Big Cat Sightings Gain Credibility in UK

Throughout the world, sightings of big cats, particularly panthers have been sighted in unusual places where these species don’t normally inhabit.  Sometimes they’re even spotted by several people in an urban environment and never seen again in that area.  This has been going on for decades with no reasonable explanation.  But now the head of a government organization designed to look over such cases in England has come forward saying he conclusively believes there’s something to it.

Though the sightings are fairly obviously contained in the realms outside consensus mainstream reality, they still don’t necessarily constitute an inherently supernatural or magical explanation even if they do remain unseen.  Such sightings are often considered to be within the realm of cryptozoology, though they sometimes happen in conjunction with other types of paranormal activity.  The comments made to the veracity of claims regarding big cat sightings in England were made following a dossier listing more than 100 sightings of unidentified exotic animals made in England in the past five years.  38 of the sightings were big cats, ranging in nature from an actual sighting of the creature itself to finding tracks and other evidence around an animal that appeared to have been attacked by such a creature.

Charlie Wilson, who voiced his belief that there may be something to the phenomenon commented to one British newspaper suggesting that his belief was that the big cats were most likely transported from elsewhere and then either escaped, released, or were dumped somewhere and have been living in the wild since then.  When asked about the possible dangers of these creatures around civilized areas, Mr. Wilson commented that it was likely they would be avoiding human contact and there were so few of them that it was a distinct likelihood that people would not often encounter them.  When taking into consideration the possibility of one of these wild cats actually hurting a human being, he said the chances were approaching zero.

When asked what he did with the reports, Mr. Wilson told reporters he logged them into his system, but that the organization lacked the resources to really follow up on them much more than that.  Instead, patterns are thoroughly watched and conclusions are drawn about the possible habitat of some of the creatures.  The evidence gathering process was, however, more possible in the case of discovering an animal slaughtered by one of these feline predators.  In the case of livestock, samples can be taken, wounds can be studied to see the size and angle of teeth, and the surrounding area can be searched for fur, droppings, and tracks.  So far several cases have been studied with inconclusive results.

One theory that has been proposed is that these creatures were introduced into the UK in the 1970’s when the Dangerous Wild Animals Act was passed, which prohibited dangerous animals, such as big cats without special permits and training.  Will these big cat sightings be conclusively solved in the near future?  Only time will be able to tell with any certainty.