Big Cat Sighting

[Greyman 28,085]

What I,m saying to you is that if you had a captive bred cat in a zoo or a cage and it escaped it would not know how or what to hunt and as it gets hungry it will start to have a go and make a mess of things it will be spotted by people it will attack more farm animals than a wild ones and make loads of mistakes until it gets recaptured shot or eventually adapts, the few that did adapt would then be able to teach there offspring to hunt and kill efficiently which is what appears to be happening today

[Greb147 6,809]

5 minutes ago, Greyman said:

What I,m saying to you is that if you had a captive bred cat in a zoo or a cage and it escaped it would not know how or what to hunt and as it gets hungry it will start to have a go and make a mess of things it will be spotted by people it will attack more farm animals than a wild ones and make loads of mistakes until it gets recaptured shot or eventually adapts, the few that did adapt would then be able to teach there offspring to hunt and kill efficiently which is what appears to be happening today

So why weren't the early escapees captured or shot in the first place? 

You can clearly see captivated animals are capable of hunting. 

Have you heard of Project Tiger in South Africa? 

Even if the cats did become proficient hunters they would still choose easy prey. 

Edited October 9, 2020 by Greb147

[keepdiggin 9,559]

8 minutes ago, Greb147 said:

 

Have you heard of Project Tiger in South Africa? 

Yes it's very interesting mate be better when they release lion and hyena in the same enclosure 

[EDDIE B 3,159]

41 minutes ago, Greyman said:

What I,m saying to you is that if you had a captive bred cat in a zoo or a cage and it escaped it would not know how or what to hunt and as it gets hungry it will start to have a go and make a mess of things it will be spotted by people it will attack more farm animals than a wild ones and make loads of mistakes until it gets recaptured shot or eventually adapts, the few that did adapt would then be able to teach there offspring to hunt and kill efficiently which is what appears to be happening today

Ok that sounds more on the lines of how im thinking. I do feel though that they may adapt quicker than what is being suggested on here.

[Greyman 28,085]

27 minutes ago, EDDIE B said:

Ok that sounds more on the lines of how im thinking. I do feel though that they may adapt quicker than what is being suggested on here.

There rearing would have a big impact on how things went, as I said there are two black leopards in captivity the male is hand reared the female not, if the pen got breached over night she would probably be gone and not seen again he would be sat there still waiting for breakfast or just wandering around,  places like Bodmin and exmoor were far more quiet and remote in the 70s so the adaptation had more chance to pan out, after all the initial sightings things went quiet for some time but now farmers like the one that lost those sheep will have a few attacks each year at around the same time of year this indicates that the cat now has an established territory which again will take time and several generations to establish, the territory s are massive at the moment but as the population grows territory will reduce and tracking and identifying individuals will get a bit easier, i,ve mentioned it before but in the states were there is a lot of monitoring of the pumas, there is a known tracked male with a territory of 400 square miles, that is one cat in 400 square miles and I would say here they are possibly bigger ?? 

[Greb147 6,809]

15 minutes ago, Greyman said:

There rearing would have a big impact on how things went, as I said there are two black leopards in captivity the male is hand reared the female not, if the pen got breached over night she would probably be gone and not seen again he would be sat there still waiting for breakfast or just wandering around,  places like Bodmin and exmoor were far more quiet and remote in the 70s so the adaptation had more chance to pan out, after all the initial sightings things went quiet for some time but now farmers like the one that lost those sheep will have a few attacks each year at around the same time of year this indicates that the cat now has an established territory which again will take time and several generations to establish, the territory s are massive at the moment but as the population grows territory will reduce and tracking and identifying individuals will get a bit easier, i,ve mentioned it before but in the states were there is a lot of monitoring of the pumas, there is a known tracked male with a territory of 400 square miles, that is one cat in 400 square miles and I would say here they are possibly bigger ?? 

A cat over here wouldn't need such a vast territory as there is an abundance of prey in these areas. 

[keepdiggin 9,559]

4 minutes ago, Greb147 said:

A cat over here wouldn't need such a vast territory as there is an abundance of prey in these areas. 

I thought the idea was to have a bigger a territory as possible?

[Greb147 6,809]

2 minutes ago, keepdiggin said:

I thought the idea was to have a bigger a territory as possible?

Not at all, a cats territory is governed by the availability of resources such as food. 

If there is ample prey then there's no need to have such a vast territory. 

Why on earth would a cat choose to cover hundreds of square miles when there's plenty of easy pickings on the doorstep? 

[bell 3,591]

7 minutes ago, Greb147 said:

Not at all, a cats territory is governed by the availability of resources such as food. 

If there is ample prey then there's no need to have such a vast territory. 

Why on earth would a cat choose to cover hundreds of square miles when there's plenty of easy pickings on the doorstep? 

That was my point a few pages back.  Why dont they simply remain in a wood next to a field of sheep and kill one every few days or when they need to feed ?

[Greyman 28,085]

5 minutes ago, Greb147 said:

Not at all, a cats territory is governed by the availability of resources such as food. 

If there is ample prey then there's no need to have such a vast territory. 

Why on earth would a cat choose to cover hundreds of square miles when there's plenty of easy pickings on the doorstep? 

The same reason you spent hundreds of hours getting ready to go out looking your most splendid and travelling miles round your local pubs and clubs with your tongue on the floor, SEX if there were only a few here and a few there the urge to breed is what will send them on there travels and once they have a female or two that will be the size of the territory as they will keep on revisiting until she is in season and ready to mate 

[keepdiggin 9,559]

8 minutes ago, Greb147 said:

Not at all, a cats territory is governed by the availability of resources such as food. 

If there is ample prey then there's no need to have such a vast territory. 

Why on earth would a cat choose to cover hundreds of square miles when there's plenty of easy pickings on the doorstep? 

So let's say a male leopard is running loose in the UK is he going to think I'll only have a 5mile territory with no females in it or he he going to branch out further in hope of overlapping with a,female?

[Greyman 28,085]

2 minutes ago, bell said:

That was my point a few pages back.  Why dont they simply remain in a wood next to a field of sheep and kill one every few days or when they need to feed ?

If a large predator is in the woods for a few weeks the prey items move on so the predator moves with them and as you know the seasons bring different things at different times of the year, so young birds rabbits and hares in the crops early season and woods during winter for the deer and cover

[bell 3,591]

1 minute ago, Greyman said:

If a large predator is in the woods for a few weeks the prey items move on so the predator moves with them and as you know the seasons bring different things at different times of the year, so young birds rabbits and hares in the crops early season and woods during winter for the deer and cover

But with a sheep attack GM the farmer wont move his sheep if one is lost would he ?......why wouldn’t the cat settle in the area and just keep taking them ?

[keepdiggin 9,559]

5 minutes ago, bell said:

But with a sheep attack GM the farmer wont move his sheep if one is lost would he ?......why wouldn’t the cat settle in the area and just keep taking them ?

The scent of humans may scare him off?

 

Who's to say he's not been shot at? chased by dogs and thought it's time to move away from human settlement

Edited October 9, 2020 by keepdiggin

[bell 3,591]

6 minutes ago, keepdiggin said:

The scent of humans may scare him off?

 

Who's to say he's not been shot at? chased by dogs and thought it's time to move away from human settlement

Fair point mate