Wild cat

Bald n Grumpy

Member
Livestock Farmer
There's been sightings and reports of big cats for probably 50 years now, not every cat that's seen has been let go IMO they are adapting and breeding in the wild.
A lot more have been shot than people think because the men who are skilled and smart enough are not part of the social media generation and don't tell the world what they're are doing. I bet a lot of us on here know or have heard of one being dealt with
 

Dry Rot

Member
Livestock Farmer
Shot a few Scottish wild cats up here before they were protected. A local place name is "The Place of the Cat" in gaelic. There used to be a few domestic x wild cats around too, and they grow bigger than either of the parent species due to hybrid vigour. I shot one that when lifted by the back legs it's front paws touched the ground, so easily as big as a decent sized fox. It is easy to get confused about sizes when animals are seen in the wild unless there is something to compare them against. Foxes and crows will strip the carcase of a sheep in a couple of nights in winter and I've seen 4 - 5 foxed hunting together.
 

BrianV

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Dartmoor
2 daughters & a friend saw a black puma like animal cross a very quiet country road in front of their car late at night a couple of days ago here in Devon, farmers daughters so certainly know the difference between a farm cat & something far far bigger!
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
2 daughters & a friend saw a black puma like animal cross a very quiet country road in front of their car late at night a couple of days ago here in Devon, farmers daughters so certainly know the difference between a farm cat & something far far bigger!
Had a mate almost crash a car when he was living in Devon. "I swerved to avoid a massive cat", made a change from a dog or fox...
 

Dry Rot

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.
 
Shot a few Scottish wild cats up here before they were protected. A local place name is "The Place of the Cat" in gaelic. There used to be a few domestic x wild cats around too, and they grow bigger than either of the parent species due to hybrid vigour. I shot one that when lifted by the back legs it's front paws touched the ground, so easily as big as a decent sized fox. It is easy to get confused about sizes when animals are seen in the wild unless there is something to compare them against. Foxes and crows will strip the carcase of a sheep in a couple of nights in winter and I've seen 4 - 5 foxed hunting together.
I came across a big black cat asleep when I was whipping-in to a Midlands Foxhound pack. I was on in front of the drawing pack along the side of a large ravine. It was curled up asleep in a sunny spot about 50 yards below me and would be easily the size of a foxhound.
 

Estate fencing.

Member
Livestock Farmer
I really like to see it (them) I think I’ve seen 4 times in the last 15 years. The best was I was driving home from my lambing shed and it came over the wall about 6 foot bounced in the road and went over the next wall. Another night in about the same spot I hit a badger, I got out and it was definitely dead. Came back about 20 mins later and it was gone, just a blood stain on the wall.
 

Wilksy

Member
Location
East Riding
I saw the wild cat of the wolds 25yrs ago, still get the pee taken to this day, but I stand by what I saw, my mate is a big foxing man, out at least three nights a week thermal spotter and NV scope he's never seen owt and thinks it’s all bull
 

Al R

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Wales
Had a big black cat here for a few years in the autumn 15-18 years ago, saw it a few times clearing fences ontop of hedges which would be 7’ high, we’d find big texel ewes dead and stripped ontop of these fences too. Patches of gorse the dogs were well used to running through they wouldn’t go near for a few weeks and then they’d go through them again after the killings had stopped. Found a big lamb one morning stripped bare yet still warm and it was after a wet night we could see the cats paw prints plain as day and took photos, sent them to the police and they sent out 4 guys from the firearms department to walk the farm for the day 🤦🏻‍♂️ They also said 100% it was a puma/lynx. What I saw was black, a bit smaller than a lioness with a long tail about 24-30” long.
 

Danllan

Member
Location
Sir Gar / Carms
Had a big black cat here for a few years in the autumn 15-18 years ago, saw it a few times clearing fences ontop of hedges which would be 7’ high, we’d find big texel ewes dead and stripped ontop of these fences too. Patches of gorse the dogs were well used to running through they wouldn’t go near for a few weeks and then they’d go through them again after the killings had stopped. Found a big lamb one morning stripped bare yet still warm and it was after a wet night we could see the cats paw prints plain as day and took photos, sent them to the police and they sent out 4 guys from the firearms department to walk the farm for the day 🤦🏻‍♂️ They also said 100% it was a puma/lynx. What I saw was black, a bit smaller than a lioness with a long tail about 24-30” long.
Yep, have seen tracks in the valley a couple of times now, caracal / lynx size, nothing leopard sized - which is what you're describing. A large cat would take any dog to pieces, so yours were very wise not to get involved.

I am pretty certain that there are large cats around the UK, released / escaped or whatever, and some are probably breeding. In Zim leopard were rarely seen, but their tracks made it very clear that they were around pretty often. A chap near Chakari had a leopard have a go at some of his workers on a couple of occasions, nobody killed but some bad scratches and very frightened people. They tried stalking it and waiting up and got nowhere, but the tracker told them it only had three feet. Sure enough when it was eventually trapped, a front paw was missing - probably lost to a poacher's snare.

Point is, sooner or later one over here will get injured and decide that the naked apes are probably worth trying for - and then it will all be taken very seriously.
 

nick...

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
south norfolk
I’ve seen a puma here in the last month.was walking my dogs and notice a huge black cat come out of a field margin besides track onto the cut part of margin.it saw me,turned round and dissapeared back into the long grass.was no more than 60/70 yards away and defiantly a large cat,a lot bigger than my collies.ive known others who seen them or it about too.definatly no shortage of food with sheep,deer etc about to feed on and where we are in the tas valley there is no shortage of cover.
nick...
 

Robt

Member
Location
Suffolk
Had some lambs worried,initially blamed a dog, but one lamb had like claw marks on it’s hind leg and recently there has been a sighting of a big cat thought to be a puma with a tracker on In the area. How would you go about dealing with this?
Firstly before the riffle. Get a good camera. That picture if true will be worth thousands to the press at this time of boring news!.
 

Spade

Member
Livestock Farmer
So what’s the consensus of opinion where these big cats hang out…..is it woodland , gorse, hedges or long grass. Cats always like to be in a warm sunny place.
 

BrianV

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Dartmoor
Firstly before the riffle. Get a good camera. That picture if true will be worth thousands to the press at this time of boring news!.
Easier said than done 9 times out of 10 they are seen crossing roads late at night, seems almost unbelievable but far too many people I would definitely trust have over the years seen them around us.
 

Al R

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Wales
Easier said than done 9 times out of 10 they are seen crossing roads late at night, seems almost unbelievable but far too many people I would definitely trust have over the years seen them around us.
Same here, over 20 people I know had a definite look at one, one even through a rifle scope with a .22-250 but it was over 500 metres away with no backstop.
All people that had dogs and knew the size of a dog/sheep at a few hundred yards and all said a hell of a lot bigger!
I have over 60 acres of gorse here, i could have a family of them here and wouldn’t know apart from sheep deaths.
 

MrNoo

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Cirencester
Firstly before the riffle. Get a good camera. That picture if true will be worth thousands to the press at this time of boring news!.
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
 

nick...

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
south norfolk
Got a friend who cycles to work in Norwich and travels about 15 miles there and back each day.he had a puma run across the road in front of him one morning about 6.30.he nearly sh!t himself.was a local person close to long stratton who had some big cats as pets several years ago.they were never registered with council so when they escaped it was all kept quiet.can remember a farmer less than a mile from him loosing a calf to an animal and no one could explain the wounds and marks on it,but it was assumed it was one of the escaped cats.
nick…
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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