Big Cats

If there are big cats out there, wouldn't they operate as we see the big cats do in Africa.  Have a territory in which they hunt.  I know it is differant because some cat types would be following herds of  grazing animals, but others are very territorial.  So couldn't the size of the territory be worked out and then checked for further sightings?

I think we need to get a few sighting cases together and get them on our maps.

Most modern felines are very adaptable. For example most people think that all lions behave like the Serengeti lions just because so many books have been written about them and pretty much every other nature documentary is about their lives. But the truth is that the Serengeti lions are an anomaly: for example lions in many parts of Africa have a preference for larger preys (buffaloes, giraffes, even elephants) and so the larger males play a vital role in the hunt.
Leopards are very stealthy beasts capable of astounding feats and usually hunt at night. They are also "generalists", able to feed without problems on a variety of preys: sheep, large birds, rabbits, deer etc. As their geographic distribution points out they have no problems adapting to a variety of enviroments. I wouldn't be too surprised if a serious sweep of Britain's countryside turned out more than a couple of melanistic leopards.
But the problem with leopards is that they are large (and I mean alarmingly large) and most sightings hint at considerably smaller beast.
That's where problems kick in. The Kellas cats are well documented and, although they have different body proportions from an ordinary feral, they are no bigger than an ordinary tomcat or wildcat. A lynx would be a good match in size but these beasts are unbelievably stealthy and have such marked characteristics (long legs, stubby tail, prominent ear tufts etc)  as to make them unmistakeable when sighted. Pumas (the usual suspects) are too big, too muscular and, what's more important, melanism have never been confirmed, so they cannot account for the ubiquitous black beasts.
Which leads us back to Kurt Engel's colossal feral: how large can a feral cat grow?

As far as cat size goes (can't comment on big wild cats, the Puma being native around here) domestic cats can grow fairly large, depending on the breed or breeds involved.  I do recall having heard of domestic cats in excess of 30-40 pounds.  How big is the biggest?  I do not know.

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Latest sighting of a big cat below. Have read a couple of accounts of this story today and they seem to differ in reporting the cat as being a domestic, a domestic/wild cross, a wild cat, and a Big Cat!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7791419.stm

Apparantly "New information revealed under the Freedom of Information Act by the Forestry Commission has confirmed two reliable sightings of large cats" in the Forest of Dean area. 

Sauce: 
http://www.stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk/search/?search=big+cats
http://www.stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk/search/4026338.Big_cat_fears_spark...

What do people think?

Thanks Columbine.  I think I had better start getting some of these big cat sightings up as gazetteer pieces and start mapping them.

I wonder if the "Jeffries" cat is the same as the Geoffry Cat.  The Geoffry cat isn't a very large wildcat, average 10 pounds and is native to S. America.  They do have a black phase.

Personally I'm beginning to wonder if there isn't a very rare black phase to the cougar.  My vet tech has seen a very large black cat that got up under her porch.  Diane and her family leave next to Wattensaw Wildlife Management Area and this cat ran back in that direction.  This black cat was as large as the rescued Rottweiler she had at the time.  Her son William also saw a large black cat on a different area of the property.  Both times the cat had a tail so were not black bobcats.  Other family members plus their neighbors have heard the "panther scream" from time to time.  My thoughts on it have run from it being an escaped black leopard or jaugar, black jaugar that managed to migrate up to Arkansas (farthest north they have been reported is along the Mexican border), a black phase cougar (previously undescribed) or an undescribed wildcat or hybrid. 

I didn't see the article they are referring to above from Fortean Times but perhaps your right and it was a Geoffry Cat. 

A report of a fresh sighting, which I spotted in the Daily Mirror yesterday:

A big black cat pursued two schoolgirls after they saw it by a tree in woods, scared 15-year-old Kim Howells said yesterday.

The "Great Dane-sized" animal followed her and cousin Sophie Gwynne, eight, home to Ruspidge in the Forest of Dean, Glos - where puma-like beasts have been sighted before.

That does sound like something a Puma would do, though only if it was more curious then hungry.  Otherwise one of those young ladies might have met an unfortunate end.  I know they can chase a dirt bike over short distances, if they're really determined.

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