Big Cats In Britain (1980s-90s): HMG Files Released

[garrick92]

Not such a big beast! Newly discovered Government files reveal six-month investigation to prove 'monster' that stalked moors near Bodmin was actually just a cat

• £84,000 probe into Cornish 'beast' 19 years ago found it was a 12in cat
• Experts looked at photographs and videos and staged reconstructions
• Beast first 'spotted' in 1983, with at least 60 reported sightings since

By MARK DUELL FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 03:02 GMT, 15 December 2014 | UPDATED: 11:15 GMT, 15 December 2014

Despite no solid proof of its existence ever being found, it is one of Britain’s most feared animals.

But newly-unearthed records have revealed a six-month Government investigation into the Beast of Bodmin Moor proved it was far from a monster – and, rather, just a large pussycat.

The probe in 1995 into the Cornish ‘beast’ and other unknown animals reported to have been roaming Britain found there was no 'verifiable evidence' of exotic cats loose in the UK.

Sheffield Hallam University journalism professor David Clarke - an expert on contemporary myths - found the findings in a file at the Public Record Office, reported The Sun journalist Paul Sims.

The 'beast' was first ‘spotted’ in 1983, and there have since been at least 60 reported sightings. But the report in 1995 by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food declared it a phantom.

Full Story With Photographs:
And guess what they concluded?

 

[Loquaciousness]

Erm.... that they were largely sightings of domestic cats. At least in the East Midlands, where there are a number of 5-10 kilo british shorthairs roaming the countryside.

 

[escargot]

Didn't know where to post this so it's here.

On R4's Ramblings today: a discussion of Alien Big Cats between expert Rick Minter and presenter Clare Balding, who has witnessed one herself -

Big Cats! Rick Minter in Gloucestershire

Do big cats roam the British countryside?

It’s a long running debate, one that’s never far from the headlines.

A few years ago on Ramblings, Clare saw what she described as an “enormous black cat” on a walk near Ross on Wye.

Several newspapers followed this up, as did the ‘Big Cat Conversations’ podcast which is hosted by Rick Minter: he set up a camera trap close to Clare’s sighting and made contact with Ramblings.

So, for today’s walk, Clare and Rick explore the area around Selsley Common in Gloucestershire and discuss why he’s so sure big cats do exist in rural Britain.

 

[Nosmo King]

Didn't know where to post this so it's here.

On R4's Ramblings today: a discussion of Alien Big Cats between expert Rick Minter and presenter Clare Balding, who has witnessed one herself -

Big Cats! Rick Minter in Gloucestershire

Any update on the camera traps?

 

[escargot]

Any update on the camera traps?

You know as much as I do!

 

[Mr. Banooka]

https://www.warringtonguardian.co.u...ghting-near-manchester-ship-canal-warrington/

A friend of ours house backs onto the banking of the old railway line mentioned in the article. She’s keeping her eyes peeled.

 

[sdoig]

Our cat measured exactly three feet from nose to tip of tail. He was partly maine coon so he had an immense bushy coat and weighed just under a stone. He was a house cat, but I often wonder if he had got out and was seen on a ridge/ horizon somewhere in poor light if he could have been mistaken for an exotic species! Notice that some maine coons actually approach 4 feet in length which is the length of an average eurasian lynx (though not in weight!)

(my beloved cat died a few years ago - he was only 11 but his heart was too small for his big frame. ....)

 

[Quercus]

Never seen an ABC myself, nor encountered anyone else who thinks they have... but a number of years ago there was a very large, very oddly-proportioned black cat who appeared in the street on a semi-regular basis.

Rather flippantly, we called it 'The Panther' - and although it was unquestionably just a domestic cat, I did often wonder what my first thought might have been if I'd encountered it in the dark, with nothing in the immediate vicinity to give it scale.

Its head and front legs appeared relatively normal, but its body and back legs appeared huge, and its back end oddly rectangular in shape.

What was also peculiar was that other cats in the street, on encountering it, would press themselves flat to the ground until it moved on.

It was around for several months, both day and night, and I was slightly wary since we had quite an elderly cat at the time, and my concern was that The Panther might attack her. But it didn't, and after a while, we just didn't see it again.

I think I took some photos of it one day; I'll have a look through the old hard drive and see if I can find them.

I like cats, and I've seen a lot of cats, but never another like this.

Nothing at all supernatural, but a singular feline nonetheless.

 

[Quercus]

Pics as promised.

These were taken one afternoon in June 2012 using a compact digital camera with zoom function - I'm not suggesting that this is in any way an explanation of what others claim to have encountered as an ABC, but it just struck me as an unusually shaped domestic cat.

I've made the pics smaller so I can post them on the thread but left the pics uncropped and otherwise unaltered so you can see the scale of 'The Panther' in relation to the other cats, and the cars in the street (anonymised).

I've known a few Maine Coons and Norwegian Forest Cats, and British Shorthairs, but I don't think their breed characteristics or coat match this one. Just a very big black cat!