There is ”little doubt” that significant numbers of big cats such as pumas and lynxes are roaming the British countryside, with more than four sightings of such beasts reported per day, a campaign group said on Tuesday.
The British Big Cats Society (BBCS), set up to compile evidence that such beasts live wild in the country, has called for a government-run scientific study of population numbers.
Unveiling the results of its own 15-month survey, which recorded more than 2 000 sightings, the society concluded that there is ”little doubt that big cats are roaming Britain”.
”The evidence has been growing and is increasingly clear,” BBCS founder Danny Bamping said.
”We are now going to approach the proper authorities to ask for their support in undertaking a properly funded scientific study on the big cats in Britain.”
For many years there have been reports that large, feral wild cats such as pumas have been living around Britain, most commonly in the temperate Devon and Cornwall regions of southwest England.
It is thought that most escaped or were released from private zoos.
Efforts to track or even catch animals such as the so-called ”Beast of Bodmin”, which has reputedly stalked moorland and attacked livestock in Cornwall for years, have proved difficult.
However, according to the BBCS a wealth of evidence including hairs, plaster casts of pawprints, photographs and video footage has been gathered.
While perhaps alarming to ramblers and the like, the BBCS added that the presence of big cats — some of which, such as the lynx, were native to Britain centuries ago — might not be an entirely bad thing.
Many scientists now believe that the country’s population of grazing animals do not face enough natural predators to keep populations under control, said zoologist Chris Mosier, an adviser to the society.
”The re-introduction of the lynx might, if handled correctly, help to balance this situation,” he said.
”With an increased wariness of and tightening of controls on firearms and the increasingly unacceptability of hunting with dogs, the return of one of our long-lost predators may give hope to farmers and landowners.” — Sapa-AFP