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