01x05 - Big Cats in a Little Country

[bunniefuu]

[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

att*ck 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

d*ed 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 att*ck because it had

to be a horrific att*ck 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 thr*at of att*ck

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 thr*at 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 thr*at 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 sh*t 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 thr*at 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 b*at 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