GOTO Neils Original report HERE
UPDATE:
Since I wrote of ‘mystery cats in Sussex’ previous on this website, reports of exotic felids across the South-East have come into KENT BIG CAT RESEARCH at a record rate. This doesn’t necessarily suggest that there are more cats roaming the south than ever, but more so that the public are becoming more and more aware of these predators, and have more knowledge to the variation of species roaming the countryside.
There are still an alarming number of sceptical people out there who fail to see the evidence to support populations of exotic felids, and there are also many people who believe these cats should be destroyed, simply because they fail to understand the nature of these animals, which the press have, for many years, portrayed as nothing more than savage killers of livestock, simply to create pathetic headlines.
KENT BIG CAT RESEARCH usually receives over one-hundred eye-witness reports a year from the Sussex area, which when divided down statistically, only means eight sightings per month on average, which simply proves how elusive these animals are, despite the fact that some of these sightings may come in clusters which enables us to track their routes and monitor whether these animals are individual felids or animals with young. 85% of these reports involve the Black Leopard, the rest are usually divided by Lynx and Puma, but there is also a minority covered by other smaller exotics such as Jungle Cat which can remain undetected for months, if not years.
The ‘myths’ surrounding ‘big cat’ sightings across Britain is slowly diminishing due to the abundance of reports that local researchers receive, as well as the calls to police, local authorities, wildlife organisations etc, but gradually there will be population explosions. If, for example there are one-hundred and fifty Black Leopard roaming Britain, this will slowly rise, as it has been doing for the last fifty to sixty years or so, and these figures will multiply.
This was a concern raised by expert tracker Quentin Rose, who sadly passed away last year. His main concern was for public safety, simply due to the fact that man continues to fell woodland in order to build housing estates etc, and so these cats will cross towns at night. Attacks on humans so far are almost one-off occurrences, but in the US, despite deer, bees and dogs causing more deaths each year, there are some incidents where humans, particularly joggers, are attacked, and killed by Cougars (Puma, Mountain Lion), and such cats, which roam Sussex, naturally have a killer instinct so attacks on humans cannot be ruled out, despite the fact that there is enough wildlife for these cats to feed on.
On April 12th, 2003 The Daily Mirror reported the, “7ft Panther At Seaside”!!. Sure, such a headline sounded like a late April Fool’s prank, but the facts were, a large, Black Leopard was sighted at Portslade at 3:30am by a milkman who saw the cat loping down Southdown Road. A similar cat had been observed near Hove two weeks previous and there had also been sightings at Henfield, Lewes and East Chiltington, and the police came up with there usual, casual observation that, “…we take these things seriously in the sense these animals could be a danger to themselves or to the public”, but such so-called authorities then follow up such a report by sending a bored officer out in his car for a few minutes, and of course, nothing is found. Do they expect these animals, which are covering over seventy-square miles, to be sitting there waiting for them ?
During mid-March 2003 a lady from Patcham sighted a small Puma creeping
around the side of a house as she drove home. At first glance she took the
animal to be a fox, until she saw its long tail sweep the floor. The animal
was fawn-tan coloured, and slinked out of view as the witness approached.
Around the same time a large, black cat was seen by a motorist near Burgess
Hill. The lady witness was driving home from work late at night when she
rounded a bend and saw a Labrador-sized cat standing in the middle of the
road around fifty yards away. The woman slowed the car just in time to catch
the yellowish glow of its eyes before it slipped into the woods on the right
hand side of the road, its long tail flicking casually behind it.
Those sceptical towards exotic cat sightings across Britain will never be
convinced, it’s as if they want dead bodies of these enigmatic cats
to be turning up, smashed by cars or full of bullet holes, but rarely will
this happen. Smaller exotics have been hit by vehicles, felids such as Leopard
Cats and Lynx have on the rare occasion been shot, but if any trigger-happy
person manages to get such a cat in their sights, it is more than likely
that they will simply injure the felid, causing it to be dangerous.
In East Sussex during the Autumn of 2001 it was alleged that a male witness
had a grapple with a Lynx whilst clearing undergrowth. The incident occurred
at Newick Hill, an area where Lynx have been sighted. The man was working
on a farm when a cat, “…three times the size of a domestic cat”,
leapt upon him and the man struggled to keep it at arms length, as it attempted
to claw him with its back legs. It is alleged that the cat attempted to
pierce the mans thick gloves, as he managed to throw it to the floor, where
it began to scream before running off into the woods.
Such cases are always overblown, not just by the press but by the witnesses
and often the researchers who deal with them. Some encounters cannot be
avoided, although it must be said that it is quite remote for someone to
get so close to a felid unless it is surprised. A felid such as a Lynx has
a fearsome hiss unnerving enough to frighten off a bear, let alone a human.
Cat attacks will certainly occur especially in situations as described above
and it is only natural for witnesses to either defend themselves or to run!
Many people question exotic cat sightings but have never taken the time
to look at the woodlands around them, heavy foliage that often shelters
native animals such as the badger and the more frequently seen fox. Large
cats are naturally elusive, almost to the extent of disappearing for any
length of time. Britain provides sufficient habitat for now, and this is
proven by the fact that for every day a cat is sighted, there passes by
three or four when these animals remain from public view.
In 1970 an animal, first thought to be a large cat, was spotted near the
Ashdown Forest shortly after it had attacked a dog. A closer encounter with
the savage creature resulted in a witness describing the animal as being
black and tan in colouration and having yellow streaks on its body. Hair
samples and spoor casts were identified by the Natural History Museum as
being from a spotted hyena! Allegedly the animal was shot soon after but
fled the scene, never to be seen again.
Sightings of such animals have to be taken seriously, you’d be surprised
as to what is out there, and whilst animals such as the Hyena are not living
in abundance, or probably in any number in the British countryside, large
cats are the most adaptable animals roaming the planet, and whilst the sceptics
perceive these felids as being poor survivors in our climate, one only has
to look at the habitat in which the Lynx, or even the Cougar inhabits, from
warm, rocky mountain ranges, to snow-laden hillsides. Britain is big cat
country, and Sussex is just another wooded area that provides shelter for
an animal that is certainly here to stay.
Log on to: www.tudor34.freeserve.co.uk/beast_of_blue_bell_hill.htm to learn more about the exotic cats roaming the south-east.
NEIL ARNOLD has run KENT BIG CAT RESEARCH for more than eleven years, and
also writes about folklore.
Further information can be read at: www.roadghosts.com
Top of Page main page: www.yeoldesussexpages.com