Big Cats on Dartmoor? - The Dartmoor Podcast Episode Twenty Six 

Already a few of comments by people saying they've personally seen one - very hard to argue with that! Maybe if I'm inundated with enough of you, I'll be forced to take it more seriously and go on a proper search!

But once again another fantastic ‘pod cast’ thank you 👌🏼

I was walking on dartmoor in 2018 and came across a large sheep near one of the tors. At first it looked like it may of fallen and died but after getting closer realised it had actually been dragged quite a distance, ripped apart and half eaten. Needless to say I didn't hang around for very long ! It's been bugging me since trying to find an explanation of what animal would be capable of doing such a thing

Got to see one to believe it. About 20 years ago I was driving down a single track road near Detling in Kent. I saw a large black cat with a very long tail run across a field in front and take down a sheep. I can't positively identify the species but it certainly wasn't a domestic cat. I then researched big cat sightings in that area and discovered that there had been many. In fact there was a website dedicated to the subject of big cat sightings along the A249 corridor

people will laugh and jest , until they see one!! mine was in Newton Abbott of all places

Excellent! Love your reasoning and thoughtful psychological/philosophical theory for the conclusion. Adorable animals (especially the Tiger 😻), but I'd much rather have a sighting of a little cat! 😸

I don't often comment . but this was superb . Ive thought about making a video like this myself for a long time. But you nailed . i looked into this subject for a while and came to exactly the same conclusions . Brilliant well done .

Oh man! I'm excited for this!

701 sighting now, quantock hills I have seen a black puma! 100% (2006)

Have seen a big black cat in the chiltern hills. They are out there

Hello. Just came across this vid, and would like to ad… In the mid ‘80’s, there was a programme on BBC1 Called Horizon, which was about this very thing. My uncle Micheal, a slaughter man at the time, who lived in the area, went on the hunt for it, as something had gotten in and had a go at a small horse he had, in his field. Now…around that time, it was very popular for rich kids to have big cats for presents. Unfortunately, they often got out and ran off, because at the end of the day, they are wild animals with instincts. All the best.👍🏾🇬🇧😉

You sound incredibly sceptical. I guess you won't believe these big cats exist until you see one. Fair enough, but i can assure you we do have them, and all across the UK. Ireland too, France and Germany. Black Leopards, Puma ( Mountain Lion) and Lynx. Other smaller species too.

Thank you so much for this breath of fresh air, so many pics and videos of moggies on youtube claiming to be big cats, I've personally seen badgers and fox at night that could to someone with a wild imagination be a black leapard and normal spotty one, the best sighting I had was witnessed by three other people who saw a black panther, a big huge fkn cat running across the road when I was driving, it was massive and keot growing as the journey went on, I told them it was an otter but seemingly I don't have a clue, I think theres a possibility there were a few over the years but nothing like the big catters claim, one big cat expert claims there's over 600 in the UK, that would mean we have the densest black leopard population on the planet.

Have a listen to Rick Minters excellent podcast, Big Cat Conversations, if you are interested in the reality of our situation with big cats, ie black Melanistic leopard and Puma (brown mountain lion cougar). He has some episodes on Exmoor and Bodmin, talking to the farmers. These animals are very intelligent and way beyond elusive. I don't think they venture out into the open moor much, preferring the vegetation thick and wildlife rich private farmland around the edge. They do eat a fair few sheep. I listened earlier this week, to a farmer say they had lost an estimated 400 sheep to big cat predation since 2016. I think (as I don't see that many deer carcasses) they live off a lot of rabbits, squirrels, rats etc. I was not really interested in the subject till I came face to face with one. Now i find it an absorbing and fascinating hobby.

Good vid Dartmoor podcast, really interesting, in my opinion i think there are big cats Keep up the good vids

The owner of Benjamin Mee had his own sighting of a puma on Dartmoor. Not a zoo animal as they checked. There’s a history of big cats being released on Dartmoor which is well documented. I myself found the remains of a sheep on Dartmoor which showed clear signs of big cat predation. Also, the climate is fine for big cats. Even in winter. You need to do more research

One of the best stories I've heard was on the big cat podcast, this woman reckons she stepped on a pumas tail after turning a corner, it looked at her and walked off 😂😂

In Dec 2021 I was driving along the A171 in North Yorkshire heading east. It was around 6am I was on my way to the Malton Rally. There was a slight turn to the right with a left turn at a junction and this is where I saw the big cat. It was walking along the road heading towards me and it leapt over a ditch which was at the side of the road and headed down the narrow road to the left. I kept on driving but the car behind me suddenly stopped. As I drove on I tried to work out what I had seen, I thought a dog? Well it didn't look like a dog, also there was no owner/dog walker about so why would a dog be wandering along a road at 6am. I believe it was a big cat and yes it was black. The next part is what shocked me the most, when I arrived at the rally I spoke with a local who was marshalling the rally event and I told him what I had seen his response was " oh yeah us locals see it often, was it along the A171 just after Scaling Dam" I said "yes". He responded by saying "yeah it will be the same one, but we think there are more than one as so many sheep are attacked but rather than draw attention the farmers just keep quiet as they don't want to attract people to the farm. He was so blasé about it, this was also backed up by another local.

Very well put together and researched, and I can safely say I agree with every word about big cats on the moor. There are none and anyone who has 'seen' one is mistaken and a trip to Specsavers is required...But. I wouldn't totally disregard something smaller out there and in the hills and fields around, I've certainly heard something with my daughter I can't explain. I have an, albeit bad, recording of it on my channel. Inconclusive and by no means evidence, it did sound cat like. I can say with certainty though, it was no big cat. I would point out the scat of a smaller cat could be mistaken for a fox or even badger, the food source would be hare and rabbit at the largest, and being solitary there wouldn't be a huge population on the moor. All of that said they'd still be seen eventually, and with the number of YTer's up there these days a half decent film of one will be captured (I hope it's me). I'll end by saying. Until a month ago I'd never have believed we have a large population of wild beaver, that is until I accidentally camped amongst them. I passed the signs without noticing for a day and it wasn't until I was tuned in so to speak that I saw the signs everywhere. If there is a smaller cat, say Bobcat, up there we could all be missing the signs. I'm unconvinced until I have it clearly on film though.

Everybody is gangster and like "there ain't no big cats on them there hills", until they happen across one in the flesh. I'm not saying I've seen anything of this nature, but I am open-minded about it, however improbable they may seem on paper. All I can be certain of is I'd poo my pants if I really did stumble on to a big cat's path.

Are you forgetting Gloucestershire? Probably more sightings than devon and yorkshire bolted together.

The same thing goes on here in the states...lots of different places and biomes too. Big cats...black ones....and sasquach

I think you've overlooked something when making this video. The stories of wild cats living on the moors aren't just limited to "big cats" consisting of black pumas and the like, they also include mid-sized "jungle cats", like caracal and Lynx. And in the case of the Lynx, it's certainly quite plausible that there are small breeding populations of those cats living wild in the UK, especially considering that one was captured alive by police in 2001. Dubbed the "Beast of Barnet" at the time, the wild cat was an 18 month old female lynx, which after being captured was taken to London Zoo, where she was named Lara. After spending some time there, she was later transferred to a Zoo in France, where she went on to give birth to several cubs, before passing away in 2009. There have also been a couple of instances where bodies of such "jungle cats" have been found, after they've been hit by cars. Granted, it could just be the case that those examples were the results of escaped exotic pets being caught/killed... However, it IS also worth mentioning, that there ARE efforts underway to officially reintroduce Lynx back into the UK. So, who knows, if those efforts pan out, you may well get to see some (mid-sized) wild cats running around the moors yet!

I just realised I can hear myself in the background at 13:15, delivering a tiger talk 😅

If I was a big cat I’d prefer vension to mutton almost definitely - less fur to tackle and supreme meat & organs also a deer is much more likely to be be where humans are not - predominantly anyway. There’s big herds of them ( in their serval hundreds) on exmoor Be cool to speak to local old boy farmers for their input on the subject matter

I wonder if anyone's ever tried one of those camo, motion-activated wildlife cameras, say deep in Fernworthy, trained on a large lump of raw meat tied well up a tree (clear of foxes), to see if anything shows? Or, maybe it wouldn't work if there were a big cat, for some reason I've overlooked? If it DID, in theory a sceptic could do the same thing and should then get a positive result...

Another great video. Your 'depleted nature, psychological' explanation about cat sightings makes a lot of sense. It reminds me of The Hound of the Baskervilles. In that story, Dartmoor feels like a symbol for the Unconscious, and many things that happen on the Moor during the story feel highly symbolic. It's a shame then that Conan Doyle ultimately has 'a literal explanation' for it all. How to ruin a ghost story!!! But anyway, the point I am making is that maybe the big cat sightings (and maybe even the Hound in the Baskerville story) are understandable attempts to give a shape and a voice to our wild, mythic rugged natures, which feel denied and suppressed in our mechanistic, modern societies.

Really enjoyed this podcast. Found it fascinating. Is it beyond the realms of possibility that the obvious flaws in the argument for big cats existing in Devon and Cornwall, despite many people genuinely believe they see black beasts, points to they're being phantoms? Perhaps they are something akin to ghostly apparitions, like the black dogs seen in the past?

Maybe they are normal sized cats but they're only seen by very tiny people?

Another interesting not podcast. Fully agree with the logic. Wonder how many Yeti sightings there have been on the moors?

I’ve heard of some pretty horrific attacks to cows that were hard to explain as dog attacks…..but I’m not so sure myself. I think there’s other places in the country which could support them better, but I do see sheep genocide here even if you’re not convinced! My final thought on the video, I 100% agree with one indirect implication; big cats on Dartmoor, improbable. Pixies on Dartmoor, incontrovertibly so.

That was so interesting, and glad I heard this after I visited Dartmoor. But there is DNA evidence now of big cats in the Uk, at least I have read there is from fur found on A farm in Gloucestershire.

I see sheep carcass’s scattered across Dartmoor and I expect majority of prey would be from rodents etc . Of course Dartmoor farmers are aware of it but the last thing they want is lots of attention .

Interesting. I think it extremely unlikely in theory that they are out there and that all of the pics are of regular household moggies who can look much bigger, and for me the conclusive evidence is that nothing has been hit by a car or shot by a farmer. HOWEVER back in the mid 1990s there were lots of reports of BCs to the police in Devon most of which received no publicity. I saw a video shot from the police helicopter of something moving off after a near miss RTC, BC v car. "It's a badger" said an Inspector. Looked like a BC to me and the look on the car driver's face was something to behold. AND deer carcasses...bits of deer...carrion foxy or? PS not sure about the romantic stuff about apex predators and humans. Try living somewhere where such beasts have people on a regular basis. But this is cosy safe middle income England and the biggest predatory threat is likely to lurk in the comments section........

Oh George, what have you done 😱😭😰. You'll be telling me now that the Loch Ness monster doesn't exisit or dragons in wales 😱 (nice to see you acknowledge the pixies though, seen loads of those on Dartmoor and they nearly get me everytime 😉🤣. I bet you think there is no Father Christmas and no Tooth fairy either 😭). Seriously I sadly agree that I don't think there are big cats on Dartmoor, the food thing I has to be the biggest issue (although Farley Mowat recorded wolves surviving on mice in sub artic Canada). You don't hear stories of wild campers being ravaged on the moor (I was worried enough when we went for the first time about being nibbled by cows; sheep; ponies and foxes, if I thought there were big pussies wanting to munch on my bones we would never have gone 🥺and have you seen the reality TV show, Alone!!!). It would be great to have our wild animals back again in many ways but unless they are in controlled environments and behind fences then I think it is very unlikely to happen. (Now I know you are an English teacher gosh it makes me nervous when I write things 🤣😂).

*bickering*

Dude, you are deluded. There have been countless sightings by people from all walks of life. You are kidding yourself. These sightings have been going on for decades, as you well know. Despite that, an interesting, enjoyable and well presented video. But you are wrong. You seem to know nothing about big cats. In the native central and South America, where pumas come from, they are incredibly elusive, even in barren country. Even the locals know they are around, but rarely see them. And no, we aren't talking about necessarily large prey. That's rubbish. A rabbit or two per day will be plenty. As will pheasants, foxes, badger, pigeons, rats, sheep, deer (6 species), waterfowl... And remember, also these cats range over large areas. Not a few square miles. But I'm not interested in arguing it. Either they exist, or they don't. Debating it doesn't change anything. Stay safe!