The Brecon Beacons Lynx

 I was alerted to this post fairly quickly on Sunday (30th March) by my colleague, LM. Before this got on to any of the British 'big cat' groups I wanted to ascertain some facts.

Does the animal in the trail com photo look like a lynx? 

Body shape etc is correct. People have noted a spotted coat pattern leading to various lynx ssp(sub species) identifications. Others have speculated that the spotted pattern indicates a

 juvenile large ('big') cat.  Firstly, the quality is such that these seem to be images of images and if you actually enlarge them everything is spotted! Just what juvenile large cat people had in mind I have no idea especially when the body form, etc is lynx.

My message to the person concerned read:

"Hello. Just wanted to message you quickly as someone sent me a copy of a photo you posted on a Brecon group of a cat? My name is Terry Hooper-Scharf and I set up and run the Exotics Animal Register (EAR) which tends to work with police forces, farmers, etc etc. I wondered whether you could tell me when and where you got the photos and whether the camera was placed at the location due to sightings in the area? I'll get back to you asap. Thanks"

Now some 15 hours later this person who was looking for an answer has still not posted or replied. This seems quite common on British 'big cat' groups. This takes me to looking at the poster himself.

Interestingly he has never posted on the group involved before which as a person using trail cams on a group aimed at photographing the Brecons is odd but that is all. When it comes to the profile page of the poster a lot of red flags pop up. At one point when Face Book was still a social media thing it sent out advice to those on the platform about how to spot possible fake accounts and scammers. It was a "point-by-point" guide and still holds up in 2023.

"Luke Martins" account has all of these red flags and to which has to be added that he has not posted before on any group. This all leads to suspicions.

Now take a look at the "screenshots" themselves. Notice anything unusual? Well, all data has been removed. If you have never used a trail cam you will be unaware that a date/time stamp is imprinted on every video clip or image taken by the camera as below -

This is important information as it tells you that the footage was taken on a specific date and time so if these were images "just" taken why would you remove what is evidence that backs you up? Not from one image but all of them and there is "meta data" in posted photographs that you can check but not if you are posting a saved/copied and cropped image.

There are also certain things in frame that indicate that size markers are in place. Now why would you have size markers to judge an animals size, etc unless you were expecting wildlife to pass through regularly?   This is why I asked why the camera was set up at that specific  spot?

Within four minutes of looking I had enough in the way of lynx (and puma) trail cam images that I could mount a good hoax. Look at the image below: an actual Bobcat rather than a lynx taken in Brecon during the last winter?

What proves that it is not is when you leave the data on the image:

We then get the question of why post to a Welsh regional group rather than ask for an ID from a 'big cat' group?  Well... if you want to push a 'faked' image and go straight to a cat group the first thing you will get (apart from abusive comments and nonsense) are questions that might be awkward but in those cases (again as I have found personally) the poster will hit back with a "You're a debunker!" and "I have an even better quality image than this one but based on your attitude I am not going to share it!" which is all supposed to wrong-foot you but is 3 metre tall neon lighting spelling out "hoax".

Also. for the past couple of months Welsh cat groups have been discussing the lynx reports from Wales (even though some cases are not of lynx) and how it will only be a matter of time before a photographer or trail cam gets a good shot of a lynx.

Oh look.

The area involved was also a little odd. Since the 1970s I have spoken with farmers, shepherds and many others around the Brecon Beacons and have a good idea of what might be where. It does not rule out a lynx being seen but the credibility factors here ...just do not exist. It was quite obvious that if you posted to a Welsh group of any type then those interested in large cats would get to see the image quickly.

If you use a trail cam and catch a good image then you do not chop off date/time AND you had better be prepared to prove the images/video was taken in Wales. Incidentally, one might ask why the camera took no video footage?  It probably did, however, such a video clip would have all the meta data to identify original source, etc and you have be a pretty dumb hoaxer to submit that.