Big cats are in the spotlight at Chideock meeting (From Thisisdorset)
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Big cats are in the spotlight at Chideock meeting
11:00am Sunday 7th October 2012 in Latest
Merrily Harpur
THE prospect of big cats on the prowl in west Dorset will come under the spotlight in Bridport.
Expert Merrily Harpur, below, is giving a talk to the west Dorset group of the Dorset Wildlife Trust titled Big Cats - Wild in Dorset. She will be giving her findings in the illustrated talk at the United Church in East Street on Friday, February 5 at 7.30pm.
Merrily, who lives in Cattistock, has been studying the issue for many years and maintains an active website which records and reports sightings.
She also has two books to her credit on the subject, called Mystery Bug Cats and Roaring Dorset! Encounters with Big Cats. It comes as new figures obtained by the Dorset Echo show a total of 53 people have made emergency calls to report wild cat encounters since 2006.
The most recent sighting given to police came in February from a caller who claimed to have seen a big cat which was ‘totally black’ and ‘stocky’ with a ‘very long tail’ in Sherford, Wareham.
A month earlier someone called to report a sighting of a large cat which ‘looks like a panther’ in the Powerstock area near Bridport.
One caller claimed a ‘lioness’ was seen ‘lying in the grass’ in October 2008 in Sturminster Newton. While seven callers dialled to warn police after spotting a mysterious creature in the Weymouth area, three people reported sightings from Dorchester during the last five years.
Merrily said: “There have been a lot of big cat sightings reported in the county over the years.
“Dorset is a hot spot for big cat sightings. In the last couple of years I have been told of more than 300 sightings. One of the interesting things about big cats in Britain is that they are very variable in their colours.”
Merrily’s talk is open to all and is £2 for DWT members and £3 for visitors. Visit Merrily’s website at dorsetbigcats.org
Comments(14)
takahashi
says...
2:17pm Sun 7 Oct 12
bnaty12
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2:55pm Sun 7 Oct 12
P.S Elvis has just been in the cafe by the Bus station.
Artstudent
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4:31pm Sun 7 Oct 12
Polyvista
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7:37am Mon 8 Oct 12
jmc1
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8:54am Mon 8 Oct 12
Artstudent wrote:Sounds like a big black dog
Last year I saw what I believe to be a Puma on the coast path between Chickerell and Portesham. It was certainly not a domestic cat as it was the size of a large dog and had entirely no fear of me as I passed by within 20 metres of it.
weymouth1990
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11:09am Mon 8 Oct 12
Duckorange
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11:30am Mon 8 Oct 12
Hrw-Amen
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7:34pm Mon 8 Oct 12
DickDastardly
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12:28pm Wed 10 Oct 12
Artstudent
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7:41pm Wed 10 Oct 12
jmc1 wrote:Well actually it was sand coloured with a white face and was definitely feline not canine. I'm no big cat expert but I can tell the difference between cats and dogs, even from 20 metres away.
Artstudent wrote:Sounds like a big black dog
Last year I saw what I believe to be a Puma on the coast path between Chickerell and Portesham. It was certainly not a domestic cat as it was the size of a large dog and had entirely no fear of me as I passed by within 20 metres of it.
takahashi
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2:16am Thu 11 Oct 12
banknote
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8:23pm Thu 11 Oct 12
I nearly ran-over Elvis in Weymouth the other day and by the time I got to Dorchester - I saw the Yeti, Adolf Hitler, Bigfoot and Glenn Miller - all shopping together!!
Oh come-on folks.........
speakthe truth
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5:13pm Fri 12 Oct 12
on dec 23rd 2009 when it briefly snowed i was out wild shooting with my labrador when we'put up' a wild cat, within 2metres,the dog was certainly frightened,it was not a particulary large big cat but it was a large as my medium lab and had a larger girth which was particulary memorable and a v thick coat with v thick tail and muscular legs, def not a normal domestic feline.
I have a number of friends working in the countryside who have had close and one v close on foot(whilst tending lambs-&was most frightened) encounters with the larger varieties,predominan
tly black puma description,however,
due to the 'loony' labelling most of these people never come foward.There are now hundreds of wild boar in west dorset but how many people have seen a naturally dead one-v few.
i understand in Glos. county the police have been called out to 2 road traffic accidents involving injured black puma but its only just become public as it was surpressed as not being in the public interest and likely to cause undue alarm to the public.
Hrw-Amen says...
11:53am Sun 7 Oct 12