Alien Big Cat Found!

[bill1953]

Anyone seen this video?

http://video.uk.msn.com/watch/video/leg ... e/2gz3a1sj

I know it is incredibly easy to fake stuff these days with computer patching and all that stuff, but if it's a hoax it's a well done hoax. If it's real it looks actually bigger than the model they imaged on for comparison. Also the fox in the foreground appears wary of it.

I was on a camping holiday to England in 1976 and the tent was pitched in the middle of the Grizedale Forest. I heard something ratlling the pots and pans around and then the side of the tent (it was the old ridge type) was pushed in by something's muzzle. I could hear it sniffing. The muzzle was too round for a fox or badger. There was no sheep, goats or dogs in the area. It stood around two foot high.

I didn't move until morning when I found the pans and plates licked clean. 1976 was only a couple of years after the act that banned the keeping of big cats without having a licence and prior to that they were popular with a puma costing £160, panther £600 and a lion or tiger £2000. A firm called Birmingham Zoological Supplies sold dozens to the public. Where did they all go?

[oldjerry]

Muntjac.

( or possibly a homicidal maniac on the run from Taggert,and you had a very lucky escape!)

[bill1953]

Didn't think about any deer but on reflection I think the muzzle was too blunt. Just looked and there are Roe Deer and England's last indigenous woodland Red Deer herd in Grizedale but no Muntjacs. Also found comments about suspected alien cat shgeep kills around Grizedale. Can't be the same beast it would need to be at least 38 years old!

Never dreamed that it might be an escaped psychopathic Scotsman licking the pots. That's got me really worried!

[bill1953]

Hmmm...just looked at the video again a few times. Around 14 secs to 19 secs you can see pale areas around it's outline. This looks like patching done on a computer. I think tis fake

[Carltonian Man]

I found a dead sheep in the Snowdonia mountains some 15 years ago.
There was an area of flattened, blood-soaked grass and wool where it appeared the sheep was hit. Then 30 yards away loads more wool. Another 30 yards further still was the remains of the sheep. It’s lower saddle and haunches were skinned. The back bone was in two just above the pelvis and completely separated. The haunches were devoid of flesh right down to the bone but there wasn’t a single scrape or gnaw mark to be seen. This was hot weather in high summer and the guts were still very wet and full of maggots, I wouldn’t expect the haunches to rot before the softer tissue. The back of the neck, rear of the skull and one front shin were also stripped clean but again no scrape marks. As far as I know big cats use their rough tongue to eat instead of their teeth. Foxes and dogs tend to chew and will run off with bits (lower legs etc. sometimes to bury). Their teeth leave marks on the bone and cartilage.
Poachers, I don’t think would leave so much of the sheep behind plus the first hit area was as private as anywhere around so why move it. Also, why mess around taking meat off the bone, just remove the whole leg.
To this day I believe it was a cat kill and whatever moved a full grown sheep that far must have been fairly strong.

[bill1953]

I think your observations are indeed right. Dogs, jackals, hyenas, foxes and the like eat where they kill whil most big cats move the prey a bit away for safety, lions being the exception aas they generally hunt in numbers. Also dogs, jackals, hyenas, foxes eat the entrails first while big cats usually start on the actual meat generally on the rear or back. What you describe does indeed sound like a cat kill. People ask why are they not seen but I have climbed the mountains of Snowdonia many times and never seen a fox or badger but I know they are there too and I know too that many people go on safari and return disapointed never have seen a big cat.

[Thomzo]

I went on a tour around a game reserve in Africa a few years ago. The driver got news of a panther near the road so off we went. We stopped with at least four other buses and everyone was searching the area with their binoculars. Suddenly the panther sat up. It was not more than a metre away from us all the time and nobody had seen it hidden in the grass.

So I can quite believe that they could hide in a rural area for years without being seen.

Zoe

[bill1953]

My cat has a very fixed routine. Breakfast at 0600hrs, lunch at 1300hrs, sitting in the window at 1700hrs. One day he was missing at all these times. I kept searching the house (only five rooms) but no sign. Finally in the evening I was sitting on the stairs thinking of a leaflet campaign to see if anyone had seen him when he walked out of the bedroom and pushed past me on his way to the food bowl! Obviously he was having a duvet day. If a cat can remain undetected in a house when someone is actively searching for him, what's the chances of finding a puma in a mountain range?

Nice designs by the way Zoe

[Thomzo]

Thanks, Bill
My oldest cat does that as well. I think it's to get away from the two younger ones. The number of times I sit on the bed and the duvet underneath me complains loudly at being sat on.

Having said that, I've just realised that Shadow (mad cat number 2) is sitting on my legs, the other side of the laptop and I hadn't noticed she was there, so, if a cat can hide on your lap without being seen.....

Zoe

[bill1953]

Yes Zoe I reckon that's why they are such good predators whereas a dog races at things barking (except greyhounds)! My cat went missing a while back and I found him in a drawer where he had gone for a snooze among the underwear and socks without telling anyone and got shut in for twenty four hours before making a sad 'mow mow mow' noise.

[Thomzo]

When my ginger tabby was younger she managed to sneak into the hen house and through into the run outside without me seeing her. The first I knew of it was when the chickens attacked her and she ended up clinging onto the wire roof of the run. I was laughing so much I couldn't rescue her.

Zoe

[bill1953]

That's so funny! When I was married my youngest daughter had two ferrets (still got one) and they were in a 6 x 4 shed with a 5x four run over six feet tall. The cats used to like to lie on the wire roof on hot days as cats do. The ferrets used to climb the wire very quietly and nip them!

Bill