Big Cat News
10th June 2005: A BBCS Online Forum Is Created
A new forum for the society has been created at www.bigcatforum.siteburg.com. While it is still in the earliest stages of life it is free to view and post to by anyone, but you need to register separately. We hope the forum will serve as a place for interesting and informative discussions between our members, but it is being moderated and we will take actions to ban anyone who posts offensive, obscene or innapropriate material.
25th May 2005: New Look BBCS Website Launched
The British Big Cats Society has recently revamped and improved its website. As well as the svelte new aesthetics, the database capabilities of the website have been upgraded, giving us better control over the large amounts of sightings data that has been collected.
The members area is also being improved, but for the first few days you may be unable to access this section. Please bear with us, as we hope to have everything back to normal as soon as possible. Should any problems persist, please email us.
Big Cat Society Calls for Calm after Big Cat Encounter in London
The British Big Cats Society set up 5 years ago to monitor and study exotic felines in Britain – called for ‘calm’ today; after a big cat encounter in south London left a man with minor injuries.
Anthony Holder, had ventured to the bottom of his garden during the early hours of yesterday morning, after hearing his own pet howling.
“All of a sudden I saw this big black thing pounce on to me and it knocked me flying! I just didn’t know where I was, and the next thing there was this black figure laying on my chest – it was growling and hissing at me and then it started scratching!”
'LIVE' web cameras may finally prove that big cats exist in Britain
Today the British Big Cats Society has launched a new website which may help prove the existence of Big Cats in Britain – www.bigcats.tv will work alongside the existing website – www.britishbigcats.org – which has now had over 100,000 hits in just 3 years.
The aim of the NEW big cat website is to link up to some brand new digital ‘Trigger’ Video cameras out in the wild – so that web surfers can see instantly see some of the latest pictures taken from remote places. Already the BBCS has several ‘normal’ trigger still cameras; however these are only activated when something moves past them and breaks an infra red beam. The new camera systems will be able to take digital images and within a few seconds be able to upload them to the website. The BBCS is planning to start the new project in the New Year and will spend the next 3 months researching into the best places to put them.
Click here for full press release
Big Cat evidence gets stronger, as society calls for government study
This week the British Big Cats Society released data from its 15 month survey, which lasted from January 03 till March 04. The results published on its website www.britishbigcats.org indicate that there is little doubt that big cats are roaming Britain. The BBCS are now calling on the DEFRA & the HOME OFFICE to work towards undertaking a long term and UK wide properly funded scientific study.
Danny Bamping founder of the society said:
“The evidence has been increasing and becoming clearer – we are now going to approach the proper authorities and ask for their support in undertaking a properly funded scientific study on the big cats in Britain. We’d like to focus on the South West – this is the most active area and where the BBCS is based.”
Overall there were 2052 sightings reported to the BBCS throughout Britain (that’s over 4 per day!) – The top 10 in the ‘league table of big cat sightings are; Scotland (231) Kent (141) Yorkshire (127) Wales (102) Devon (100) Cornwall (96) Lancashire (86) Ireland (82) Lincolnshire (80) Somerset (69). This year the BBCS was able to break down the data in several areas – and this produced some interesting facts and figures. For instance regionally the percentages of sightings were as follows; south West 21%, South East 16%, East Anglia 12%, Scotland 11%, and West Midlands 9%.
16th December 2004 - BBCS Appeals for more evidence
The British Big Cats Society is appealing for more evidence of the presence of big cats in Britain. For the last 3 years the society has compiled a complete run down of sightings in each county – alongside its findings from video footage, paw prints and hair samples.
During 2002 the BBCS collected over 1,000 sightings across Britain (1,087). Approximately 1 month from now they will release their data from 2003 after they have given a presentation to DEFRA officials.
Danny Bamping founder and spokesman for the society stated:
“2003 was certainly an extraordinary year for Big Cats in Britain. We have decided to have one last appeal to the public and also to the police and Defra as well as other organisations to come forward with any evidence or sightings”
“We are delighted with recent events – the NFU have pledged their full support to us and Defra have now invited us to give a presentation to them. Hopefully working alongside the right organisations and also the authorities we can start to push for a properly funded and long term study on the Big Cats in Britain."
“Before we can do that we have to convince them that there is a case to answer – I’m sure that when they digested the data and evidence we have, it will be increasing harder for them to ignore the true situation. The BBCS has 2 main objectives ‘To Prove and to Protect’ – we believe that it is time to put into place a coherent and relevant system to address the Big Cat situation throughout the UK.”
Indeed the BBCS strongly believe that big cats are seen on a much more regular basis than previously thought, mainly because people fear not being taken seriously. They estimate that for every sighting approximately another 3-4 go unreported.
Click here for full press release
19th December 2003 - BBCS to work with NFU members
'Big Cat Society delighted to work with NFU – But urges farmers to shoot with cameras not guns!’
The British Big Cats Society an organisation formed 3 years ago to collectively study sightings and evidence of Big Cats roaming Britain was today excited by the news that the NFU have decided to join forces in collecting evidence of big cats from its members.
The NFU yesterday urged farmers to contact the British Big Cats Society which is already involved in conducting nationwide research into the presence of these unidentified big cats currently roaming the British Countryside.
NFU Deputy President Tim Bennett said:
“There is anecdotal evidence amongst farmers and society at large that there are big cats wild within our countryside. But while there many local legends, such as the beast of Bodmin Moor, we have no firm evidence of how many instances of unidentifiable creatures there are. By helping the British Big Cats Society with its study, we aim to reach a clearer picture.”
“This is a serious issue for farmers who need to be aware of threats to their animals from worrying and attacks.”
20 January 2003 - Over 1,000 big cats seen
The British Big Cat Society today released details of Big Cat sightings reported during 2002 – including new evidence of their existence. The staggering figure of 1,077 sightings that occurred last year was collected by the society and its members. A further 679 sightings were reported from previous years; again Scotland was the hotspot in the UK, with Devon (97), Kent (92)and Wales (86) the other major areas.
The BBCS also had reports in every county and some of evidence included: 4 New bits of video footage, 3 confirmed attacks on horses, 2 confirmed Cat ‘Encounters’ with humans and a previously unreported ‘Dog kill’ – (not far from the recent one in Wales,) Recently the BBCS contributed to a 10 page article for the Fortean Times magazine – (FEB 2003 FT 167) in it is a list of cats – entitled ‘Bodies of Evidence’…it lists 1 PUMA, 2 LYNX, 3 JUNGLE CATS, 5 LEOPARD CATS and 1 CARACAL, all of which have been found in the UK since 1980.
