Big cats: The truth is out there...

17 September 2009

STRIPPED: A lamb carcass which was found in Trottiscliffe in May this year.

OFTEN taken no more seriously than alien abductions or ghost stories, big cat sightings are frequently dismissed by sceptics as cases of mistaken identity or the products of an all too fertile imagination.

But researcher and author Neil Arnold has a message for all of the doubters - big cats are definitely out there.

EXPERT: Neil Arnold.

The 34-year-old has been researching big cat sightings from his base in Kent for more than 20 years and has recently produced a book on the subject entitled Mystery Animals in Kent.

Among the cats seen in the county are lynxes, which are easily identified by their tufted ears, fawn coloured pumas and, most commonly, black leopards, which are often mistakenly referred to as 'black panthers'.

EVIDENCE: A paw print cast.

Black leopards have darker coats due to a genetic mutation which results in a condition known as melanism giving them an increased amount of dark pigmentation.

Mr Arnold said: "If you see a leopard on television, it has a sandy coloured coat with rosette patterns across the coat so people don't realise they can be black.

"They are really very dark brown and if you got close enough to one you could see the rosette pattern under the coat. The press used to talk about black panthers as if it was a species of cat, but there's no such thing as black panthers."

In their native Africa, melanistic leopards are much less common than their more colourful cousins, but those spotted in the UK are always all black.

Mr Arnold says this fact provides compelling evidence to explain how they came to be in the UK countryside to begin with.

He said: "In the '60s they were an iconic animal to buy.

"People thought they were quite flash walking down Soho high street with a black leopard and there was a big explosion in the 1960s and 1970s when you could walk into Harrods and buy one, generally a cub."

But new laws introduced in the Dangerous Wild Animals Act in 1976 banned the keeping of leopards as domestic pets by unlicensed owners, resulting in many of the animals being released into the wild.

Mr Arnold added: "We have only got black leopards in the UK and not normal leopards.

"This is because if you get a black leopard pair then they will only produce black offspring.

"So, what we are seeing now is the offspring of the cats released in the 70s roughly. It can't be the same animals because they only live for about 15 or 16 years."

Last year he received 180 reports of sightings across the county with around 44 per cent coming from the Dartford and Gravesend area and many others from across Bromley and Bexley. Contrary to what many people may think, the expert says the wooded areas around south-east London and Kent provide the perfect habitat for big cats.

He said: "They are very well established. People think that if there are so many of them, then why aren't there massacres - but they are not man-eaters.

"They mainly hunt at night and in the UK they have perfect shelter and there's so much food out there for an animal like a leopard. It could probably have three rabbits a day and it wouldn't need anything else.

"Dartford used to be a really hot area particularly around Dartford Heath. But, because a cat that is in Dartford can be seen in Bromley or Bexley, you can only really determine how many are there if you are getting reports every night very close together and that very rarely happens.

"The territory is big and they can go from Dartford to areas around Bromley, Bexley and Sidcup and then come back down towards Higham. They are going to be establishing their own territory but, judging by reports I have had, I would say there has got to be between five and 10 black leopards alone in the area - though they are very very elusive."

Mr Arnold receives reports

of sightings from all over the county and despite the perception held by many, he says the witnesses are not lunatics.

He said: "I'd say 90 per cent of witnesses know what they're seeing. Generally, if someone rings up and says 'we saw this black cat 500 yards away for a couple of seconds', then I don't take it seriously . However, there are a lot more out there than people realise.

"You have to rely on eyewitness reports and, obviously, you have to take them with a pinch of salt.

"At the end of the day, eyewitnesses are important in a court of law, but if 100 people say they have seen a big cat they are either mad or drunk, according to some of the sceptics.

"They are about six-foot long, so when people say to me 'are you sure they are not a domestic cat?', it's just ridiculous."

Elusive the animals may be, but they do occasionally leave behind evidence.

"People have got to know what they are looking for," said Mr Arnold. "There are probably farmers out there losing sheep and blaming dogs and foxes and they don't realise what's doing it.

"Generally, evidence is usually in the form of livestock kills and that for me is the best form of evidence. I have got film footage of cats, but you have to sit out for hours and hours. Farmers do lose livestock."

One such carcass, of a lamb which had had its flesh and organs stripped clean off, was found in a field in Trottiscliffe in May. It is this distinctive method of eating the prey that is one of the hallmarks of a big cat kill.

"When a cat kills, it kills like no other animal. It brings its prey down with a bite to the throat, dislocates the neck and then it will rasp away the fleece and peel it right back and do it really cleanly. Dogs just rip and tear foxes make quiet a lot of mess and what a leopard sometimes does as well is drag prey up into trees, which is quite a weird sight to see."

l The Mystery Animals of Kent is published by Jonathan Downes and is available direct from Neil Arnold now.

For copies of the book or to report a big cat sighting, call him on: 01634 830384 or log on to: www.kentbigcats.blogspot.com for more information.