Again this documentary. Firstly, any name they want to give a wild cat has to be officially approved by a zoological committee. So the idea that they are the first (insulting) to have 'discovered' these cats and that they can call it what they want is bovine excretia.
The fact that a leopard and puma breed in captivity is down to a complicated hit-and-miss process overseen by humans. That there is a population o0f these cats in the UK is a pure fantasy and is based on no factual evidence. I began the work in 1977 and have never come across any such evidence -it is a silly fringe theory. Maybe the expert in horse (equine) science has an interest in wild cats but pushing the idea is not credible.
The photograph of the cat in Kent is grainy. Pity they gave no details of the back story. If you enlarge the photo it does show the ears end in a point and are not rounded. The graininess of the photo is such that it makes it impossible to identify the breed of cat and if you look at the size of the cat and the sheep (the photo is that bad a quality that it took some working out) in the background it is not that large and the one sheep seems to be more curious about the cat and/or whoever was photographing it.
The head shape, body and tail look like a domestic breed and there are many breeds not to mention the exotic domestic cats and the "Heinz 57" variety -the equivalent of a "mongrel dog". Yes, I have seen domestic cats with necks like that.
The more I hear about this documentary the more I realise that I can give it a miss -the fact that they still promote (proven by myself and a university team in the 1990s) the "released into the wild" theory shows how out of touch their research is. The 1976 Dangerous Wild Animals Act was not the starting point. I speculated, and others picked up on this, that releases prior to World War One over fears of food shortages and ditto World War Two might account for the cats seen today; generations along. However, I disproved my own theory and accumulated reports going back centuries and there are reports from just the 1840s (very accurate descriptions but the animal was called "the spirit of a deceased person").
Buy a copy of The Red Paper 2022 Vol. II Felids and get a proper education on the subject.
Oh, and that cat photograph has some strange artefacting in it which makes me wonder just how genuine it is.
Maybe the reporter or the documentary makers should have checked Wikipedia?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumapard
Experts say 'big cat' spotted stalking the British countryside could be a rare cross between a leopard and a puma
Is it a puma? Is it a leopard? Whatever it is, filmmakers have uncovered an image of a 'big cat' stalking the British countryside.
The large feline was snapped in Kent and its neck muscle, ear shape and tail is not that of a domestic breed, experts claim.
It is thought it could be latest evidence of big cats in Britain and could be a rare dwarf breed known as a 'pumapard'.
They are a cross between a leopard and a puma or cougar – and have previously been born in captivity.
Both male cougar with female leopard and male leopard with female cougar pairings have produced offspring.
The photo, taken in 2013, has been unearthed by makers of the new documentary Panthera Britannia Declassified.
It has the experts split, with several claiming it shows something different to your typical pet moggy.
Andrew Hemmings, associate professor of Equine Science at Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester, said its dimensions suggest it is not a domestic cat.
He said: 'The developed neck musculature and curvature of the tail both suggest something other than Felis Catus.
'Scaling is difficult but this does not appear to be of adult leopard size.
'It is, however, entirely plausible that populations of leopard-sized felids could have become smaller over multiple generations, maybe in response to natural genetic selection imposed by a prey-base of smaller animals such as rabbits.
'It would make good evolutionary sense to adapt to a plentiful, low risk species such as the rabbit.'
One theory of how big cats arrived in the UK is the unregulated exotic pet trade of the last days of the British Empire.
Leopards were imported from Africa and Asia and pumas or cougars from the Americas.
Experts believe both species were released into our countryside.
Appearing in the documentary expert animal tracker Rhoda Watkins, speculates that this could possibly be a 'pumapard'.
Sarah Hartwell, owner of website The MessyBeast, said: 'The puma and leopard hybrids were smaller than either parent, but most seemed to have died as juveniles so we don't know their final size.
'The ear shape is the big giveaway. Big cats all have rounded ears.
'Domestics, and their relatives in the Lybica family, have triangular ears – wide at the base and narrowing at the tip.'
Monster hunter James 'Bobo' Fay agrees with Professor Hemmings.
He said: 'I've seen four mountain lions in the past month; I see them all the time in California.
'It possesses characteristics associated with the North American cougar. It's definitely not a bobcat.
'The tail looks cougar-like to me and it seems more muscular than a domestic cat, but my overall impression is that I'm looking at a large domestic dominant hybrid.'
Big cat researcher Kevin Steele runs the Real Big Cats In Kent Facebook group.
He said: 'There have been numerous sightings of big cats in Kent now over several decades.
'I know the location where the photo was taken and sightings are reported from that area quite often.'
Panthera Britannia Declassified by Dragonfly Films is available to buy and rent on Amazon Prime, Apple TV and Google TV.
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