Wild cat

Bald n Grumpy

Member
Livestock Farmer
My stalker had an article done by the Sunday Telegraph I believe about it. He had no end of hassle over it, people turning up at his local, he even had a load of anti’s rock up.
The Daily Wail offered him £40k for a dead cat plus storey but he was a tad fearful for his license as “big game” wasn’t on it and if they wanted to get funny he’d prob loose it.
Needless to say he hasn’t seen it since so not an issue to worry about
Think the chap who shot the escaped lynx near Aberystwyth a few years ago got a lot of abuse and a death threat. Hence my previous post about people not saying they've shot one
 

ImLost

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Not sure
I've seen a (very!) big cat before when I was at school, that certainly wasn't domestic. No one used to believe me after I had seen it the first time until one day whilst sat in a science lesson I was staring out of the window (standard practice for most of my school life) and saw it slip through the fence onto the playing field. Naturally I let everyone know it was there pretty loudly! Someone thought it was a black Labrador to begin with, it was that big. There was plenty of woodland corridors in the area, and loads of rabbits to feed on. The head teacher was called and we were promptly banned from going outside at lunch! It didn't hang around long, but was enough to prove to quite a few people at one time that it existed.

It's rare anyone believes me now when I tell them, but I couldn't care... I still saw it.
 

Estate fencing.

Member
Livestock Farmer
I've seen a (very!) big cat before when I was at school, that certainly wasn't domestic. No one used to believe me after I had seen it the first time until one day whilst sat in a science lesson I was staring out of the window (standard practice for most of my school life) and saw it slip through the fence onto the playing field. Naturally I let everyone know it was there pretty loudly! Someone thought it was a black Labrador to begin with, it was that big. There was plenty of woodland corridors in the area, and loads of rabbits to feed on. The head teacher was called and we were promptly banned from going outside at lunch! It didn't hang around long, but was enough to prove to quite a few people at one time that it existed.

It's rare anyone believes me now when I tell them, but I couldn't care... I still saw it.
People don’t believe me, but I know what I have seen and what has happened to stock. I’m out on the road couple of hours before dawn every day of the year for the last 15 years, so if anyone can see one it’s me, people say “I go out shooting a couple of time a year and I haven’t seen one” but spend know where near the amount of time I'm out there. We had spring watch here for 2 years, people said “now we will see if it’s out there”, but they made so much noise and disruption I think it stayed away because there hasn’t been any sightings until late this summer and then a couple of use have seen it again.
 

Bald n Grumpy

Member
Livestock Farmer
In people's imagination! Sorry! Even the cynic, I just don't believe it.
Your entitled to your opinion, I've not seen one and only seen tracks in snow, but I've seen what they can do to a sheep over night. What else will butcher and eat a lamb as cleanly without leaving wool all over a field or haul it up a tree.
IMO the sheep pictured in this post was not attacked by a cat ( to much mess made)
 

Dry Rot

Member
Livestock Farmer
Your entitled to your opinion, I've not seen one and only seen tracks in snow, but I've seen what they can do to a sheep over night. What else will butcher and eat a lamb as cleanly without leaving wool all over a field or haul it up a tree.
IMO the sheep pictured in this post was not attacked by a cat ( to much mess made)
The hall mark of a fox is usually precision butchery of the carcase (excepting cubs in the hen run, etc). Dogs usually make a mess, unless they are used to killing. There is a government report that states that a fox will kill a live healthy lamb up to 10kgs in weight.

Tracks left in the snow can be deceptive.

Foxes, crows, etc. will make a very good job of stripping the flesh from a sheep over night -- I've seen it -- and they can hunt in groups -- and I've seen that too.

I have also found a big park type North Country Cheviot tup that had been predated by foxes. There was an entry hole behind the shoulder (soft tissue classic entry point), a pool of blood below the corpse, and a lot of fox tracks. A corpse does not bleed, only a live animal. Adult ewes are attacked at lambing in this area every year.

The remains of a carcase could be carried into a tree by scavenging birds of prey. Sorry, not convinced.

With all the night vision and keen amateur fox hunters about these days, it is unrealistic to claim that none would have been shot. There are hunting groups and 'hunters' who would be only too pleased to claim that they've shot one.

You need a licence to keep big cats. If one was seen, the first thing the authorities would do would be to check licence holders for escapes/releases.

 

Bald n Grumpy

Member
Livestock Farmer
As I said your entitled your opinion, but when I talk about lambs been killed I'm not talking baby Lamb's I'm talking 40kg so that's the governments thoughts dealt with. And as for the amateur hunters (some call them valleys commandos round here) a lot couldn't catch a cold as certainly don't have the ability for the job. And a fox being a precision slaughterer🤣
 

Dry Rot

Member
Livestock Farmer
As I said your entitled your opinion, but when I talk about lambs been killed I'm not talking baby Lamb's I'm talking 40kg so that's the governments thoughts dealt with. And as for the amateur hunters (some call them valleys commandos round here) a lot couldn't catch a cold as certainly don't have the ability for the job. And a fox being a precision slaughterer🤣
You haven't done much fox control, have you?
 

Spade

Member
Livestock Farmer
Your entitled to your opinion, I've not seen one and only seen tracks in snow, but I've seen what they can do to a sheep over night. What else will butcher and eat a lamb as cleanly without leaving wool all over a field or haul it up a tree.
IMO the sheep pictured in this post was not attacked by a cat ( to much mess made)
What if had just been released as it had a tracker fitted and was novice at hunting for itself?
 

Lincoln75

Member
If you manage to drop it with a rifle dont advertise the fact as its unlikely your FAC will be conditioned to shoot anything but foxes/deer and native vermin, how ever if you shoot it with a shotgun you may be okay as generally SGC`s dont have conditions.

The same goes for shooting dogs attacking livestock.

PS it wont be a big cat .
 

Al R

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Wales
As I said your entitled your opinion, but when I talk about lambs been killed I'm not talking baby Lamb's I'm talking 40kg so that's the governments thoughts dealt with. And as for the amateur hunters (some call them valleys commandos round here) a lot couldn't catch a cold as certainly don't have the ability for the job. And a fox being a precision slaughterer🤣
Big lambs (40kg) stripped to nothing yet still warm and obvious paw prints when we had the last killing here, this was after weeks of finding texel ewes stuck ontop of barbed wire 6-7’ above ground.
The firearms department at the time said to me don’t attempt with a .22 rim fire unless you know your putting 5+ into the head and even then be prepared with a 12 bore with 36g+ cartridges in and make sure you can get somewhere safe if it turns nasty!
 

Macsky

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Highland
I was working in speyside 10 years ago and had heard stories of a big black cat but didn’t pay much attention to it at the time, until I was trundling down a track in the woods one morning on the way to feed the cows and a black cat crossed my path about 80yds in the distance, and it was only on the second glance that I realised the size of it, nose to tail it wasn’t far off the width of the track so distance didn’t matter, I had a scale, this was early spring.

What really surprised me was seeing the same thing again in the exact same spot nearly a year to the day, going the same direction!
 

Dry Rot

Member
Livestock Farmer
I was working in speyside 10 years ago and had heard stories of a big black cat but didn’t pay much attention to it at the time, until I was trundling down a track in the woods one morning on the way to feed the cows and a black cat crossed my path about 80yds in the distance, and it was only on the second glance that I realised the size of it, nose to tail it wasn’t far off the width of the track so distance didn’t matter, I had a scale, this was early spring.

What really surprised me was seeing the same thing again in the exact same spot nearly a year to the day, going the same direction!
I lived on Speyside in the 80s and I was sitting under a tree in the forestry one day eating my lunch when a very large cat walked slowly past me within half a dozen yards. It was a typical Scottish wild cat, not a puma.

When I drove down the access road to my current address for the first time, about 80 miles north of the above siting, I saw a very large cat sitting sunning itself under a whin bush, quite unconcerned by my passing vehicle. That too was a wild cat and as I was soon to discover they, and the hybrids, were not rare around here.

With everyone carrying a mobile phone these days, and most of them capable of taking photographs, it's strange there aren't lots of authenticated pictures about, especially with the Press anxious to pay large fees for them. Or are they kept secret too in case they alarm the public?:ROFLMAO:
 

Macsky

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Highland
I lived on Speyside in the 80s and I was sitting under a tree in the forestry one day eating my lunch when a very large cat walked slowly past me within half a dozen yards. It was a typical Scottish wild cat, not a puma.

When I drove down the access road to my current address for the first time, about 80 miles north of the above siting, I saw a very large cat sitting sunning itself under a whin bush, quite unconcerned by my passing vehicle. That too was a wild cat and as I was soon to discover they, and the hybrids, were not rare around here.

With everyone carrying a mobile phone these days, and most of them capable of taking photographs, it's strange there aren't lots of authenticated pictures about, especially with the Press anxious to pay large fees for them. Or are they kept secret too in case they alarm the public?:ROFLMAO:
By the time I got the phone out of the pocket and pressed the wrong buttons three times in a row with the excitement of it all the thing would have been 100yds into the woods!😂
It would have just looked like a pixelated black blob anyway
 

Estate fencing.

Member
Livestock Farmer
I was out looking for a roe with a professional stalker. We spotted a beast in woodland but both agreed there was something odd about it. After a long wait for it to get on it's feet (it was lying down, obviously!), we concluded that it was a hummel roe, i.e. a roe buck with no horns. We then decided it was better shot anyway so It was duly shot. When we got up to it, we could see that it was a big Scottish wild cat. I don't know how many deer the two of us had shot between us, but it's easy to be deceived. Strange how very few of these large felines are ever shot with all the night vision and technology around these days.
I'm no shooting man but should you really be shooting if you can't tell the difference between a cat and a deer? Should you really be aloud loose with gun if you prepared to shoot something that don't know what it was!
 

Pigken

Member
Location
Co. Durham
I lived on Speyside in the 80s and I was sitting under a tree in the forestry one day eating my lunch when a very large cat walked slowly past me within half a dozen yards. It was a typical Scottish wild cat, not a puma.

When I drove down the access road to my current address for the first time, about 80 miles north of the above siting, I saw a very large cat sitting sunning itself under a whin bush, quite unconcerned by my passing vehicle. That too was a wild cat and as I was soon to discover they, and the hybrids, were not rare around here.

With everyone carrying a mobile phone these days, and most of them capable of taking photographs, it's strange there aren't lots of authenticated pictures about, especially with the Press anxious to pay large fees for them. Or are they kept secret too in case they alarm the public?:ROFLMAO:
I normally agree/ share with majority of things you write /explain on the forum. But I am picking up here just because you have not seen one, they do not exist? I maybe missing your point.
I have never seen a Scottish wild cat, but would like to. But I have seen what I and the wife believe to be a non native big cat. That was against a fence, in neighbouring field we had seen our Collies and black labradour walk. So had certainly a good perspective of size.
You do not need to do much of a Google on big cats to see, sightings are regular enough in different places. Also which circus lady let some go in the late 70s.
 

Dry Rot

Member
Livestock Farmer
I'm no shooting man but should you really be shooting if you can't tell the difference between a cat and a deer? Should you really be aloud loose with gun if you prepared to shoot something that don't know what it was!
...and should you be criticising something you admit you know nothing about? Sometimes decisions are made by wise experienced people weighing up the probablities and applying that knowledge. In fact, now I come to think about it. isn't that how most decisions are made? Should you really be let loose with a key board when you don't know the difference between "allowed" and "aloud"?
 

Estate fencing.

Member
Livestock Farmer
...and should you be criticising something you admit you know nothing about? Sometimes decisions are made by wise experienced people weighing up the probablities and applying that knowledge. In fact, now I come to think about it. isn't that how most decisions are made? Should you really be let loose with a key board when you don't know the difference between "allowed" and "aloud"?
Because I struggle to spell I can’t have an opinion. I don’t think you should be shooting something you didn’t know what it was and that’s my opinion.
 

Dry Rot

Member
Livestock Farmer
I normally agree/ share with majority of things you write /explain on the forum. But I am picking up here just because you have not seen one, they do not exist? I maybe missing your point.
I have never seen a Scottish wild cat, but would like to. But I have seen what I and the wife believe to be a non native big cat. That was against a fence, in neighbouring field we had seen our Collies and black labradour walk. So had certainly a good perspective of size.
You do not need to do much of a Google on big cats to see, sightings are regular enough in different places. Also which circus lady let some go in the late 70s.
So where is your evidence? Plenty of people up here have seen the Loch Ness monster, but I suspect it doesn't exist. Not disbelieving that you are convinced that you've seen one any more than the jury genuinely believed the Birmingham Bombers were guilty -- and there was "evidence" in that case if you recall.
 

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