31 Days of Halowe'en: Day Twenty-Seven

 Day 27: The Beasts of Britain

  For years all over the United Kingdom there have been sighting of big cats. There are also wild cats and reports of livestock being slaughtered. There have been sightings of pumas, jaguars and unidentified big cats. Some people have even apparently encountered them. A boy who was scratched by one when told by his mother a cat couldn't have scratched him as badly as he had been responded "no it was a big cat Mummy it was as big as a dog". Whether this was a wildcat or big cat no-one knows for sure.

  

  There are so-called "experts" who dispute any sightings saying that big cats such as Jaguars would not be able to survive in the wild in Britain, then one gets caught on camera and all their explanations and theories are called into question. While there are wildcats native to Britain there are no big cats, yet they are sighted more frequently than is reported. 

  There are three "Beasts" of Britain that come from folklore of 'Phantom Cats' that many believe are big cats. 

1. The Beast of Bodmin: believed to be a puma
2. The Beast of Buchan: believed to be a lynx
3. The Beast of Exmoor: believed to be several cats including a leopard and panther

  There are people who say that it's impossible for them to be big cats but impossible is a strong word, improbable perhaps, but not impossible. The explanations of course are feasible. A wild cat mistaken for a big cat, a cross breed of domestic and wild cat. Exaggeration of the sighting of a domestic or wild cat. All are feasible and plausible but when a camera then snaps a picture of an apparently healthy pregnant jaguar the cracks in the "experts" opinion start to be more visible.

  It is highly likely that there are some big cats roaming around Britain. When the Dangerous Wild Animals Act passed in 1976, people in Britain owning animals such as wild cats and big cats had to get rid of them. It could be expensive and difficult to get a tiger (for example) off your hands, therefore a simpler and cheaper way is to simply let it out to fend for itself. Also if you own an animal which it is essentially illegal to own, if it escapes you're not exactly going to report it are you? A lot of people believe that the big cats roaming our land are ones that were let out in 1976 and have managed to survive, perhaps even breed to an extent. 

  While sightings of "beasts" have gone on from long before 1976, often due to folktales, they have not waned as much as perhaps you would expect in this "age of enlightenment". Experts are so often proved wrong and there is still so much about this world we do not understand, it does not take too large a stretch of the imagination to believe that we may share our shore with that of animals not native to our land. Wild boar were illegally reintroduced to our forests not too long ago and are thriving. Grey squirrels are not native to Britain and have all but eradicated out native red squirrels. Who's to say we do not have a few big cats happily living on our moors?

   As long as these sightings keep happening, we really cannot be sure. We also cannot be sure if the supernatural is not at work and these beasts are the beasts of old. It may be the fabled beasts still haunt our moors, it may be that big cats are merely keeping these legends alive. For every theory there are a few more, for every explanation there is an argument and for every opinion there is another. Supernatural beings or not, I do not find it so wholly unbelievable, that we do not walk these lands unaccompanied.