Big Cats

triskell

i had situation a few years ago > i was stalkin deer in a coilte fotrestry in clare/galwayit was early morning 7:30 just getting bright i spotted 3 deer a doe and 2 prickets on the othe side of the valley. i millied it and it was about 475 yards. i was wonderin how i was going to get close enough to take a shot 200 yards or less, somthing frighened them and they just took off. Im thinking how the f**k did they see/smell from here. just then somthing big and black came out of tree cover and went after them i saw it for about 10 seconds through 10x50 binos before it went into trees on other side of break. It took me nearly an hour to get across. all i could find were some tracks in the bog where it had come out of the trees. I took some pics of the tracks, on the way home i spoke to a farmer on the mountain not about big cats(big cats+fella with agun= nutcase) he told me of a lot of sheep geting lost on the mountain each year and very few deer around.

i showed the pictures to a local vet who siad they weren't dog prints and were too big for a domestic cat. he didnt know what made them so he sent them to a friend in the states who never replied and who lost the pictures
I have seen docs on the discovery channel about big cats and the way they move. at the risk of being classified as unfit to hold a firearms licience Id swear that i saw puma

Umiq88

:eek:



* Please note looking through these may make objects apear bigger than usual

demonloop

I nearly wet myself, post of the year to psittacosis!!!

Rovi

I'm not doubting your account at all, dfaf.
After all, 'exotic' animals have been escaping/released into the Irish countryside for centuries. Pheasants, mink, grey squirrels, etc all thrive here. No reason at all why something large and carnivorous shouldn't survive and thrive too.
Only in the last month were we hearing stories of people finding snakes about the place-
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2006/0722/1152913531950.html

If a big cat keeps a low profile (as they tend to do), it could live quite contentedly in Ireland for a good long time. People aren't used to seeing big cats here, so unless it's something instantly recognisable like a male lion or a tiger, it'll be rationalised away as a big dog or somesuch. Very few people here know what big cat tracks look like either, and kills of sheep or calves will be put down to marauding dogs.
About the only thing not in their favour is the absence of a mate, so there's practically no possibility of a viable population establishing itself, unlike the squirrels and mink.

Clare gunner

Top marks psitt:D
Rovi ,there is only one slight problem with your theory.In winter the kills should increase as said big cat gets hungrier.Also Big cats have a certain MO for killing,IE some take the kill up trees, or bury it or whatever,also what happens if the cat is disturbed with it's kill?The kill pattern would show up what kind of big cat it is.IE lions kill in a differnt way than from say a black panther.Also why is it never possible for anyone to get a proper cast of the paw tracks or for anyone in a zoological dept here to positively ID it??
Also,why do these big cats always show up in Summer in the papers or wherever??? Silly Season perhaps??

triskell

i accept it's hard to belive that there may be larger than usual cats around. but this is neither newspaper or tv, nothing to be gained by sharing something odd i saw. this happened on alovely bright november morning
i have shot deer for last 15 years and never saw anything else i could not explain, some of those coilte forests in galway clare are huge 100s acres with very limited access to the public anything could hide in there and not be seen ,duchas did a survey afew years back and i 1 particular forest they reckoned there was 15-30 deer. a few weeks later i saw 27 deer in 1 area of the wood (maybe there was a party or something on)
any one who has shot coilte forestry will agree it can be impassable in places, as to food goats sheep even cows and donkeys are all wondering aroud in these places.
i have come across the odd carcase of deer and sheep (poachers maybe)