From a roaming "lion" in Essex to the Beast of Burnham Thorpe in Norfolk, Britain has been spotting big cats roaming the English countryside ever since the Dangerous Wild Animals Act was introduced in 1976. From this Act many owners of exotic cats such as pumas or lynx simply freed their animals into the countryside.
There is scarcely an area in Britain which does not now possess a Beast. Even the London suburbs claim to be infested with big cats: there is a Beast of Barnet, a Beast of Cricklewood, a Crystal Palace Puma and a Sydenham Panther. There have been occasional reports of mysterious British cats throughout history, but over the past few years the sightings have boomed. In her book Mystery Big Cats, Merrily Harpur finds that "cat-flaps", as she calls them, are occurring at the rate of 2,000 to 4,000 a year.
Harpur notes that around three-quarters of all the cats reported are black, and they are commonly described as glossy and muscular. Interestingly, she also makes the observation that while the most likely candidate is a melanistic leopard (the leopard is the species in which the black form, though rare, occurs most often) she has not been able to find a single account of an ordinary, spotted leopard seen in the wild in Britain!
Yet, despite extensive searches for these beasts there has not been a single clear image captured in this country. George Monbiot (author of recent book 'Feral') remarks that of the photographs and fragments of footage he has seen, around half are evidently domestic cats. Roughly a quarter are cardboard cut-outs, cuddly toys, the result of crude Photoshopping or – as the surrounding vegetation reveals – pictures taken in the tropics. The remainder are so distant and indistinct that they could be anything: dogs, deer, foxes, bin liners, yetis on all fours(!)
Monbiot contintues that there are just no photos, no captures, no dung, no corpses not even a verifiable footprint. He concludes that possibly people are seeking to see these beasts as a "hint at an unexpressed wish for lives wilder and fiercer than those we now lead".
If you have spotted a big cat, do feel free to send your photograph to OISE Oxford, oxford@oise.com
Sources: The Guardian, The Telegraph
There is scarcely an area in Britain which does not now possess a Beast. Even the London suburbs claim to be infested with big cats: there is a Beast of Barnet, a Beast of Cricklewood, a Crystal Palace Puma and a Sydenham Panther. There have been occasional reports of mysterious British cats throughout history, but over the past few years the sightings have boomed. In her book Mystery Big Cats, Merrily Harpur finds that "cat-flaps", as she calls them, are occurring at the rate of 2,000 to 4,000 a year.
Harpur notes that around three-quarters of all the cats reported are black, and they are commonly described as glossy and muscular. Interestingly, she also makes the observation that while the most likely candidate is a melanistic leopard (the leopard is the species in which the black form, though rare, occurs most often) she has not been able to find a single account of an ordinary, spotted leopard seen in the wild in Britain!
Yet, despite extensive searches for these beasts there has not been a single clear image captured in this country. George Monbiot (author of recent book 'Feral') remarks that of the photographs and fragments of footage he has seen, around half are evidently domestic cats. Roughly a quarter are cardboard cut-outs, cuddly toys, the result of crude Photoshopping or – as the surrounding vegetation reveals – pictures taken in the tropics. The remainder are so distant and indistinct that they could be anything: dogs, deer, foxes, bin liners, yetis on all fours(!)
Monbiot contintues that there are just no photos, no captures, no dung, no corpses not even a verifiable footprint. He concludes that possibly people are seeking to see these beasts as a "hint at an unexpressed wish for lives wilder and fiercer than those we now lead".
If you have spotted a big cat, do feel free to send your photograph to OISE Oxford, oxford@oise.com
Sources: The Guardian, The Telegraph
