I see that, once again, the subject of "hybrid big cats" in the UK has been raised. So for all of those who jump on this subject for some reason other than wildlife study and biology a few facts.
1. There is only one member of the big cat family in the UK; Panthera pardus -the leopard in a melanistic form that is a definite UK genetic trait.
2. The puma (F. concolor) is a member of the medium sized cat family. Despite what dogma people ('experts') want to push there is absolutely no reason why a puma should not be black ("We haven't seen a dead one" is akin to saying "I do not believe in oxygen as I have never seen it").
3. There are lynx and these may have survived into the late Middle Ages and release4s and escapes date well back to at least the 1600s. It is believe that in more recent years some have been released (radio collared?) to see how they affect an area.
4. There is little doubt, as I stated back in the early 1990s, that we have other former exotic type cats living and breeding in the UK and possibly before the 1976 Dangerous Wild Animals Act.
There are posts on this blog that cover the possible size of a population in the UK and it is nowhere near "in the hundreds" and that type of figure quote shows that whoever is gioving it has no idea what-so-ever.
All of the above including physical evidence is covered in part of The Red Paper 2022 Vol. II: Felids.
The whole subject of "Big cat hybrids" has come about for two reasons; the first is that people jumping into the subject have no idea about the cats involved and some are simply quoting from popular books and some of those are not even wildlife based but written by cryptozoologists who are not exactly known for their factual reporting. Also, a good yarn equals books sold and money made.
Second reason people. Yes, you read that right; the witness (I prefer "observer") can be very inaccurate and lead you down a very long and pointless track. I started this work along with others in 1976 and began advising UK police forces on exotics as we called them back then in 1977. I have seen the police evidence (plaster casts, photos of tracks and even the DNA tests returning the "Panthera pardus" result.
I have seen the not pretty end of how cats have killed and eaten and had long (very long) conversations with shepherds, farmers and many others who have seen the cats up close and lost stock to them ("killed by dog" appears on a lot of insurance forms). I have spoken to two ex-Royal Marines who sighted a large black cat in two different parts of the country and both were part of the 1980s Beast of Bodmin detachment.
I spoke to one man who opened a derelict caravan he kept at the back of his garden to find a panther less than six feet (2m or so) away from him and he gave a perfect description including little things that a hoaxer generally never mentions. The hair DNA tested and coming back as leopard was found in the caravan.
I have spoken to naturalists out on badger watch who did not go out again after observing a large cat at very close quarters (all thought "big cats" in the UK was "loopy"). I spoke to a senior zoologist whose expertise was not in question and whereas he had previously sighted a jungle cat (F. chaus) on the occasion he was contacting me about he saw very close up and noted all the diagnostic features of a puma -this one was black.
These are observers and evidence that are welcome. You then get the average member of the public and many years ago I created the line "Sees a woodlouse and reports an armadillo" which, although tongue-in-cheek it is an adage to remember. The number of local domestic cats misidentified and even photographed and filmed as "a big cat" outweigh the genuine number of such cases. You can point at the TV screen as much as you want and point out every domestic cat feature to the person(s) involved and they will still insist "Well I have never seen a cat like that before!" We also have what police called "The Hooper Cat" (explained in the book).
I have seen video clips of a "huge cat" in a suburban area which was very clearly a dog. A "Bulky beast" racing across a hill which was so identifiable as a dog I had to suppose everyone had simply lost their brains. A "big black cat with very long tail" on an "irrefutable piece of trail cam footage" was a dog and could be nothing other than a dog.
Above: The Beast of Durham. Or...Basil the fox with a rabbit
There is a famous image of "The Beast of Durham" with a rabbit in its mouth. In fact it is quite clearly either a manged fox or fox losing its winter coat.
A domestic dog is a domestic dog. A domestic cat is a domestic cat. A panther is, it seems, a puma. On a number of cases I have spoken to people who tell me they observed at close quarters a puma. They start giving a description but something does not fit so I ask "What colour was this cat?" The response is "black" which matches the description given of a melanistic leopard. I explain this and the utter outrage "I thought you were a big cat expert?" and "No, the papers say it is a puma" and so on.
Well, no one is really an expert on "big cats" but might know a lot about them and I never claim to be an expert (I leave that up to the egotists and cryptozoologists) and I defer to Desmond Whatsitt the local reporter who has put together a "Big Cat" story between an item on the local supermarket closing and how Madonna is not as young as she used to be.
I have also had people report "The panther of (you choose)" and their description is clearly of a puma. It was in the early 1990s that certain puma reports made no sense based on size of cat and colour as well as other features noted. This led to identifying a type of cat never thought to have been in the UK before. To be fair my contemporaries (all long gone now) were naturalists in specific geographic regions so they were observing and recording what they saw.
Every-so-often the subject of "hybrid big cats" crops up to cover all of the bad reporting and misidentifications rather than realise what is going on. I have heard and read theories of Scottish wild cats breeding with puma (there is no Scottish wild cat and...the puma would more likely kill one than mate with one). Puma x domestic cat. Puma x panther and it goes on and on. No. Absolutely not: there are no hybrid big cats in the UK so stop making yourself look an idiot even if your "fans" believe you know what you are talking about.
99% of "Big cat" activity in the UK is for social media Likes or to get attention and some "celebrity". You do not become an 'expert' by reading Janet and Colin Bords Alien Animals! Or by watching You Tube videos of road kill domestic or feral domestic cats.
There are no hybrid big cats in the UK. Fact.
