How Many 'Exotic' Cats and What Types In The UK?

 There is a reason I had a major re-think about the 'exotic' cat species in the UK.

I spoke to the owner of a large estate in Somerset once and he knew that he had a large cat there. He and the groundsman/gamekeeper left it alone because it kept down deer and rabbits "its doing the local envionment a good service". One night both men went out to find out what an "awful" noise was and eventually came across a large black cat and a grey one -and they knew the grey one and there was no doubt that it was a puma. They were "being intimate" not fighting.

The two men left quietly!

A woman on a farm in Wiltshire was a known "local eccentric" as she never left the farm without a pitchfork. No one asked why but I eventually found out why (and quite by accident when I spoke to her); it was because she had once come face-to-face with a big grey cat and she was never going to take any chances -as there was also the black cat there and she had seen both together.

I could go on but considering I have the statement from a senior lecturer in zoology who was also familiar with pumas who was within 100 yards, in perfect condtions, a black puma I think it safe to say there are black pumas.

'Experts' state there is no such thing as a "rare black pumas" (how can they be rare black pumas if there are no such things?) as they have never seen one. The same way old British fox hunters laughed at the idea off white foxes...until they saw one. Even then others laughed at the very idea and ye the British Canid Historical Society not only has photographic evidence of these but also Victorian taxidermy plus historical testimony.

A large sized black cat was always classed as a leopard. "Only thing it could be".

In the 1990s smaller cats, black ones, that looked like domestic cats but -term used by people from different parts of the country- "whippet dog sized were termed "Hooper cats" by police wildlife officers in my "honour". I asked one stonewall builder in Yorkshire if he was positive that what he and his mate saw was not a panther. He was very clear: black cat, looked like a domestic one but the size of a whippet dog" and he would not be budged.

I have video footage of one -no way to convert it for DVD though- from Nottinghamshire. It looks like a black domestic cat with long legs but definitely big (local PWCO went there and checked out measurements.

So we have black pumas -no doubt

We have "Hooper cats" -no doubt

We clearly have panthers -no doubt

We know there are defined territories they move around in. In some cases we know which specific cat killed what because of the method of not just killing but which part of a sheep it preferred to eat. This was all because of a long term investigation in one area.

But the idea that there are "hundreds" or "1000+" "big cats" in the UK is ludicrous. Are they combining puma, panther, lynx etc into that one figure? No just one species -"the big black cat" 😵

My Index cards and data have only just been shared with one person and that was someone I can trust and also included with the data was the signed statement about a DEFRA vet who killed a panther caught in a trap by a man who thought that it was being knocked out to take to a wildlife park.

One thing that has become clear is that no one is taking into account smaller cat species and I realised this back in the 1990s when certain reports were not making sense until I realised what the 'puma' or 'panther' the witnesses were reporting was. Then in the early 2000s one of the academics involved in an exotics survey found himself on a road staring at a large black cat. Not far away a den was discovered and the team identified the species involved.

For me this all made sense and might well also explain panther sightings around the UK. Unless someone is very familiar with cat species any large cat is "a black puma".

I have spoken to people who give perfect descriptions of panthers but will not accept that is what they saw as clearly all the newspapers said these are "pumas". I have also spoken to people who believe that they "saw the panther" of whichever ever area it is known as "The Beast of" and they give a perfect description of a puma -tail, facial markings and so on. Again they KNOW it was not a puma as the local 'experts' clearly stated they had panthers. Lynx have also been described as puma.

Something else recently discovered via official records is that puma bred far too successfully in captivity and from one source over 80 and we have no idea what happened to all of those and breeding was successful going back to the old travelling shows of the early 1800s.

The number of panthers in the UK is likely not over 100 since an adult looking for a mate could quite easily travel around the UK with ease starting in Cumbria and ending up in Hampshire, Dorset or Kent.

We know that puma males have an established territory which is quite large while the female keeps a smaller territory. Numbers? Pick one out of a hat but "hundreds" or "a thousand for a viable population" is sheer rubbish: remember the size of the UK mainland.

There is a lot we know but until the official government policy of "kill on sight" is halted all of it will remain locked away with the only person understanding the maps and entries being me

Big Cat In Doncaster?

According to The Yorkshire Post online: By Darren Burke Wednesday, 2nd February 2022

'Big cat' emerges from hedge and prowls outside Yorkshire McDonald's in footage captured by stunned drive thru customer

 Video footage captured the moment the sandy, fawn coloured animal with a striped tail and ‘leopard print’ markings was spotted crawling from bushes just yards from amazed customers at the burger chain’s drive thru branch at Redhouse Interchange.

Jon Middleton, who filmed the clip said: “Everyone who saw it was absolutely stunned.

The sandy coloured beast was said to be 4ft in length and 2ft high. (Photo: Jon Middleton).

"It was very muscular and very cautious in the way it was moving around, like it wasn’t used to being near to people.

"I literally just did a double take when I saw it and others were the same.”

Jon, who was on his way to picking his son up at school on Monday morning (January 31) at around 10.30am, said the animal was about 2ft high and about 4ft in length.

The 'big cat' was spotted prowling for food at a Doncaster McDonald's branch. (Photo: Jon Middleton).

"It was huge. It’s markings and behaviour were quite distinctive. It looked like it was sniffing around for food.

"It had very large paws, leopard print markings on its back half and a very distinctive striped tail and also longer hairs on top of its ears.

"Everyone was saying how beautiful it was, but everyone was really freaked out too.

"It wasn’t behaving like a domestic animal at all. If I had a small dog or things like chickens or rabbits, I’d be worried about having that prowling around my garden.”

The big cat was spotted at the McDonald's at Redhouse Interchange.

Jon, who lives in Aston in Rotherham, has reported the sighting to Doncaster Council, the RSPCA and South Yorkshire Police, who all took details of the incident and have said they will investigate.

He said: “I just want to get the word out to people to look out for it.”

There have been numerous big cat sightings reported in the Doncaster area over the years.

In August last year, a female dog walker reported seeing a beast prowling in fields near Thorne.

Another reported seeing a “big black cat while driving off the M18 onto the M180 near to Thorne Golf Course.

Earlier last year, footage emerged of a mystery animal in fields near Armthorpe.

The clip showed a large, black animal stealthily moving through fields on the outskirts of the village in February.

In 2019, mum Jessica Clark spotted a huge 5ft black cat in fields near to the town’s Keepmoat Stadium.

“When I realised what I’d seen, I just started panicking. It was massive and very muscular and definitely a big cat. It was quite frightening to see something like that up close,” she said.

In January 2017, Alan Tomlinson said he had seen a ‘panther’ near to junction one of the M180, close to Doncaster services.

He said: “I’ve been doing this job for eight years, and have been driving since 1982 and I’ve seen foxes and things like that but I've never seen anything like that before. It was much, much bigger than any animal I've ever driven past.

“I only saw the back of it,but I knew it was a puma or a panther when I saw the size of its tale which was curled right round. That's how I knew it was a panther.

Meanwhile, later the same year, trucker Graham Byram said he saw a trio of highways workers struggling to lift a huge dead animal into the back of a truck on the A1 near Harworth.

Stories of big cats go back to the 1960s and 70s when it was legal to keep exotic animals as pets.

THS:

Oh all the witnesses and only one reports the "big cat" (police got no call). So what type of big cat is it? Puma -NO. Leopard -NO. Hmm. Lion -NO.

Look at the cat and its shape. There is no large sized cat here. It is moving the same way I have seen hundreds of cats move. Domestic cats. This is why I take no real notice of reports unless I can talk to the people involved or if their report has been checked by police.

My guess is that this was a joke. Otherwise someone needs to be re-assessed as  driver or get their eyesight ytested.

Fancy but DOMESTIC CAT.

"Big Cat" Lunatics and WHO Should you report a Sighting To?

 

To me there are many parallels between the Fox Study work and the exotic cats work. Firstly, there is widespread hoaxing as well as mis-reporting. In many cases the mis-reporting is down to sheer sillyness at best and stupidity at worst.

A photo of a black blob in a field half a mile away is very likely a horse or cow or...anything. It cannot be used to back up hysterical claims of "big cats at large" and the persons involved being there to "safeguard the community". The best way that they can safeguard the community would be to shut up and jump over to the UFO subject. 

When there was the opportunity for DNA testing alleged "big cat" samples in the 1990s we saw this community of half wits at work and they totally destroyed any possibility of a university again giving over lab time to the subject. 

"Possible big cat hairs found on wire around a field" -they were obviously not cat hair but the University stood by their promise to analyse all samples. It was cow hair.  Why did the submittees think this was cat hair? "A cat was seen in the area a few weeks before" and what was in the field itself? "Cows". More hair samples: sheep. What was in the field the samples were collected from?  Sheep. Horse DNA....you know the questions asked. We had similar including from a fantasist in Glouycestershire who sent in samples of sheep dung from an area sheep wandered in but oddly no samples from the big black cats" he saw on a daily basis.

I spoke to the lab at least once a week and to be honest their patience was being tested.

I once accidentally sent some hair samples -from my own cat, George- to a top big cat man who analysed lots of anomalous hair sent to him and identified as puma or panther. Going through my desk draw a week after I had sent the samples off I found the actual pack that should have gone. As I had identified the animal involved by that time I contacted the hair man by phone to tell him to waste no him on studying the sample sent. Before I could even explain I was told that he had analysed the hairs and there was no doubt that they were from a lynx though he could not tell whether European or American! I looked at George who was sat on the desk and asked him "Is there something you want to tell me?" He simply responded with a look of disdain.

Photographs of a "big cat" that was killed on the road were widely shown about the community...it was a domestic cat that had been hit by a car.

One thing that became obvious is that 95% of the 'community' had no knowledge of cats or their habits and habitats. Most of the others took what they found in the old EAR Bulletins and what they found online.

When I was consulted by Leicestershire police they asked that the "locat big cat man" not be briefed on sightings.  When my name appeared in a couple of local newspapers (and I think I was interviewed on local radio) the "local big cat man" was furious and said that I had absolutely no right to interfere in his area and he had first rights to reports and even wanted details of reports I had received. I was polite (I am always polite) and explained to him that as a naturalist I had been doing this work since 1977 and that he had no "right" to my work though I had intended liaising with him. I decided not to.

On another occasion I was looking at reports in Devon and found so much fakery I decided to leave well alone. Even in 2021 someone in Devon was trying to hoax me (I think 3 times).

I tried cooperating with others in the "big cat" community but I can tell you, having seen what goes on from the inside, "respected forums" were anything but. The 'experts' got things badly wrong but would never allow a correction of facts and the amount of online abuse some respected people got was so bad that twice I had to intervene in their defence (and these were the sort of people that were needed in this field).

One jumped up wannabe documentary maker even decided that because I was not going to cooperate with him he would turn up at my home and hammer on the front door for ten minutes. At that time I was extremely ill but assumed something was wrong only to find the idiot in question who was far from coherent in what he was saying. He left after a neighbour came out to ask if everything was alright (he had been that loud).  That night I was contacted as the fool had "exposed me" on a couple of "respected" big cat forums. I checked and found that his expose was of the fact that my home (which he had only viewed from the garden) was not up to the fantasy his mind expected. Oddly, someone did respond with "What's his home got to do with big cats?"  Just what I was thinking,  The fella is still around touting the Big Cat documentary and using my old, out of data info.

By the mid 1980s most of the old time field naturalists I knew had died off and though I tried to find any that might be involved in looking into "non native cats" I could find none. No one was even apparently interested in other exotics. In the later 1990s I tried to get branches of the British Naturalist Association involved -their upper echelon knew of the cats and had even seen some over the years. :Letters, phone calls and I found all that "members are intereste in are birds and butterflies so its mainly summer activities". They did not even have information on their local badgers.

It wasn't a good time and though I loathed doing so I found myself in the national as well as local regional newspapers and TV and was referred to as "Britain's Big Cat Detective" which is quite embarrassing although the other title proferred was "Big Cat Hunter" -that would have killed any cooperation from people.

Cooperation with official bodies (other than DEFRA who really "disliked" me) was good and it was through two police wildlife crimes officers (PWCO) that I learnt why I was getting so many problems -jealousy. I was told by both men how people claiming to be "big cat experts" had contacted them and when my name was mentioned the vitriol flowed and both officers warned the individuals involved about what they were saying and the ramifications. I was also told how a certain "Big Cat organisation" had tried to get police cooperation but the police had become a tad wary: "Is this group anything to do with you?" I was asked and I responded that it was not and asked why they thought it was? "Well, their press release is literally word-for-word taken from your EAR Bulletin advisory".

After some trespasses by people claiming to work with me as well as a threat to a farmer (I was not privvy to the threat as it never involved me) I released a national advisory stating that absolutely no one was working for me and that if they presented ID cards it was a case of fraud. 

This all sounds bad, right? The thing is that all of this is quite literally only 1% of what was going on. When I heard that at least two "big cat" people and the previously mentioned 'documentary maker' had established links with hunt groups that was it. I stopped the Bulletins and no one was going to be getting any cooperation from me.

What I find surprising is the way that the cammo and black uniform making fringe has jumped in and make the subject almost the cousin of the "British Bigfood" groups. Facts are out of the window and they cannot identify a calf, a boar or any other mundane animal as anything but a "big cat" and I have to say that in the last 15 years I have seen no credible publicised reports emerge.

I have no doubt that genuine sightings are taking place but are simply not being reported (for obvious reasons). I would always encourage genuine witnesses to contact me by email and I maintain absolute confidentiality

Therefore if yyou have seen a large unidentified cat and especially if on a regular bais please get in touch. Use the heading "cat"

blacktowercg@hotmail.com

2000 Correspondence With European Union of New ("exotic") Faun In The UK

 NB: these letters can be found on the EAR Face Book page also

Back in 1999/2000 my work on The Red Paper: Felids was complete. I had all the information and evidence I needed based on standard naturali history and wildlife research criteria.

However, I knew that if I released the full report it could be used by illegal hunting groups and even the Department for Environment Farming and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) for its "eradication" (killing) programme and I even had written affidavit from people who had witnessed this first hand.

I think the letter says it all (we were still using typewriters back then!). Unless there was full acceptance that these animals were out there and that despite (in some cases) a couple hundred years living in the UK countryside there had been no attacks on humans and it could be proven based on testimony that these animals had a positive rather than detrimental effect on the countryside then I was not going to publish.

And A-Z guide on where to find and kill was not going out there, And so I contacted the EU (which was aware of my work) and tried to ascertain how things were and whether they could be changed.

22 years on we know the situation has not change. I think the EU letters from 2000 shows that there was no real interest in openly accepting that exotics had become native and it was far easier to just kill anything that "didn't fit" in with some bureaucratic national view -some "native fauna" in the EU as well as UK are "native" only for convenience as they, like todays "new fauna", were set free or escaped because of human activities.

Interestingly it was during this period that I was referred to by an EU official as an "environmental conservationist" (and we were not using the term "Citizen Scientist" back then).

Here is my letter plus the EU response that shaped my decision.

The EU Responses

The Musteloidea Superfamily ALL 8 Weasel Subfamilies & 3 Closest Relatives

EAR FB

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/372804871017547

The "UK Government and Police Are Covering Up on Big Cats"

 

This is something I hear again and again from so called "big cat experts". It may just be that wearing black or combat uniforms in their living rooms has scrambled their brains and they are fantasising. No idea. I really believe some of them just make this stuff up as it makes them sound like "fighters for the truth" rather than idiots.

There is one thing that I shared with my (no longer with us) contemporaries who were all field naturalists and didn't just hold a two hour "big cat watch" -cooperation from police forces. The police needed answers or guidance so it made sense that they went to naturalists as most zoologists were too scared of being quoted or drawn in to the subject (and spent very little time in the field).

I once went to see the DEFRA (Dept of Environment Farming and Rural Affairs) exotics spokesmena when it was still MAFF and he was based in Bristol. I went up to reception and told the person I was there to meet ----- and my folder was stared at for a few seconds and I was asked "Oh, is it about big cats?" I said it was. The person went off and came back with a rather flushed looking DEFRA man who was way too polite! I was told that we could chat in his office and when we got there I took out some plaster casts I had in my shoulder bag. "Oh!" he said looking at them "they do look like the ones we have"

He then opened a cabinet drawer -one of the big map cabinets. There, labelled "lynx", "Puma" and "p. pardus" (leopard) were about twenty plaster casts and they lookd like they had all been professionally checked out. So I took mine over to the cabinet and we were comparing when I said "I knew MAFF had tracks but a few more than I expected". Heturned to me and looked shocked and red faced: "You're from London?" I told him I was not and explained we had spoken over the phone. I was then very quickly ushered out with a "please direct all enquiries in writing" and that was it.

Turns out he had been told by the desk person that I was from London -having seen one of the documents sticking out of the folder.

Up until that point I had not really believed that MAFF/DEFRA had good quality plaster casts of exotic cat prints. 

Years later another secretary put me through to the Welsh Chief Veterinary officer and we were discussing livestock kills when I was asked "Who are you again?" As soon as I identified myself I was told very rudely that I had no business contacting her and the phone was put down. After that incident some farmers were told -told- that any animal suspeced of being killed by a cat should be reported to them first and not be reported to me. 

Very long story but one day an irate farmer contacted me to ask what was going on with the sheep -was it killed by the cat or not? I had no idea what he was talking about. He explained that one of his sheep had been killed and that it had looked like "one of the cats again" and mentioned it to his vet. Within an hour a white van pulled up and the farmer met a man claiming to work for me and I had, apparently, told him to pick up the sheep to post mortem and we would let him know results within a week. Well, I worked with only two other people (not in Wales) and we had no white vans let alone the ability to PM a dead animal. So who was it?

The week afterthe farmers phone call another phoned. Based in Wales and he had helped me with livestock losses before. He was also a very respected man who worked with MAFF/DEFRA to explain policies to farmers in the region. He was a drinking pal with one of the officials and over a drink he mentioned another sheep that had been killed and partially eaten. His companion said in a hushed tone: "That hasnt been reported on has it? We dont want that ***** in Bristol to get his hands on the evidence". He was asked to explain and was told that "Terry Hooper is a ***** pain" (I felt so proud!). After the chat the farmer went back to his place to get the form I had provided him and to get a camera to go see the farmer who had found the new kill.

He told me: "It took about an hour or just over as there had been a road slip on the way over. Also some bloody fool in a van almost hit my Landrover.  I got there and explained to the farmer I needed to get details and photos of the dead sheep. Well, he just stared at me and said 'Terry Hooper? He was just here and took the sheep off in his van -you just missed him!' -that's why I called you and you've made a six hour journey home to Bristol in two hours!"

Obviously I was not driving a van with a dead sheep in. 'I' was described as sandy haired (no) and about 6 feet tall (no) and clean shaven (no). Apparently this mysterious person had turned up in a rush and explained he needed the sheep and put it into the back of the van -"had an inbuilt cage like some vets use".

This was all very silly really. I was a naturalist and could have helped if only as an advisor as I did with UK police forces. Everyone from naturalists, some zoologists, farmers unions and police forces knew the various cats were here. Thanks to a back-stabber on the team we were prevented -by DEFRA- from fitting a radio tracking collar on a puma in Wales and taking samples for testing because if we trapped the cat "the law is quite clear; you either humanely destroy (kill) the cat or take it to a zoo or other animal facility".

I even have the signed affidavits of veterinarians having "put down" trapped cats.

This is common practice with any exotic -considered an invasive species- and killing raccoon like dogs, etc has even been reported in newspapers "because they are considered an invasive species".

DEFRA obviously prefers not to publicise trapping and killing as most would explain that a true survey/study needs to be undertaken as some cat species are on record as living in certain areas for over three hundred years and in fact there has been no detriment to UK wildlife -some estate owners and game keepers report deer herds for instance being stronger and free of sick or straggling members because of cats.

It is not a cover up just bureaucrats following every rule without question because they do not want a fuss or to attract a lot of protest. They are not a National Carnivore or wildlife advisory. They are "keyboard tappers".

This is why absolutely nothing I have learnt since 1977 will ever see print. Hunting and killing protected species as well as other wildlife continues seemingly unabated (it is why the locations of foxes and badgers are closely protected by people). And there are the illegal hunting groups. Until the laws are changed everything stays unpublished and goes with me to the grave.

The police, however, never once (with the exception of West Midlands and Devon and Cornwall police who did not enjoy good reputations so it was expected) got in the way and their wildlife crimes officers knew what was going on and we regularly spoke. PWCOs from the Northern Constabulary (now Police Scotland), Dyfed-Powys, West Mercia, Kent and so on we exchanged and briefed each other. The EAR Bulletin went to the Home Office as well as all UK police forces.

The main concern of the police, whichever force, is to protect the public and not to create a panic. On three occasions over the  years I have seen how such panics have been caused and in all three cases the reports were hoaxes. 

Therefore when you see the current crop of 'experts' (before they jump to the next craze) talk about government and police cover ups remember that they have no experience or idea whatthey are saying. this is their hobby.