01x05 - Big Cats in a Little Country
Posted: 10/03/23 15:31
[Music]
[Music]
well
[Music]
you can live right in the middle of big
cat's territory and never even see it
okay so so what sort of cats are we
talking about
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
cat such as a leopard or Puma could be
lethal
s
[Music]
[Music]
the idea that dangerous predators are
stalking the safe Splendor of Britain's
Countryside is unnerving but many people
have had alarming encounters and our
drama is based upon fact
so what does the future hold
[Music]
for years now there have been stories of
big cats at large in the British
Countryside the beasts of bodmin and
Exmore become part of our popular
culture and to this day sightings
continue all over the UK the authorities
are even beginning to take it seriously
and at least some of these sightings are
not of phantoms but of real animals but
the problem is that every time one of
these cat flaps blows up initially the
evidence seems very persuasive but then
it all dies down without a conclusion so
from a Zoological point of view it
couldn't be more frustrating
so what I'm going to try and do is
inject some clarity into what's actually
going on with any big cats that might be
prowling our little country
[Music]
this animal came out of the wood
straight into the middle of the flock
picked one lamb up and went back
no doubt at all what I saw was a very
large cat very large cat
it was as big as a Labrador
uh with a catch face it wasn't a dog it
was really an honesty just like a very
very big cat
everybody else was I know you must be
drunk or something but now I've seen it
it's it's just simply incredible
absolutely incredible
k*ller cat that's what it is
and k*lling is understandably what big
cats do best last December in Essex
Michael thurgood's geese were on the
sharp end of this fact foreign
one of the geese was dead in the corner
of the little pen
and the other one was along the fence as
there have been reports of sightings of
a big cat in the area I thought that I
would call the police
and the police sorry of this Goose the
leading Veterinary pathologist Dr Ronald
Monroe
well what you normally do with these
things you just examine the outside of
the body first of all and when We
examined this we found five puncture
wounds in the skin on the right breast
here and when we reflected the skin off
here you can see quite clearly the
injuries in here
these are really quite deep and they're
cut marks and now those kinds of marks
cannot be made by the claws of a dog or
a fox these are the kinds of marks that
a cat's claw can make that didn't k*ll
this bird though did it no indeed this
was where the bird had been held by the
claws the the actual k*lling was done by
being bitten on the neck with the actual
spinal cord being severed about mid-neck
so what sort of animal do you think was
responsible for k*lling this bird
this looks like an animal which is about
the size of a Labrador because the
distance between the claws numbers five
and two is about 60 millimeters and I
would suspect that this was a large cut
of the size of a European Lynx so were
you surprised when you saw this and did
that make you change your mind about the
UK big cat phenomena I mean do you think
there are big cats out there at Large
well I was absolutely astounded when I
saw this because the injuries on this do
not correspond to a dog or a fox and
there must have been a large cat free in
Essex at the time that this Goose was
k*lled
it was a Sandy color with Hefty bits on
it is
it was just standing there looking
through the fence at us
we all ran a
in May of this year a large cat was seen
prowling the playground at sharede's
Primary School in Hertfordshire
in an immediate response the authorities
took the decision to close the school
teacher Carolyn Jones was with her class
I was bringing them up to this store and
I looked down and at the very edge of
the playground sitting was
um what I thought was a very large cat I
noticed the the ears first of all they
were extremely tough years it had quite
a large face I could tell it was bigger
than a labrador my colleague saw it and
she just said it was a wild cat
but I was convinced it was a lynx
trackers made a thorough search but the
animal disappeared and now the school is
reopened so from all accounts it sounds
as if there's a flourishing population
of cats in our Countryside
but as a biologist I do know that top of
the food chain Predators like that have
very specific ecological requirements so
the first question has to be could the
UK be Big Cat Country and could a large
mammal Predator do more than survive
here could it Thrive here
well historically the answer is a very
definite yes links were common in our
forest up until 5000 years ago and
another fearsome Predator The Wharf hung
on here right up to the 1740s but what
about now
our native carnivores foxes Badgers the
birds of prey are well known to us and
we do have an indigenous feline the
Scottish wildcat
it could a much much larger cat species
live alongside them nowadays based at
Oxford University Dr David McDonald is a
mammal biologist of world renown
one of the exciting things about the cat
family is that they're very
opportunistic very adaptable as are many
other carnivores and so from the
spectrum of small cats to large cats
little things like the jungle cat which
is roughly the same size as the Scottish
wildcat in this country right through
the medium-sized ones the links the
Bobcat from North America up to pretty
big cats like leopards and Puma one can
imagine them in principle adapting to
the sort of food supply we have here now
that food supply involves in terms of
numerous prey things like rabbits
through hairs to deer and I think being
a wood like the one we're in now one can
imagine not numbers of fallow deer and
muntjac all of these could be suitable
prey for a whole spectrum of different
sizes of cats so in principle they could
live here whether in practice they'd
manage it and whether it would be a good
thing if they did those are different
questions
okay so exactly what are the candidates
well we're not talking lions and tigers
here but there is a potential among a
variety of other foreign species
there are smaller cats like leopard cats
jungle cats and ocelot
and then in increasing size there are
links puma and even one of the world's
most feared animals the leopard in its
black form known as the panther
and it's these three species which could
cause serious concern
but if there are cats here
they must be new arrivals so where have
they come from
in the 60s and 70s anyone could keep a
big cat at home and exotic cats were
just that trendy accessories High
fashion and thankfully not just for
their fur but also as outrageous status
symbols but in 1976 that all changed
the government introduced the dangerous
wild animals act
detective Constable Steve Ashcroft of
Surrey police has been investigating its
impact
the origin of the 1976 act started in
about 1971 when a chap was prosecuted in
Sutton he bred leopards and pumas at the
time and his leopard bit a little boy in
Southern High Street as a result of that
in about 1973 they started legislation
which resulted in the dangerous animals
act 1976 coming out
so what are the implications of that
were the impacts of that act was that
people who had the loan was in private
hands either had to get a Zoological
license or they had to get an
environmental health license issued by
the local Council it laid down the
conditions in which the animals kept the
heating winter quarters summer quarters
the feed the side of the cages the
number of animals that they can keep and
it names the specific animals
[Music]
so what happened to the animals that
were in captivity once that act was
actually introduced
it appears that one of three things has
happened
one is that people then applied for an
environmental health license or a zoo
license
two they didn't want to apply and they
gave the animals two zoos
or three they've released them into the
wild
so the dangerous wild animals act could
be the start of the story but it
certainly isn't the end the ACT is
riddled with loopholes and unbelievably
even today licensed cat owners have no
legal requirement to report any breeding
success or any escapes it seems the ACT
is crying out for immediate reform
aside from the many animals held in zoos
there are only eight private big cat
owners licensed in the UK Pete James is
one of them he runs an exotic leopard
breeding program that aims to return
animals to the wild in their countries
of origin
I wanted to know about the appeal of
keeping these animals as well as the
dangers
what's the attraction of keeping an
animal like this
well what you see now
hey
all right steady on steady on good girl
the actual contact with the cat you know
is sort of um to me very important and I
love every minute of it
it's hard to put in simple terms
um I'm a big cat person and uh
I get a terrific Buzz out of being with
her on a daily basis playing with her
with a ball with the sack on a rope she
enjoys it I enjoy it uh it's terrific to
be able to share that with an animal
like this have you learned a lot more
about this species through spending time
with this individual yes I've learned an
awful lot about the leopard itself it's
a very very tricky intelligent animal
as well as being dangerous
[Music]
after all of this personal contact do
you think that they ever lose their
Basic Instincts no
they'll always be wild animals no matter
what you do
there'll never be time never
she ever caught you out yeah very often
what do you think that an animal like
this would do if it managed to escape
she would revert back to Basic Instincts
which is to avoid man and I don't think
you'd ever see her again she'd just
disappear somewhere I don't think they'd
ever bother people
[Music]
you know people often wonder why we
don't see these cats more often if
they're living here right alongside us
but then think of this how often do you
see foxes and Badgers only occasionally
and then by accident but there is a
difference if we were to go looking for
these animals we would see them the cats
were different proposition they are
incredibly elusive they're stealth
animals whose survival and hunting
strategy depend upon this aspect of
their Lifestyles so if we were to go
looking for them we simply wouldn't see
them which is why I'm not going to
bother but having said all of that they
do of course get seen but only through
unique chance encounters foreign
[Music]
dogs get into sheep they sort of go in
the crooked line and do more miles than
what they need to but this was straight
to the animal straight back and lamb
over and it was all finished
I just stopped still and thought am I
really seeing what I'm seeing here
because I knew it was something bigger
than just an ordinary domestic cat
the sound of the latch Disturbed the cat
out of the branch
that has the mistletoe in it
tears were quite rounded they weren't
pointed like a domestic cats ears were
black in color no White markings
and just moved like a rocket very black
quite tall as tall as my English Setters
and slinking it sort of seemed to be
slinking along the hedgerows
I looked up and I saw the cat jumping
out of the tree and landing on the brow
of the bank it just had to be a cat and
there's nothing else could do it seem to
rise up on its haunches the shoulders
were very big large back legs and it
just bounded away
[Music]
if these descriptions are accurate these
people have seen one of the world's most
dangerous man-eaters the infamous black
leopard or Panther
these dark varieties were highly prized
in the 1970s and many collectors bred
them deliberately so is it a coincidence
that so many contemporary sightings are
of black animals
[Music]
this video was sent to us at the Natural
History unit could it be proof of our
black leopard
[Music]
convinced well maybe not and you'd be
right a few minutes later up Pops a
blackbird near the same spot
but then what about this piece of video
it's even more promising
or is it
salves to show how easily distance
perspective and the effect of zoom
lenses can confuse scale and trick our
perceptions
so we can all make mistakes and what we
need to corroborate our sightings is
forensic evidence that leopards are at
Large
when there are any suspicious livestock
kills the police or local farmers call
me in to investigate and on this
occasion a farmer had gone out to a
field check his sheep and had found a
lamb dead in the middle of the field
with a bite to the throat
what I try and do when I do a postmortem
is identify how the animal has been
k*lled rather than how it's been eaten
dogs big cats other Predators k*ll in
very different ways the way that a
leopard kills normally is that it will
chase the animal
Rush at it grab it with one of its paws
belt it with the other paw grab it with
its claws and then go in for a throat
bite
this is where the upper left canine's
gone in there it's quite difficult to
see with all of the wool on the animals
that's right now here I've skinned the
uh the neck down the back of the neck
horrendous damage to the the neck at
this stage I think it could possibly
still be a dog like it's not conclusive
by this evidence alone
then when I've skinned the rest of the
animal we can see uh claw lacerations in
groups of four is what I'm looking for
and here we find the first one
is number two
I'm looking where I'd expect to find
number three and there it is
and then looking for the fourth there it
is it's looking much more like a big cat
attack but then when I pull the skin
back uh this absolutely concludes it
this is where it's been belted by the
poor
look at that and that is a horrendous
injury there is no way that a fox or a
dog or a badger could cause these sorts
of winds the ribs here are actually
broken I'll just shattered them yes over
a very small area immense impact has
been sustained there indicative of a big
catch is typical of a leopard so to
conclude then this in particular this
punching wound shattered whips huge
amount of damage to the to the animal is
pretty conclusive for Big Cat you would
say I would say absolutely conclusive
yes
[Music]
I don't think there can really be any
doubt that there are a few exotic cats
living wild in Britain and that a range
of species is involved so the next and
crucial question has to be are there
enough of any one species to find each
other and successfully breed
[Music]
Quentin Rose has been compiling evidence
Countrywide and he believes that there
are
so how do many animals do you think
there could be then I mean that's a
difficult thing to us through where
there are regular reliable sightings for
leopards 32 for Puma 10 for links six
for Jungle cat leopard cat and ocelot
now those are the areas of regular
reliable sightings not individual
animals so we're talking well over 100
big cats losing the countryside now that
is quite a significant number of cats
does that mean that therefore there's
enough to sustain a breeding population
we already have a viable breeding
population of large cats in this country
that is without a question of a doubt
and as reports continue to accumulate
others are also convinced
Paul Tyler is the MP for North Cornwall
the number of sightings we've had in the
last two or three years suggests to me
that there is actually an increasing
population I can't believe they've
suddenly got less fearful of the public
so the only possible explanation is that
they are breeding and indeed one or two
people in this area have seen mothers
with Cubs
[Music]
foreign
for the population to be viable for it
to be able to continue from generation
to generation we've got to have a
nucleus of animals in the same place and
then they've got to have a lot of luck
they've got to survive all the vagaries
of living in an alien environment with
the difficulties of living amongst a
huge population of people in the crowded
lowlands of England and they'd have to
do this without being seen all that
regularly seeing one cat now and again
is hardly evidence of a viable
population
they're still being seen if the original
animal was escaped or released in 76 had
died there would be no more sightings
but they're still being seen in fact
they're being seen now at a greater
frequency than ever before
so I would suggest that for that reason
alone they are breeding is there a
viable population of some large cat
breeding from generation to generation
in the UK I think not
with animals at such low populations
it's a matter of pure chance for
breeding to occur and as a biologist I
would have to say that there's no firm
evidence to suggest that this has
happened yet
and whilst it remains extremely unlikely
it's not impossible because it really
comes down to how many cats are out
there and the simple truth is that we
just don't know
so maybe we shouldn't be complacent if
links Puma or perhaps even leopard do
start breeding it raises some very
interesting questions because in the
United States where Pumas or mountain
lions as they call them live right
alongside people there have been some
pretty terrifying encounters
Linda Waters
it came around the corner of a game
Trail
a kind of a remote
came face to face with a very large
mountain lion
and when I first saw it I was very
enthralled and thought it was a
beautiful animal but I was immediately
very aware of its very aggressive stance
and I became very uncomfortable and I
backed off a few feet and right then I
caught out of the corner of my eye a
movement and I looked over and saw
second mountain lion so I slowly reached
down and picked up a rock and right at
that moment the line in directly in
front of me crouched down as if it was
about to pounce on me so I hurled the
Rock at it I expected the lion to just
turn tail and run but it didn't even
Flinch and at that point it all became
sort of a blur but both Lions started
pursuing me and I started just
scrambling up this very steep Hillside
and as I came to the top of the
embankment I had nowhere to go and so I
scrambled up a tree and one of the lines
came right after me and had me by the
leg and I kicked it in the head and
knocked it out of the tree and then for
about the next hour I was up in the tree
as these lions were pacing the ground
below me and I felt certain that I was
going to die and having the time to
consider the nature of being mauled to
death by two mountain lions was not a
pleasant Prospect
fortunately the cats eventually moved
off and Linda survived her ordeal
towards in my
their Instinct you know I think it's
millions of years of evolution they see
something run and they chase it
more than half of the State of
California is prime Puma habitat
something which might surprise many
visitors here but the residents live
work and play alongside these cats every
day and up until fairly recently
everything was going smoothly but then
in the last 12 years there have been
nine att*cks on people and two people
have actually been k*lled so how has it
reached this crisis point and what are
the authorities doing about it
[Music]
in Rancho cayamaka State Park just
outside San Diego there's plenty of
information for the public
but that isn't always enough
tragically in 1994 Iris canner was
k*lled here
park ranger Bob Turner
early Saturday morning Iris kinner was
hiking up the trailbird watching here we
believe she came back down this way
and the mountain lion we believe was off
onto the right side here following her
at the bend in the road here she was
att*cked knocked to the pavement right
here and it's at that point that she
never regained her footing again and she
was drugged by the lion down this Trail
over here
I sincerely hope she wasn't conscious
through the whole attack because it had
to be a horrific attack I mean just
totally terrifying
a lot of people do object when we do
k*ll a mountain lion even if a person
has been att*cked and k*lled they they
just very protective and they think the
mountain lion should be left alone
now I'm not being sensationalist but if
there can be horrific att*cks like this
in a country with as much space as the
US
what might be the consequences for our
overcrowded Little Island
s are very Territorial and the larger
males will stake out the best territory
uh when a female's young are dispersed
if they Venture into that male's
territory they will be k*lled and eaten
therefore they tend to stay out on the
fringes of his territory usually around
an urban area and these young Lions find
it very lucrative because of all the
pets that are there
Bob do you think that mountain lions see
humans as a potential prey item their
normal prey or deer rabbits things of
that nature but when they get to a point
where they're hungry and there's no prey
available to them other than people they
do see people as a prey item
[Music]
there is virtually no threat of attack
from the small number of cats lurking in
the shadows of wild Britain but just in
case the population does grow Quentin
Rose is working with several police
forces to outline the potential
implications
there are four main concerns first
they're a threat to indigenous wildlife
even alien species of cat were
introduced into the UK the likelihood is
it would be damaging for local wildlife
take the case of gray squirrels
introduced to this country to the
detriment of red squirrels so aliens
tend to be bad news
second they're a threat to livestock
too many of my neighbors who I trust
they're not people who would make this
sort of thing up have seen it and have
clear evidence of att*cks on livestock
third is the welfare of the cats
themselves
people have already started to take
clock sh*ts
nobody should take a shot of the animal
because if the animal was injured its
whole outlook would change and it was
likely to become a danger
fourth is a threat to human life
one of the steps that I've been very
anxious to to take and successfully
suffice to get the new government to
recognize that this is a serious problem
it's not something to laugh off and I
should be pressing the minister to make
sure that he recognizes it's important
too
surprisingly with all the Foresters
gamekeepers and naturalists active in
Britain there's still a dearth of good
evidence and we desperately need more
and remember whatever you think it's not
the cat's fault that they're out there
isolated individual big cats don't
present a serious problem to us here for
the very simple reason that our path so
infrequently cross and even if they did
these animals are going to be far more
frightened of us they're going to beat a
hasty retreat but what if at some stage
in the future links or maybe even Puma
started to breed here while then the
situation would change critically
because with young these animals can be
terrifyingly aggressive and if either
species manage to secure a foothold here
they would have an impact on our
livestock our native wildlife and maybe
even ourselves so it seems sensible to
begin to coordinate all the information
we have now just in case that at some
point we have to learn to live with new
neighbors
in the meantime don't have nightmares
[Music]
in search of the Tasmanian tiger thought
to be extinct but is it X creatures same
time next Wednesday on BBC One next
tonight for human robot Tomorrow's World
[Music]
well
[Music]
you can live right in the middle of big
cat's territory and never even see it
okay so so what sort of cats are we
talking about
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
cat such as a leopard or Puma could be
lethal
s
[Music]
[Music]
the idea that dangerous predators are
stalking the safe Splendor of Britain's
Countryside is unnerving but many people
have had alarming encounters and our
drama is based upon fact
so what does the future hold
[Music]
for years now there have been stories of
big cats at large in the British
Countryside the beasts of bodmin and
Exmore become part of our popular
culture and to this day sightings
continue all over the UK the authorities
are even beginning to take it seriously
and at least some of these sightings are
not of phantoms but of real animals but
the problem is that every time one of
these cat flaps blows up initially the
evidence seems very persuasive but then
it all dies down without a conclusion so
from a Zoological point of view it
couldn't be more frustrating
so what I'm going to try and do is
inject some clarity into what's actually
going on with any big cats that might be
prowling our little country
[Music]
this animal came out of the wood
straight into the middle of the flock
picked one lamb up and went back
no doubt at all what I saw was a very
large cat very large cat
it was as big as a Labrador
uh with a catch face it wasn't a dog it
was really an honesty just like a very
very big cat
everybody else was I know you must be
drunk or something but now I've seen it
it's it's just simply incredible
absolutely incredible
k*ller cat that's what it is
and k*lling is understandably what big
cats do best last December in Essex
Michael thurgood's geese were on the
sharp end of this fact foreign
one of the geese was dead in the corner
of the little pen
and the other one was along the fence as
there have been reports of sightings of
a big cat in the area I thought that I
would call the police
and the police sorry of this Goose the
leading Veterinary pathologist Dr Ronald
Monroe
well what you normally do with these
things you just examine the outside of
the body first of all and when We
examined this we found five puncture
wounds in the skin on the right breast
here and when we reflected the skin off
here you can see quite clearly the
injuries in here
these are really quite deep and they're
cut marks and now those kinds of marks
cannot be made by the claws of a dog or
a fox these are the kinds of marks that
a cat's claw can make that didn't k*ll
this bird though did it no indeed this
was where the bird had been held by the
claws the the actual k*lling was done by
being bitten on the neck with the actual
spinal cord being severed about mid-neck
so what sort of animal do you think was
responsible for k*lling this bird
this looks like an animal which is about
the size of a Labrador because the
distance between the claws numbers five
and two is about 60 millimeters and I
would suspect that this was a large cut
of the size of a European Lynx so were
you surprised when you saw this and did
that make you change your mind about the
UK big cat phenomena I mean do you think
there are big cats out there at Large
well I was absolutely astounded when I
saw this because the injuries on this do
not correspond to a dog or a fox and
there must have been a large cat free in
Essex at the time that this Goose was
k*lled
it was a Sandy color with Hefty bits on
it is
it was just standing there looking
through the fence at us
we all ran a
in May of this year a large cat was seen
prowling the playground at sharede's
Primary School in Hertfordshire
in an immediate response the authorities
took the decision to close the school
teacher Carolyn Jones was with her class
I was bringing them up to this store and
I looked down and at the very edge of
the playground sitting was
um what I thought was a very large cat I
noticed the the ears first of all they
were extremely tough years it had quite
a large face I could tell it was bigger
than a labrador my colleague saw it and
she just said it was a wild cat
but I was convinced it was a lynx
trackers made a thorough search but the
animal disappeared and now the school is
reopened so from all accounts it sounds
as if there's a flourishing population
of cats in our Countryside
but as a biologist I do know that top of
the food chain Predators like that have
very specific ecological requirements so
the first question has to be could the
UK be Big Cat Country and could a large
mammal Predator do more than survive
here could it Thrive here
well historically the answer is a very
definite yes links were common in our
forest up until 5000 years ago and
another fearsome Predator The Wharf hung
on here right up to the 1740s but what
about now
our native carnivores foxes Badgers the
birds of prey are well known to us and
we do have an indigenous feline the
Scottish wildcat
it could a much much larger cat species
live alongside them nowadays based at
Oxford University Dr David McDonald is a
mammal biologist of world renown
one of the exciting things about the cat
family is that they're very
opportunistic very adaptable as are many
other carnivores and so from the
spectrum of small cats to large cats
little things like the jungle cat which
is roughly the same size as the Scottish
wildcat in this country right through
the medium-sized ones the links the
Bobcat from North America up to pretty
big cats like leopards and Puma one can
imagine them in principle adapting to
the sort of food supply we have here now
that food supply involves in terms of
numerous prey things like rabbits
through hairs to deer and I think being
a wood like the one we're in now one can
imagine not numbers of fallow deer and
muntjac all of these could be suitable
prey for a whole spectrum of different
sizes of cats so in principle they could
live here whether in practice they'd
manage it and whether it would be a good
thing if they did those are different
questions
okay so exactly what are the candidates
well we're not talking lions and tigers
here but there is a potential among a
variety of other foreign species
there are smaller cats like leopard cats
jungle cats and ocelot
and then in increasing size there are
links puma and even one of the world's
most feared animals the leopard in its
black form known as the panther
and it's these three species which could
cause serious concern
but if there are cats here
they must be new arrivals so where have
they come from
in the 60s and 70s anyone could keep a
big cat at home and exotic cats were
just that trendy accessories High
fashion and thankfully not just for
their fur but also as outrageous status
symbols but in 1976 that all changed
the government introduced the dangerous
wild animals act
detective Constable Steve Ashcroft of
Surrey police has been investigating its
impact
the origin of the 1976 act started in
about 1971 when a chap was prosecuted in
Sutton he bred leopards and pumas at the
time and his leopard bit a little boy in
Southern High Street as a result of that
in about 1973 they started legislation
which resulted in the dangerous animals
act 1976 coming out
so what are the implications of that
were the impacts of that act was that
people who had the loan was in private
hands either had to get a Zoological
license or they had to get an
environmental health license issued by
the local Council it laid down the
conditions in which the animals kept the
heating winter quarters summer quarters
the feed the side of the cages the
number of animals that they can keep and
it names the specific animals
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so what happened to the animals that
were in captivity once that act was
actually introduced
it appears that one of three things has
happened
one is that people then applied for an
environmental health license or a zoo
license
two they didn't want to apply and they
gave the animals two zoos
or three they've released them into the
wild
so the dangerous wild animals act could
be the start of the story but it
certainly isn't the end the ACT is
riddled with loopholes and unbelievably
even today licensed cat owners have no
legal requirement to report any breeding
success or any escapes it seems the ACT
is crying out for immediate reform
aside from the many animals held in zoos
there are only eight private big cat
owners licensed in the UK Pete James is
one of them he runs an exotic leopard
breeding program that aims to return
animals to the wild in their countries
of origin
I wanted to know about the appeal of
keeping these animals as well as the
dangers
what's the attraction of keeping an
animal like this
well what you see now
hey
all right steady on steady on good girl
the actual contact with the cat you know
is sort of um to me very important and I
love every minute of it
it's hard to put in simple terms
um I'm a big cat person and uh
I get a terrific Buzz out of being with
her on a daily basis playing with her
with a ball with the sack on a rope she
enjoys it I enjoy it uh it's terrific to
be able to share that with an animal
like this have you learned a lot more
about this species through spending time
with this individual yes I've learned an
awful lot about the leopard itself it's
a very very tricky intelligent animal
as well as being dangerous
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after all of this personal contact do
you think that they ever lose their
Basic Instincts no
they'll always be wild animals no matter
what you do
there'll never be time never
she ever caught you out yeah very often
what do you think that an animal like
this would do if it managed to escape
she would revert back to Basic Instincts
which is to avoid man and I don't think
you'd ever see her again she'd just
disappear somewhere I don't think they'd
ever bother people
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you know people often wonder why we
don't see these cats more often if
they're living here right alongside us
but then think of this how often do you
see foxes and Badgers only occasionally
and then by accident but there is a
difference if we were to go looking for
these animals we would see them the cats
were different proposition they are
incredibly elusive they're stealth
animals whose survival and hunting
strategy depend upon this aspect of
their Lifestyles so if we were to go
looking for them we simply wouldn't see
them which is why I'm not going to
bother but having said all of that they
do of course get seen but only through
unique chance encounters foreign
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dogs get into sheep they sort of go in
the crooked line and do more miles than
what they need to but this was straight
to the animal straight back and lamb
over and it was all finished
I just stopped still and thought am I
really seeing what I'm seeing here
because I knew it was something bigger
than just an ordinary domestic cat
the sound of the latch Disturbed the cat
out of the branch
that has the mistletoe in it
tears were quite rounded they weren't
pointed like a domestic cats ears were
black in color no White markings
and just moved like a rocket very black
quite tall as tall as my English Setters
and slinking it sort of seemed to be
slinking along the hedgerows
I looked up and I saw the cat jumping
out of the tree and landing on the brow
of the bank it just had to be a cat and
there's nothing else could do it seem to
rise up on its haunches the shoulders
were very big large back legs and it
just bounded away
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if these descriptions are accurate these
people have seen one of the world's most
dangerous man-eaters the infamous black
leopard or Panther
these dark varieties were highly prized
in the 1970s and many collectors bred
them deliberately so is it a coincidence
that so many contemporary sightings are
of black animals
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this video was sent to us at the Natural
History unit could it be proof of our
black leopard
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convinced well maybe not and you'd be
right a few minutes later up Pops a
blackbird near the same spot
but then what about this piece of video
it's even more promising
or is it
salves to show how easily distance
perspective and the effect of zoom
lenses can confuse scale and trick our
perceptions
so we can all make mistakes and what we
need to corroborate our sightings is
forensic evidence that leopards are at
Large
when there are any suspicious livestock
kills the police or local farmers call
me in to investigate and on this
occasion a farmer had gone out to a
field check his sheep and had found a
lamb dead in the middle of the field
with a bite to the throat
what I try and do when I do a postmortem
is identify how the animal has been
k*lled rather than how it's been eaten
dogs big cats other Predators k*ll in
very different ways the way that a
leopard kills normally is that it will
chase the animal
Rush at it grab it with one of its paws
belt it with the other paw grab it with
its claws and then go in for a throat
bite
this is where the upper left canine's
gone in there it's quite difficult to
see with all of the wool on the animals
that's right now here I've skinned the
uh the neck down the back of the neck
horrendous damage to the the neck at
this stage I think it could possibly
still be a dog like it's not conclusive
by this evidence alone
then when I've skinned the rest of the
animal we can see uh claw lacerations in
groups of four is what I'm looking for
and here we find the first one
is number two
I'm looking where I'd expect to find
number three and there it is
and then looking for the fourth there it
is it's looking much more like a big cat
attack but then when I pull the skin
back uh this absolutely concludes it
this is where it's been belted by the
poor
look at that and that is a horrendous
injury there is no way that a fox or a
dog or a badger could cause these sorts
of winds the ribs here are actually
broken I'll just shattered them yes over
a very small area immense impact has
been sustained there indicative of a big
catch is typical of a leopard so to
conclude then this in particular this
punching wound shattered whips huge
amount of damage to the to the animal is
pretty conclusive for Big Cat you would
say I would say absolutely conclusive
yes
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I don't think there can really be any
doubt that there are a few exotic cats
living wild in Britain and that a range
of species is involved so the next and
crucial question has to be are there
enough of any one species to find each
other and successfully breed
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Quentin Rose has been compiling evidence
Countrywide and he believes that there
are
so how do many animals do you think
there could be then I mean that's a
difficult thing to us through where
there are regular reliable sightings for
leopards 32 for Puma 10 for links six
for Jungle cat leopard cat and ocelot
now those are the areas of regular
reliable sightings not individual
animals so we're talking well over 100
big cats losing the countryside now that
is quite a significant number of cats
does that mean that therefore there's
enough to sustain a breeding population
we already have a viable breeding
population of large cats in this country
that is without a question of a doubt
and as reports continue to accumulate
others are also convinced
Paul Tyler is the MP for North Cornwall
the number of sightings we've had in the
last two or three years suggests to me
that there is actually an increasing
population I can't believe they've
suddenly got less fearful of the public
so the only possible explanation is that
they are breeding and indeed one or two
people in this area have seen mothers
with Cubs
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foreign
for the population to be viable for it
to be able to continue from generation
to generation we've got to have a
nucleus of animals in the same place and
then they've got to have a lot of luck
they've got to survive all the vagaries
of living in an alien environment with
the difficulties of living amongst a
huge population of people in the crowded
lowlands of England and they'd have to
do this without being seen all that
regularly seeing one cat now and again
is hardly evidence of a viable
population
they're still being seen if the original
animal was escaped or released in 76 had
died there would be no more sightings
but they're still being seen in fact
they're being seen now at a greater
frequency than ever before
so I would suggest that for that reason
alone they are breeding is there a
viable population of some large cat
breeding from generation to generation
in the UK I think not
with animals at such low populations
it's a matter of pure chance for
breeding to occur and as a biologist I
would have to say that there's no firm
evidence to suggest that this has
happened yet
and whilst it remains extremely unlikely
it's not impossible because it really
comes down to how many cats are out
there and the simple truth is that we
just don't know
so maybe we shouldn't be complacent if
links Puma or perhaps even leopard do
start breeding it raises some very
interesting questions because in the
United States where Pumas or mountain
lions as they call them live right
alongside people there have been some
pretty terrifying encounters
Linda Waters
it came around the corner of a game
Trail
a kind of a remote
came face to face with a very large
mountain lion
and when I first saw it I was very
enthralled and thought it was a
beautiful animal but I was immediately
very aware of its very aggressive stance
and I became very uncomfortable and I
backed off a few feet and right then I
caught out of the corner of my eye a
movement and I looked over and saw
second mountain lion so I slowly reached
down and picked up a rock and right at
that moment the line in directly in
front of me crouched down as if it was
about to pounce on me so I hurled the
Rock at it I expected the lion to just
turn tail and run but it didn't even
Flinch and at that point it all became
sort of a blur but both Lions started
pursuing me and I started just
scrambling up this very steep Hillside
and as I came to the top of the
embankment I had nowhere to go and so I
scrambled up a tree and one of the lines
came right after me and had me by the
leg and I kicked it in the head and
knocked it out of the tree and then for
about the next hour I was up in the tree
as these lions were pacing the ground
below me and I felt certain that I was
going to die and having the time to
consider the nature of being mauled to
death by two mountain lions was not a
pleasant Prospect
fortunately the cats eventually moved
off and Linda survived her ordeal
towards in my
their Instinct you know I think it's
millions of years of evolution they see
something run and they chase it
more than half of the State of
California is prime Puma habitat
something which might surprise many
visitors here but the residents live
work and play alongside these cats every
day and up until fairly recently
everything was going smoothly but then
in the last 12 years there have been
nine att*cks on people and two people
have actually been k*lled so how has it
reached this crisis point and what are
the authorities doing about it
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in Rancho cayamaka State Park just
outside San Diego there's plenty of
information for the public
but that isn't always enough
tragically in 1994 Iris canner was
k*lled here
park ranger Bob Turner
early Saturday morning Iris kinner was
hiking up the trailbird watching here we
believe she came back down this way
and the mountain lion we believe was off
onto the right side here following her
at the bend in the road here she was
att*cked knocked to the pavement right
here and it's at that point that she
never regained her footing again and she
was drugged by the lion down this Trail
over here
I sincerely hope she wasn't conscious
through the whole attack because it had
to be a horrific attack I mean just
totally terrifying
a lot of people do object when we do
k*ll a mountain lion even if a person
has been att*cked and k*lled they they
just very protective and they think the
mountain lion should be left alone
now I'm not being sensationalist but if
there can be horrific att*cks like this
in a country with as much space as the
US
what might be the consequences for our
overcrowded Little Island
s are very Territorial and the larger
males will stake out the best territory
uh when a female's young are dispersed
if they Venture into that male's
territory they will be k*lled and eaten
therefore they tend to stay out on the
fringes of his territory usually around
an urban area and these young Lions find
it very lucrative because of all the
pets that are there
Bob do you think that mountain lions see
humans as a potential prey item their
normal prey or deer rabbits things of
that nature but when they get to a point
where they're hungry and there's no prey
available to them other than people they
do see people as a prey item
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there is virtually no threat of attack
from the small number of cats lurking in
the shadows of wild Britain but just in
case the population does grow Quentin
Rose is working with several police
forces to outline the potential
implications
there are four main concerns first
they're a threat to indigenous wildlife
even alien species of cat were
introduced into the UK the likelihood is
it would be damaging for local wildlife
take the case of gray squirrels
introduced to this country to the
detriment of red squirrels so aliens
tend to be bad news
second they're a threat to livestock
too many of my neighbors who I trust
they're not people who would make this
sort of thing up have seen it and have
clear evidence of att*cks on livestock
third is the welfare of the cats
themselves
people have already started to take
clock sh*ts
nobody should take a shot of the animal
because if the animal was injured its
whole outlook would change and it was
likely to become a danger
fourth is a threat to human life
one of the steps that I've been very
anxious to to take and successfully
suffice to get the new government to
recognize that this is a serious problem
it's not something to laugh off and I
should be pressing the minister to make
sure that he recognizes it's important
too
surprisingly with all the Foresters
gamekeepers and naturalists active in
Britain there's still a dearth of good
evidence and we desperately need more
and remember whatever you think it's not
the cat's fault that they're out there
isolated individual big cats don't
present a serious problem to us here for
the very simple reason that our path so
infrequently cross and even if they did
these animals are going to be far more
frightened of us they're going to beat a
hasty retreat but what if at some stage
in the future links or maybe even Puma
started to breed here while then the
situation would change critically
because with young these animals can be
terrifyingly aggressive and if either
species manage to secure a foothold here
they would have an impact on our
livestock our native wildlife and maybe
even ourselves so it seems sensible to
begin to coordinate all the information
we have now just in case that at some
point we have to learn to live with new
neighbors
in the meantime don't have nightmares
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in search of the Tasmanian tiger thought
to be extinct but is it X creatures same
time next Wednesday on BBC One next
tonight for human robot Tomorrow's World