Lake District leopard?

[Delbow]

I've always been pretty sceptical of the idea that there are big cats roaming the UK countryside, especially since cameras on phones have become ubiquitous, so you'd think someone would have conclusive footage by now. It's an attractive idea, because it makes the British countryside seem more exciting and exotic, I guess, but I wasn't convinced. 

 

But this is interesting - a DNA sample taken from a recently dead sheep has been found to be of a big cat in the panthera genus, most likely a leopard. Of course it's not impossible to pull a hoax by planting the DNA if one has access to that, but a leopard isn't very big and the Lake District is, and a lot of it is quite remote, so it seems plausible.

 

Where do you stand on the idea of big cats in Britain?

[Longcol]

1 hour ago, Delbow said:

I've always been pretty sceptical of the idea that there are big cats roaming the UK countryside, especially since cameras on phones have become ubiquitous, so you'd think someone would have conclusive footage by now. It's an attractive idea, because it makes the British countryside seem more exciting and exotic, I guess, but I wasn't convinced. 

 

But this is interesting - a DNA sample taken from a recently dead sheep has been found to be of a big cat in the panthera genus, most likely a leopard. Of course it's not impossible to pull a hoax by planting the DNA if one has access to that, but a leopard isn't very big and the Lake District is, and a lot of it is quite remote, so it seems plausible.

 

Where do you stand on the idea of big cats in Britain?

 

I'd ecpect more than one DNA sample before reaching any sort of conclusion. I'd expect a big cat to be kiiling sheep fairly regularly in order to survive.

[Vrsaljko]

I'm not buying it. With the amount of people who go walking in the countryside in what is a densely populated country, there would be definitive proof by now if big cats were roaming the countryside.

[butlers]

Well my old neighbour up at Grenoside had a lion as a pet in a very shonky enclosure ..so  I  think its entirely possible .

I know lynx have also being reintroduced unofficially  very recently too

[Delbow]

5 hours ago, butlers said:

Well my old neighbour up at Grenoside had a lion as a pet in a very shonky enclosure ..so  I  think its entirely possible .

I know lynx have also being reintroduced unofficially  very recently too

That's a bit wild about the lion, when was this?

Edited May 17 by Delbow

[gaz678]

9 hours ago, butlers said:

Well my old neighbour up at Grenoside had a lion as a pet in a very shonky enclosure ..so  I  think its entirely possible .

I know lynx have also being reintroduced unofficially  very recently too

Was it Rob who had the lion? 

[Annie Bynnol]

    Red Necked Wallabies were observed in Derbyshire/Staffordshire (including Burbage and Ladybower)between the 1940s and 90s.

[Delbow]

3 minutes ago, Annie Bynnol said:

    Red Necked Wallabies were observed in Derbyshire/Staffordshire (including Burbage and Ladybower)between the 1940s and 90s.

On their porch rockers with their banjos?

[Al Bundy]

10 hours ago, butlers said:

Well my old neighbour up at Grenoside had a lion as a pet in a very shonky enclosure ..so  I  think its entirely possible .

I know lynx have also being reintroduced unofficially  very recently too

WTF?

[butlers]

This would have been 84/85 or so.

A lion , was only young mind you.

Think the Regulations relating to having  Dangerous  Animals was tightened up  a few years later.

Channel 4 did a documentary  recently its surprising how many tigers/ lions are still kept as " pets" now