Do you believe that we have large wildcats living in the UK? Everyone now and then a video seems to surface seemingly showing a large cat, often attacking farm animals.
There have always been rumours of a Surrey puma for example, although these rumours seem to have lasted for about 40 years which is obviously fairly long for a puma to live! So unless the large cats are breeding the rumour dosen't seem possible - although if they were breeding surely we would be more aware?
That said, I've spoken to many people who swear that they have seen a big cat in the countryside. I've never seen one myself though and I do find it hard to believe.
I would be quite skeptical that a puma/mountain lion/cougar would be at loose in the UK.
Having said that, it's the absence of proof that makes it hard to disprove! If they were to be found in the UK though, I think that their presence would have eventually been scientifically noted, through scat, hair, or even claw marks (like most cats, pumas mark their scent by scraping earth over their scat, and they also use trees as scratching posts). I've read the reports of the 'large, cat-like' animals being spotted and filmed, but a competent scientist should be able to find hair (not to mention scat) near to the kill, and be able to determine the species.
This is not to say that large cats like the puma could not exist in the UK, I think they could quite successfully exist in Scotland, for example. Normally pumas require rocky areas (because they den up in caves), and they can live in quite cold areas (they are found quite far north in Canada).
Absent a real, live puma/cougar/catamount/mountain lion, however, I would suspect that the killers of the livestock are dogs...
Kingfisher
The countryside just isn't big enough to hide cats like these for so long. Like Kingfisher says there really is no scientific evidence of any sort (not that I have heard anyway).
I believe that there's a puma or something similar living on the moors near Bodmin, they call it the '
beast of Bodmin', pictures have been taken, but it could be a household cat looking by the pictures.
I believe that that's what we've been discussing, the so-called 'Beast of Bodmin', but I really don't think it's a puma. Supposedly there have been discoveries of kills made by this creature, but no one has come up with any scientific proof.
Put in the category of 'Loch Ness Monster', for the moment at least
.
Kingfisher
The only place I could believe that wildcats could possibly live is in Scotland where there is much more open land for them to hide in. Even then, it seems strange that no real evidence has been found. Rumours like the "Surrey Puma" in my opinion are simply nonsense.
I would love to have wildcats in this country but unfortunately until there is some real evidence I won't "believe".
Rumours like the "Surrey Puma" in my opinion are simply nonsense.
I have to say that I do agree with you on this, but I can't explain the many people claim to have seen a large cat in that area - I know a few myself and they are completely sane, honestly. 
In fact I was driving thorugh Surrey once when I looked up in the trees and gasped when I saw a jaguar laying on a branch directly above me. Luckily, it was just a model put up by a humorous resident!
Unfortunately Xeract does not have a smiley for:
Rolling on the floor laughing madly out loud!
At least someone's got a sense of humour about the whole thing, eh?
Kingfisher
In fact I was driving thorugh Surrey once when I looked up in the trees and gasped when I saw a jaguar laying on a branch directly above me. Luckily, it was just a model put up by a humorous resident!
I would imagine accident rates on that road rose quite sharply after that was put up!
Sorry to dig up an older thread but I just thought I'd let you know I've heard several people say they have sighte a big cat around where we live so the rumour lives on!
Rumours are SO hard to kill. When do these people say they've seen the big cat? Where? Had they been drinking just prior to observing
? Any physical evidence?
My husband and I have a chuckle every once in a while about a man we know, who claimed that he had seen a cougar cross a logging road in front of him, then witnessed it stopping, turning, and running back to the other side of the road.
I don't think so!
Cougars are notoriously shy. I have been hiking/roaming the woods for almost 50 years, and I have yet to see a cougar. I've seen three bobcats, another notoriously shy cat, but no cougars.
On the other hand, it is fun to think about big cats roaming the UK.
Kingfisher
The rumours will never stop, partly because rumours in general are so hard to kill and partly because as Kingfisher says it is exciting to think of large cats wandering around the countryside. It is so easy to get fooled into thinking something is larger than it is, especially if it is gloomy or you glimpse the animal in the bushes.
I thought people may be interested in hearing that there has now been some harder scientific evidence that there are some big cats roaming around Britain. Ros Coard of the University of Wales examined teeth marks left behind on some prey and found several examples of where almost certainly killed by a medium-large cat. The teeth marks were definitely not dogs or lions, but could have been an animal like a leopard.
Definitely some food for thought!
There was a story recently & I can't remember where it was exactly about a boy outside & he was attacked I am not sure if the mother saw it also but the report seemed credible.
Wow, I have always dismissed things like this as old wives tales, maybe there is some truth behind them! I still find it hard to believe that there are medium sizzed cats roaming around, but its hard to dismiss it if science has proven that teeth marks belonging to them exist on dead animals.