"In British folklore, British big cats, also referred to as ABCs (Alien, or Anomalous, Big Cats), phantom cats and mystery cats, feature in reported sightings of large Felidae in the British countryside. These creatures have been described as "panthers", "pumas" or "black cats".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_big_cats
The ABC of Urban Legends (Anomalous, Big Cats)
Forward:
When I first started reading about big cats in the UK, I thought it would turn out to be a few weirdos who had been sampling the local mushrooms who were reporting the big cat sightings... However it seems it's not unusual for over 1000 sightings to be reported in a 12 month period!
Information from www.britishbigcats.org and BBCS...
Overall there were 2052 sightings reported to the BBCS throughout Britain (that's over 4 per day!)
The top 10 in the league table of big cat sightings are;
Scotland (231) Kent (141) Yorkshire (127) Wales (102) Devon (100) Cornwall (96)
Lancashire (86) Ireland (82) Lincolnshire (80) Somerset (69).
That year the BBCS was able to break down the data in several areas, and this produced some interesting facts and figures. For instance regionally the percentages of sightings were as follows;
South West 21%, South East 16%, East Anglia 12%, Scotland 11%, West Midlands 9%.
During 2002 the BBCS collected over 1,000 sightings across Britain (1,087). Approximately 1 month
With so many sightings, some from very credible sources... Is there some truth to the Urban Legend??
The Beast of Bodmin Moor.
Probably the most famous Big cat story is that of The Beast of Bodmin Moor (although interestingly not the most reported in recent times. the information above shows Cornwall 6th in the list)
First spotted in 1983, sightings of a big cat on the moor have not slowed down. Over 200 sightings have been reported with the latest I could find being in February of 2020. A woman posted on a Facebook community page saying a large dark animal ran out in front of her.
She said:
"Driving home tonight and a huge, what I thought was, a black dog ran out in front of my car near the Fowey cross turning. I had to brake hard not to hit it but now thinking it might be a black panther as it had a huge tail and long legs, very muscular."
She added:
"How I didn’t hit it I’ll never know. Lots of cars in front and behind me so like to know if they saw it too.
"It was so quick too."
A Freedom of Information Request made by DevonLive shows the following reports of a Big Cat in the Cornwall area that the Police actually attended:
Scotland:
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| Image by No-longer-here - pixabay.com |
It should be said that Scotland is home to Britain's only native Wildcat.
Historically, Scottish wildcats lived across Britain but are now only found in the Scottish Highlands.
As you can see it would be difficult to confuse the Scottish Wildcat with a Big Black Cat.
Some sightings in Scotland include:
'The Puma of the Glen' - 1980
Scotland's most famous wild big cat was a puma named Felicity. She was captured alive by farmer Ted Noble at Cannich, near Drumnadrochit by Loch Ness, in 1980.
'Beast of Banff' - 2007
A big black panther-like animal was seen only yards from the edge of Banff
Helensburgh, Argyll - 2009
An off-duty Ministry of Defence police dog handler took a video after spotting a panther-sized big cat.
'The Edzell panther'
There have been repeated sightings of a big cat which is said to be roaming Angus. In 2015, car passenger Jo Tonkinson claimed to have seen a black "leopard-sized/shaped cat" ‘stalking’ along the fence line while travelling just off the A90 near Edzell.
Bonnyrigg big cat
A mysterious large black cat which has been spotted roaming in and around Bonnyrigg in Midlothian in recent years.
Final Thought.
I could make this a never ending blog, listing the literally thousands of credible sightings! I hope by this stage though I have shown enough, that you can see that the British countryside still holds some secrets.
Big Cat sightings seemed to start in the early 1980's, and I don't think this is a coincidence....
The Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 (22 July) is a law of the United Kingdom that was originally enacted to deal with the increasing fashion of people in the late-1960s and early-1970s keeping interesting pets which were often from the more dangerous species, as well as hybrids between wild and domestic species, such as wolfdogs and Bengal cats.
The Dangerous Wild Animals Act had the unfortunate side effect of people releasing their exotic pets into the wild rather than having them put down.
One well known case of this was that of Mary Chipperfield.
Dartmoor Zoo, came forward and revealed that three pumas due to arrive there nearly four decades ago were released into the wild. The Zoo was expecting a delivery of five pumas after Plymouth Zoo was forced to close down in 1978. The pumas were supposedly given their freedom by famous circus entertainer and former Plymouth Zoo owner Mary Chipperfield. Rather than surrender them to another zoo, Mary Chipperfield is said to have released her favourite breeding pair into the wild, plus a young male to keep them company.
There must have been lots of other cases of exotic animals being released into the wild. Harrods the famous department store in London used to sell them!
The London department store's pet section opened in 1917, and rivalled London zoo with a vast array of animals which it sold for more than 50 years until most were outlawed by the 1976 Endangered Species Act .It was once the place to buy panthers, tigers and camels and even caught the fancy of Ronald Reagan, who rang up to pay for a baby elephant.
Daily Mail
A great free to watch documentary can be found on YouTube - Finding The UK's Elusive Black Cats
Next time you go camping in the British countryside and you here a strange rustle outside the tent, maybe its best not to stick your head out...
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Resources:
https://www.cornwalls.co.uk/myths-legends/beast_of_bodmin.htm
