Britains big cat X files revealed

By Jasper Copping Published: 9:00PM GMT 06 March 2010

Handout print of a animal, believed to be a big cat, prowling close to a naval bottom in Scotland Photo: PA

They are the things of farming fable but for decades, purported sightings of big cats stalking the British panorama have been discharged as anything forged or fantasy.

Yet right away the head of a Government group obliged for questioning such incidents has spoken that he believes these puzzling creatures do in truth exist.

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His comments follow the recover of a dossier by Natural England that lists some-more than 100 sightings of exotic, non-native and unclear animals in England given 2005.

Of these, 38 were "big cats". In a little cases, members of the open claimed to have seen the quadruped itself; on alternative occasions, they reported anticipating plantation or wild animals that had been pounded or killed.

The papers Britain"s "big cats X Files" show the border to that Natural England takes the reports seriously.

The group has launched multiform investigations, involving site visits by officials and the drafting in of dilettante vets to inspect injuries.

Big cat sightings have been reported all over England. In a little areas they have spawned legends, such as the ostensible Beast of Bodmin in the south west.

The investigations have nonetheless to find decisive explanation of the participation of the puzzling creatures but, asked about their existence, Charlie Wilson, who coordinates reports for the Government agency, said: "The justification is there that there are the odd, escaped, expelled dumped animals occurring in the wild each right away and then.

"We know that. I am utterly rebuilt to hold that. I don"t think there are any tact populations, however.

"If they are there, the numbers are so small that any risk of people occurrence them is flattering small and any risks they benefaction are somewhere coming zero."

He added: "All reports are logged in the system. If there is customarily a sighting, afterwards there is not customarily majority some-more than can be finished to follow it up.

"But we are means to do so if there is something a bit some-more discernible that we could see at, similar to the carcases of alternative animals, or tracks. There are reports that spin out to be plausible."

One speculation is that multiform large species, such as panthers, leopards and lynx, were on purpose expelled in to the wild by their owners in the 1970s after the key of the Dangerous Wild Animals Act, that placed restrictions on the keeping of sure species.

In one "big cat" investigation, a carcase from an ostrich plantation in Cambridgeshire was carefully thought about and the site was monitored.

In another, in Surrey, a roe deer was dragged over dual fences, had the carcase eviscerated and was left with puncture marks. Natural England was sensitive by military and the officials complicated photographs.

In Lincolnshire, a rancher found multiform of his sheep killed and eaten. On a little of the carcases customarily the skull and spinal column were left. The rancher pronounced the conflict was down to a big cat and officials visited the site. Photos of the carcases were taken.

In an additional case, an harmed equine was found in a margin in Warwickshire, with scratch outlines scratched in it. In a serve report, officials complicated photographs of passed foxes, believed to have been scavenged by a big cat in Suffolk.

One big cat, speckled by a roadside in between the villages of Mark and Burtle, in Somerset, was pronounced to be as tall as a car. In an additional sighting in the same county, a engineer on the M5 reported saying a big cat in an diagonally opposite field.

While majority of the investigations have been "inconclusive", others have been resolved. A ostensible big cat seen in Norfolk, for instance, incited out to be a badger.

Danny Bamping, from the British Big Cats Society, pronounced the genuine series of sightings would be even higher.

"Believing in big cats is not similar to desiring in the Loch Ness monster," he said. "There is positively no disbelief that they are out there.

"The majority convincing reports are from farmers, and those guys know their stuff. We have additionally had policemen stating sightings to us. For each report, there are going to be others who don"t worry to inform it."

As well as the big cats, the Natural England dossier sum alternative investigations which, in a little cases, have found justification of the participation of outlandish class at large.

For instance, raccoon dogs local to Middle East and Russia were reliable as vital in Oxfordshire and West Berkshire, whilst Siberian chipmunks, that can lift deadly diseases, have additionally been reliable in Berkshire, Wiltshire and Cheshire.

Dead raccoons have been found in Kent and Hampshire, whilst there has additionally been a convincing though vague inform of a vital one in Surrey.

A gnawing turtle, dual feet prolonged and 10 to twelve inches wide, was additionally detected in Kent. The dossier states that the class "can be dangerous" and says that the animal indispensable trapping and destroying.

Fourteen coypus were additionally reported. The large South American rodent was brought to the UK by hair farmers in the 1930s, but a little transient and determined wild populations.

These were thought to have been eradicated following a large-scale trapping exercise.

The new sightings could indicate that a little sojourn at large, nonetheless nothing were valid conclusively.

A sighting of a wallaroo an Australian animal that is not as big than a kangaroo but incomparable than a wallaby vital in Cornwall was taken as being credible, nonetheless not proven.

Other unconfirmed sightings embody some-more raccoons and raccoon dogs, a wolf in Surrey, and a level dog in Buckinghamshire.

Twenty-eight of the sightings concerned wild boar, that have transient from farms and turn determined in a little tools of the nation in new years. Sightings in alternative areas are still closely monitored.

The report was disclosed in reply to a Freedom of Information ask by The Sunday Telegraph.