a pretty big tail for a moggie, and suggests a body around 4 or so feet at least.


evolution in action? bringing down bigger prey, Wallabies etc needs a bigger more muscled beast, i have to say the musculature of the cat in the film looks pretty impressive
 
Interesting theory in the latest FT in the Fortean Library section, about an 80s book that posited ABCs are actually indigenous creatures which have lasted since ancient times, when they were more common in the countryside. However, while that could include lions, I don't think black pumas were ever native to the British Isles.
 
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