ARE THERE BIG CATS, OR HYBRID BIG CATS, AT LARGE IN BRITAIN?
Copyright 1995 - 2026 Sarah Hartwell

Officially Britain's only native wildcat is Felis sylvestris grampia, the Scottish Wildcat, which resembles a large, mean tabby cat. It is a sub-species of the European Wildcat (F silvestris) which is now only found in Scotland, although it was once widespread throughout Scotland, England and Wales. It is now extending its range in Scotland and a few "out of place" wildcats have been reported in England and Wales. A number of big cats, including the lynx, vanished from Britain in prehistoric times. Despite this, there have been many recent sightings of pumas, panthers, lions and lynxes.

See also: Hybrid Big Cats In The British Countryside - Are there self-sustaining populations of hybrids of pumas, leopards and lynxes in Britain?

Cryptozoologists, journalists, biologists and other investigators have made various suggestions about the identity of Britains "Alien Big Cats" (ABCs): a living fossil which has somehow survived undetected, descendants of freed exotic pets, relict populations of lynx or nothing more exotic than large moggies or misidentified stray dogs. ABCs have even been linked to UFO sightings and conspiracy theories! For centuries, British folklore has been full of mysterious 'Black Dogs' or 'Great Dogs'. Though referred to as 'Dogs', these creatures sometimes sound more like Great Cats. A yellow and grey striped creature known as the Girt Dog of Ennerdale (in the Lake District) was killed in 1810 and one eyewitness swore to his dying day that it was some sort of a cat. Black Dogs are often associated with water and while there are several fanciful theories about this, a more mundane explanation is that the creatures - and their prey - need a source of drinking water. At present the British Big Cat's status is similar to that of the Yeti - there have been sightings, photographs and films, including fakes and mistakes, but no firm evidence. Farmers and gamekeepers have seen "leopard" tracks by carcases of deer or livestock and it is claimed that kills show characteristics of a big cat kill rather than the work of dogs. A few sheep which have escaped their attacker show distinctive leopard-like bitemarks. The vast majority of kills are indicative of dog kills - dogs kill by disembowelling rather than by neck bite or suffocation. This is backed up by evidence from highly experienced Canadian big cat experts who identified supposed "panther" tracks as dog tracks.

Small populations of big cats could easily survive on British wildlife - deer, game birds, badgers and rabbits - and on easier prey like livestock. Lambs, adult sheep, calves and ponies have reportedly been killed and partly eaten by the British Big Cats. In moorland areas where ponies, deer and sheep roam freely and a degree of loss to natural causes is expected, big cats could easily survive and breed undetected unless someone happened upon a fresh kill. Closer to towns, there are domestic dogs and domestic/feral cats and in some areas big cat sightings reportedly coincide with increased cat disappearances and with dogs suffering unexplained injuries (and/or phobias) after being allowed off the lead in fields or woodland.

Naturalist and researcher Di Francis collected together details of sightings. She suggests that big cat sightings fall into four groups: a black "panther" living in woods and killing sheep and deer; a "puma" (some showing faint stripes or spots) also living in woodland and preying on livestock; a grayish cat resembling the lynx; a sandy/tawny big cat striped with gray/brown (some witnesses compared it to a Thylacine though it could have been a lynx, since neither witnesses nor animal stayed around for formal introductions). Cryptozoologist Karl Shuker suggests that at least some of the sightings are of large feral cats or Scottish Wildcats seen in poor light while others are either domestic dogs or escaped exotics. In one case a spotted hyaena was positively identified in Sussex, a Clouded Leopard survived in the wild for nine months before being shot by a farmer and in another case a genet-like binturong was the culprit! A variety of non-felid exotics have sometimes escaped into the British countryside and, being unfamiliar, might be misidentified as cats. Based on the variety of descriptions, Shuker suggested in his book "Mystery Cats of the World" that pumas, panthers (black leopards), lynxes and possibly a lioness might be living in the British countryside. In 1993 an ocelot was tentatively identified.

Some of the sightings are cases of mistaken identity; a 'lion' seen prowling near a rail track turned out to be a large ginger moggy cat. Others are due to poor lighting deceiving the eye, and some are deliberately faked camera shots sold to newspapers. Imaginative use of distance and perspective can make a poor quality photo of a domestic cat look like an indistinct photo of a panther - as with a photograph of a domestic cat sitting on a low wall and inadvertently masquerading as a black panther! Plenty seem genuine though; video footage from Cornwall and Warwickshire shows a large black cat, with the size, form and gait of a leopard moving from an open field into woodland. A photograph of another creature shows a 'puma' carrying a freshly killed rabbit.

In August 2012, a "lion" was reported near Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. The eyewitness reports demonstrate the layman's unfamiliarity with big cats. It was described as tan with a white chest, and the ears weren't quite right for a lion. Despite these discrepancies, the witnesses were adamant they had seen a lion and the police and zoo officials (who gave it the benefit of the doubt) were called in. A circus had been in the area previously, but it turned out they didn't have any lions. The indistinct mobile phone photos showed an animal with pricked ears, a white chest and pale muzzle and no mane, lying in a field of wheat stubble. Lions (and lionesses) are all over sandy/tawny and do not have a white chest. They have a blunt/squarish muzzle and rounded ears. The wheat stubble was a giveaway that this was a large and somewhat fluffy white-bibbed ginger domestic cat! It was in wheat stubble, not in unharvested wheat, which gave an indication of its true size. It could have been either of two local ginger and white cats that regularly ventured into that field in search of prey. Human nature being what it is, the witnesses refused to accept the mistaken identity and insisted a "lion" was still at large. This demonstrates how stories of big cats loose in the British countryside can begin.

Hot on the tail of this false lion came several other sightings from around the country. Predictably they were pumas and black panthers. One was identified from description alone as a "melanistic Savannah"; a relatively large domestic breed that occasionally occurs in melanistic form. The presence of a livestock carcases with the muzzle chewed off and the internal organs eaten was cited as evidence of a big cat kill according to "experts". Big cats kill by attacking the neck or throat of their prey. Dogs kill prey larger than themselves by hanging onto the animals muzzle while other pack members disembowel the prey. Once again, "experts" who were nothing of the sort fuelled the big cat myth, when they should have turned their attentions to stray dogs. There are elements in society who deliberately set their dogs on livestock for "sport".

Most British Big Cat "evidence" is in the form of paw-prints and kills. These have been shown to tracking and trapping experts with experience of big cats in the wild in other countries. These experts are people whose livelihoods depend on them being able to identify big cat signs and track and even trap or shoot big cats. They identified almost all of the paw-prints as dog, with the remainder being too indistinct for identification. In the cases of supposed ABC sheep kills, those big cat experts noted that the pattern is consistent with dogs - lacerations to the neck and belly with the skin being removed from the neck and with the belly area being eaten. Dog packs tend to kill by evisceration. Big cats go for the throat or neck and leave four deep puncture wonds. Either the neck is broken or the prey is strangled. Big cats do not leave gashes in the throat. Dogs kill more messily and leave gashes. It would seem that most of these livestock kills are caused by dogs running out of control or gone feral.

During 2013, Dr Andrew Hemmings, a senior lecturer in animal science at the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester, analysed the remains of purported "big cat kills" in Gloucestershire and neighbouring counties. Dr Hemmings examined 20 animal skeletons that bore unusual teethmarks. The remains were of livestock and deer, and had been found by farmers, landowners and volunteers in unusual circumstances that suggested they may have been killed by a big cat. He studied the bones in order to identify which animals had eaten the prey. In 15% of samples, he found that the "tooth pit" markings made by the predator's canine teeth had been inflicted by an animal larger than those living in the British countryside, such as badgers and foxes. Dogs' canine teeth can leave behind similar markings, so Dr Hemmings also examined the markings made by the carnassial (cheek) teeth used for cutting flesh. The carnassials of big cats are wider apart than in dogs, which should eliminate dogs as the predator in in some kills.

Dr Hemmings was unable to reach a firm conclusion in 17 out of 20 cases, but said that the remaining 3 cases showed clear indications that big cats were responsible. One of the bones analysed came from a wild boar found in Gloucestershire, while the others were from sika deer discovered in Dorset. He hoped to uncover more evidence, including fresh carcasses which may show traces of feline DNA, before publishing his research in the Journal of Archaeological Science. Dr Hemmings wants to build up the sample size in order to have good statistical basis for a "big cat hypothesis". He admitted that his research was not conclusive proof, but it added to the growing weight of evidence to suggest that big cats were living in Britain.

Dr Hemmings said of his research: "You can understand why they [puma and/or leopard] might gain a foothold and establish themselves and reproduce. I don t know whether they are out there. I have an empirical mindset so would need to have proof. At the end of the day, science needs a body. [...] It would be nice to have an entire carcass of a big cat, but they are amazingly elusive. Even on somewhere like Vancouver Island, where these things occur, there are people who have never seen one. [...] Sightings are coming in on a monthly basis and some are very plausible. There does seem to be something going on in the background, so there is a hypothesis to address here."

If there are big cats at large in Britain, where did they come from? They could be escapees from zoos or menageries though no zoos have reported losses in recent years. An escaped panther from a menagerie was shot in the West Midlands during the early 1500s. In the 18th Century it was the height of fashion for the gentry to have private zoos and menageries of exotic animals. Many of those collections would have contained wild cats and no doubt some of those wild cats managed to escape into the British countryside. In 1903 it was reported that an escaped puma had been trapped in Surrey some time previously. In addition, some misguided individuals have, at various times, wanted to reintroduce animals such as the lynx and wolf into Britain.

Until comparatively recently big cats were kept as exotic pets and some may have escaped or been turned loose when they became too big to handle. Black panthers had an especially exotic image which could explain the many sightings of panthers. It was even possible to purchase lion cubs from some pet stores! The Dangerous Wild Animals Act which was introduced in 1976 compels owners of exotic pets to license premises where such animals are kept. Some pets, including big cats, were simply let loose by owners who couldn't afford a licence. Many sightings identify the big cats as "black pumas" in spite of the fact that melanism has not been confirmed in pumas! All cats are black, or at least dark-coloured, in poor observation conditions.

If any of the escaped or abandoned big cats was pregnant or if enough of one species got loose and met up, there may have been a viable breeding population. In 1975 a black leopard cub was captured in Kent - its parents were probably still loose and still breeding. Claims that various species have met up and interbred to create a new big cat species through hybridisation are mistaken. Female big cat hybrids are fertile when mated to a pure bred male of one of its parent species, but the male hybrids are sterile. Such fertility issues would work against a hybrid population. Also, the different species would have had to be raised together, otherwise the fight rather than mate!

Another alternative is that Britain is home to an elusive unknown species whose presence has yet to be scientifically proved or disproved. It is unlikely that a "living fossil" has survived undetected until the modern day since Britain is not a big island and massive deforestation in past centuries would have flushed such a creature out of hiding long ago. It is slightly more likely that the elusive British Big Cat is an introduced species which has become naturalised, much as introduced pet cats have given rise to feral populations in many countries. The possibility of lynxes having survived in Britain is remote, but not impossible. In 1927 three lynxes were reported in Inverness, Scotland; one was trapped and two were shot. In May 2001, a European Lynx (nicknamed "Lara") was captured in Cricklewood, North London, England following a reported big cat sighting. It was believed to be an escaped or abandoned unlicensed, unregistered pet since none were reported missing from zoos or private collections in the region. There are reports of Lynx on the loose elsewhere in the UK, leading to theories of a relict Lynx population in Britain, but most big cat sightings turn out to be large domestic cats.

Over the years there have been plenty of attempts to shoot or trap a big cat after a reported sighting. A live puma was trapped, also in Inverness, in 1980 after a series of sheep/deer killings in the area. The puma, however, turned out to be elderly, arthritic and unbelievably tame! It seems that someone had taken the opportunity to dispose of an exotic pet. Although its faeces showed it had been eating sheep and deer, it hadn't necessarily been catching its own dinners. It was named "Felicity" and lived to a good age after capture.

Stephen Harris, Professor of Environmental Sciences at Bristol University, suggested that feral cats in Britain are growing to large sizes to fill the "large predator" niche once occupied by wolves. He claimed domestic cats can be as long as 4ft from nose to tail-tip in Britain and that he had seen domestic cats exceeding 5ft in Australia. However, in Britain, their size is assessed by analysing indistinct photos rather than by shooting and measuring the animals themselves. There is no scientifically verifiable evidence supporting this claim as the carcases of purported giant ferals shot in Australia have tended to disappear. Forced perspective and photographic angle gives the impression that animals are larger than they really are.

Specimens of another non-native species, Felis chaus (Jungle Cat), have been found dead as roadkills in Hampshire and Shropshire in the 1980s while others have been seen foraging close in towns and there is at least one pet cat suspected of being a Jungle Cat-feral cat hybrid. In the 18th Century, sailors with the East India Company sometimes acquired Jungle Cats from Indian villages. These cats were taken aboard ship as ratters or trade goods. Some may have jumped ship in Britain where they bred or hybridized with domestic cats. Early sightings of Jungle Cats in Britain tend to be centred around British ports such as Portsmouth in Hampshire. If the Jungle Cat has been living here undetected for 200 years, it is possible that wary big cats are also surviving undetected. There are also reports of Leopard Cats (Felis bengalensis) loose in Britain; one was shot on Dartmoor and another was captured in Scotland. Cryptozoologist Karl Shuker has suggested that they might hybridize with unaltered domestic cats. The hybrid offspring would resemble the wild parent, but having read Gene Johnson's "Getting to Know the Bengal Cat" these initial hybrids seem to have problems of sterility or poor mothering instincts so there probably wouldn't be any further interbreeding with domestic cats.

Alien Big Cat writer Nigel Brierly wrote that the domestic Maine Coon breed is a Lynx x domestic cat hybrid. This is both incorrect and unnecessarily alarming. The Maine Coon developed naturally from domestic cats imported into America and evolved to survive fierce New England winters. The domestic cat has mated with Bobcats, but no hybrid offspring have ever been verified. It has hybridized with Caracals and Servals in captivity, but not with the Lynx.

In recent years there were reports of mysterious black cats in parts of Scotland; not panthers, but flesh-and-blood cats which were sometimes killed by gamekeepers. The 'Kellas Cat' as it came to be called was larger than a pet cat and as wild as the native Scottish Wildcat and for a while it was believed to be a new species or melanistic Wildcat mutant. Scientific examination suggests that they are complex hybrids between Scottish Wildcat and domestic cats and that these hybrids may now be evolving into a new form to fill a vacant ecological niche. One or two turned out to be true melanistic Scottish Wildcats. These are extremely rare and since the general approach to black wildcats in Scotland is to shoot them indiscriminately, the two known specimens are also very dead.

HYBRID BIG CATS IN THE BRITISH COUNTRYSIDE

One theory about the mysterious big cats is that they are the hybrid offspring of various species of big cat released when the Dangerous Wild Animals Act came into force. Unable to meet the stringent new requirements of this Act, some owners allegedly turned their pets loose in remote parts of Britain where they not only survived, but thrived. Unable to find suitable mates they supposedly mated with other species of big cat giving rise to a population of mongrel big cats of highly mixed parentage and colouration which does not match any known big cat species. How feasible is hybrid theory? In the past, little was known of genetics or of the limitations on hybridization. It was well known that lions and tigers in menageries could produce hybrid offspring and that dogs and wolves could produce offspring. Horses, asses and zebra can all produce offspring in any combination. In all cases the parents were closely related and similarly sized. Wolves and dogs are so closely related that the offspring are fertile. Ligers and tigons are closely enough related that female offspring are often fertile but males are sterile. The wide variety of horse/ass/zebra hybrids are rarely fertile excepting a few reported occurrences of fertile female mules.

Early explorers and biologists believed in hybrids purely on the basis of an animals appearance. For example it was believed that lions and panthers ("pards") would mate to produce leopards, that the giraffe was a fantastical mix of camel and leopard (hence its original name "cameleopard") and that cats and rabbits would mate to produce cabbits. While lions and leopards can produce offspring (leopons), the cameleopard is impossible as the supposed parent species are only distantly related and the cabbit is actually a Manx cat (a tailless mutation). Many sightings of anomalous British big cats are reported by members of the public who are enthusiastic rather than expert and who have limited understanding of hybridization. Their varying descriptions or fuzzy photos and films may be interpreted and identified by those who did not see the animal first. In this game of Chinese whispers, many big cats are reported as hybrids of some sort. Are these cats being poorly identified leading to the number of hybrid big cats being vastly over-reported? What we do know of big cat hybridization would suggest so.

As far as possible I've avoided technical terms, however the following definitions (grossly simplified) will be useful to the reader.

Inter-specific: hybrids between two different species e.g. between lion and tiger.
Intra-specific: hybrids between two sub-species of the same species e.g. between Siberian tiger and Bengal tiger.
Sub-species: a geographically localised population with distinct characteristics which differentiate it from a population localised elsewhere e.g. the different mane colours/densities of lion subspecies
Breed: a variety within a species, produced or refined by human selection to fix certain traits, as opposed to a geographically localised sub-species population formed by natural selection. E.g. Siamese cat and Persian cat.
Hybrid: an individual whose parents are from different species or different subspecies or different breeds (depending on context).
Pure-bred: an individual whose parents are both the same species i.e. not a hybrid.
Back-cross: to mate an offspring back to a purebred individual (usually to one of its own parents).
Inbreeding: breeding together very closely related individuals e.g. brother/sister, mother/son, father/daughter.
Taxonomy: means of grouping organisms into related groups based on similarities/differences of form and DNA. Taxonomically, the puma is a small cat!

Big cats range widely in search of prey and if enough males and females of one species were let loose in a single area, a viable population could arise. If there are too few individuals of the same species then the gene pool is limited and inbreeding depression occurs -poor fertility and greater susceptibility to disease - which can cause entire populations to die out. With only a few individuals present in one area there is an increased risk that an all-male or all-female population will occur, leading to a dead end. In captive situations, the drive to breed may be so strong that big cats of different species will mate with each other if no mates of their own species are available. This recently happened (2000) in a Chinese circus when a lioness accepted a tiger as her mate and produced several stillborn offspring. It is believed to have happened in exceptional circumstances the wild between solitary lionesses and male leopards, despite the leopard being smaller than the lioness. Britain may be such an exceptional circumstance, driving individuals of two different species to mate with each other due to a lack of more appropriate partners.

Britain is not the only area where hybrid big cats are believed to prosper. According to crypto-zoologist Karl Shuker, parts of Africa (particularly more isolated mountainous areas) have long-standing traditions of spotted lions which local people believe to be naturally occurring leopard/lion hybrids. The spotted cats have tawny markings on a pale background colour and are called "marozi" in Kenya (as opposed to "simba", the word for lion). In Uganda they are "ntararago". In Ethiopia they are "abasambo" while in Rwanda they are "ikimizi". Descriptions of African spotted lions vary from area to area, but in general they are reported to be intermediate in size between lions and leopards and to live and hunt in pairs or packs. This is not in itself evidence of a hybrid identity since the "packs" and pairs might be coalitions of young males expelled from their natal pride and could include both maned and maneless males. Their lesser size and tawny markings may well be due to them not having reached their full growth. Alternatively, the spotting might be the result of inbreeding among an isolated population fixing a mutation which causes juvenile markings to persist into adulthood.

Parts of India also have a tradition of hybrids such as the leopard/tiger hybrids known as the "dogla". Doglas are the result of large male leopards mating with tigresses. Early 20th Century attempts to produce a comparable hybrid known as a "tigard" in captivity resulted in the offspring being miscarried at a relatively early stage. The pattern would be a combination of stripes and rosettes, most likely a marbled or swirled appearance with stripes on the legs and tail if the domestic Bengal (striped tabby mixed with rosetted wild cat) is used for comparison. In Central America there are believed to be hybrids between the puma and the jaguar and a creature resembling such a hybrid has been shot. In captivity, puma and leopards have been successfully cross-bred. Both are reported to have tawny markings on a sandy background.

To date, all reports of leopard/lion, leopard/tiger or jaguar/puma hybrids in the wild have been based on appearance and on local myth. Although local people in those regions of Africa and India are highly knowledgeable about local animal species, the myths and beliefs are based on visual impressions and are not always correct. For example the supposed leopard/cheetah hybrid turned out to be pattern mutation in the cheetah (king cheetah). In Britain, people are far less familiar with big species, seeing them on TV or in zoos and circuses or on occasional safaris, and far more likely to mistake the identities of what they see.

Several big cat species are inter-fertile i.e. they can breed with each other and produce viable hybrid offspring. However, the offspring may be infertile. Male hybrids are almost always sterile - although they display mating behaviour, they cannot fertilise a female (either a hybrid female or a pure-bred female). Female hybrids are often fertile, but because male hybrids are sterile, the female hybrids must mate with pure-bred big cats and these matings are not guaranteed to produce offspring.

Again, a comparable situation occurs in domestic Bengal cats. The original domestic x Asian Leopard Cat hybrids result in fertile females and infertile males or males which are reportedly fertile for a limited period of time. In the Safari breed (domestic x Geoffroy's Cat hybrids) the first generation males are reportedly fertile. Dissection of zoo-bred big cat hybrids indicates that the males are sterile although the unpredictability of gene interactions means there may possibly be occasional partially fertile males (the likelihood is remote but such oddities should never be ruled out entirely).

The offspring of a pure-bred individual of one species mated with a pure-bred individual of another species are known as first generation hybrids. There are genetic and practical limitations on inter-fertility. Leopards and lionesses can produce leopons but the reverse mating (lion with leopardess to produce lipards) is less successful because the smaller leopardess might not carry the lion's large offspring to full term. Leopards and pumas have produced offspring (pumapards), but the offspring suffered dwarfism and died young. Tigers and leopardesses produced stillborn offspring (tigards). It must be said that more ligers, tigons and leopons have been bred because of their popularity as exhibits while there have been too few attempts at breeding the other combinations mentioned to know whether the dwarfism and stillbirths were due to the particular individuals used in the mating or are a general rule for that mating combination. One thing that is known and has been tested in other mammals is that a mismatch or conflict between the maternal genes and paternal genes can cause growth dysplasia (growth problems) in the foetus leading to undersized offspring, oversized offspring, placental abnormalities or spontaneous abortion.

Jaguar x lioness hybrid (jaglion). This is a taxidermised individual on display at the Rothschild Zoological Museum in Tring, England.

If the hybrid offspring survive to breeding age, second generation hybrids may be produced by back-crossing a female hybrid to a pure bred of the same species as one of her parents e.g. a tigon female to a tiger (ti-tigons) or to a lion (li-tigons), a liger female to a lion (li-ligers) or to a tiger (ti-ligers). These will be three-quarter breds containing 75% genes from one species and 25% from the other. Currently there are no reports as to whether the second generation hybrids are fertile but in a comparable situation in domestic cats (the Bengal, the Safari), the second generation females are fertile. The male are sterile although hybrid males are sometimes seen mating with females. Cats can produce litters where each cub has a different father, so any cubs produced after a hybrid male mated with a hybrid or pure-bred female were probably fathered by a pure-bred male that also mated with her.

Complex hybrids have been created by crossing a female hybrid to a big cat of a different species e.g. a female jaguar-leopard (jagleop) mated to a lion can produce a lijagleop. This results in 50% lion genes, 25% jaguar genes and 25% leopard genes. Although no-one has continued the experiment, the males will almost certainly be sterile. It is probable (but not confirmed) that the females will also be sterile due to mismatches between the complex mix of 3 sets of genes. In the domestic "Viverral" breed, Bengal hybrids were stabilised over several generations of back-crossing to domestic cats (greatly diluting the Asian Leopard Cat genes so that the Bengal is considered a wholly domestic breed with normal fertility) before genes from another wild species (the Fishing Cat) were introduced and a whole new hybrid created. If the new "Viverral" hybrid is fertile, it will take multiple generations of back-crossing to stabilise the new breed.

Note: The situation with domestic cats breeding freely with African Wild Cats and European Wild Cats is not comparable as these are taxonomically sub-species, not separate species. This would be comparable to breeding Siberian tigers to Bengal tigers i.e. intra-specific hybrids.

There have been reports of puma/leopard hybrids in the wild in Britain and of such a hybrid being seen in the company of a lynx. The viability of such a pairing depends on which is the male, but even if they did produce complex hybrid offspring, the lynx-pumapards are unlikely to be fertile themselves and the family line would come to an end. Lynx have been hybridized with the related bobcat, but not with other big cats nor with domestic cats.

Introgressive hybridization is the formation of a new species due to the continued reproduction between fertile individuals of different sub-species or members of related species. The individuals and their offspring breed among themselves for long enough that distinct traits become fixed. This has probably happened in Britain to create the Kellas Cat, a black wildcat intermediate in form between the Scottish Wildcat and black domestic cats Scottish Wildcats and domestic cats are closely related sub-species and have fully fertile hybrid offspring. Black is a recessive trait (two black cats will produce black offspring) and can remain hidden in a population i.e. two tabby cats can have black kittens. If the black hybrids mate only with other black hybrids, they will produce a population of cats which may vary in size and shape but which will always be black.

The "Rabbit-headed Wild Cat", another black wild cat, may well be an introgressive hybrid between wildcats and a black domestic cat containing a high degree of Siamese ancestry. It has the wide-set large ears, wedge-shaped profile and slightly protruding canines found in Siamese and Oriental cats. Two such cats are reportedly in captivity, but have failed to breed. This has been explained as due to their hybrid nature. However, hybrids between the Scottish Wildcat and domestic cat are fully fertile to the extent that many Scottish Wildcats are "mongrels". The failure to reproduce is more likely due to inbreeding depression i.e. the pair are so closely related and genetically similar (e.g. brother/sister) that their fertility is poor. This effect is seen in wild cheetahs and in laboratory mice. To test for infertility, both captive black cats should be test-mated to Scottish wildcats and also to domestic cats rather than to each other.

Introgressive hybridization between different big cats is theoretically possible e.g. if a male leopard mates with a lioness, then with his leopon hybrid female offspring and with her hybrid leo-leopon female offspring and so on. If the Bengal cat example is typical, consistently fertile males would start to occur in the second or third generation, though the lion genes would be greatly diluted by that stage. Because the leopard would mate with several different generations of hybrid females with different ratios and combinations of lion and leopard genes, there would be a variety of genetic mixes. There would also be inter-generational matings producing offspring e.g. leo-leo-leopon male with first generation leopon female, leopard male with leo-leo-leopon female. Eventually a true-breeding population would form. The cats would be closest in appearance to (possibly indistinguishable from) the leopard, since he will have contributed most of the genes in the eventual mix. In domestic/wild hybrid breeds the eventual percentage of wild-type genes is reckoned to be about 12.5% (although I do not have the formulae demonstrating this).

If the marozi does indeed exist and is not simply an aberrant form of lion, it may be an introgressive hybrid where the lion has contributed most of the genes and all that is left of the leopard's contribution to the gene pool is the rosetted pattern (but in lion colours) and smaller size.

To produce a viable hybrid big cat population in Britain would require continued back-crossing of hybrid females to a pure-bred male of the same species as either parent (most likely to her own father) until fertile males are produced in a later generation. By the time fully fertile generations occur, they would so greatly resemble the pure bred foundation male and the genes from the other species would be so dilute that only a DNA analysis would reveal any trace of the other species! This is already seen in domestic cats. The Bengal breed is so many generations removed from the Asian Leopard Cat parent that a casual observer would see only a "tabby cat" or "spotted tabby cat". A non-expert would not know that Bengals have any wild genes at all. Only someone familiar with pure-breds would spot the distinguishing markings and face shape. The few first and second generation Bengal hybrids, which more greatly resemble the Asian Leopard Cat, remain with Bengal as foundation stock. If the Bengal can be misidentified as "not a hybrid" then pure-breds can be misidentified as hybrids and pure-breds with natural colour or pattern variations are even more likely to be misidentified as hybrids (as happened with the king cheetah).

However enthusiastic they are, most people in Britain are not experts in big cat identification. A few visits to a zoo or circus, a spotter's guide to African wildlife and a few hours in front of Discovery Animal Planet do not make somebody an expert! Those who do see "British Big Cats" usually catch only a fleeting glimpse or see them at a distance; very few see them close up. Even an expert is hard pressed to make a positive identification of a fast-moving big cat at the other end of a field at dusk. Big cats are also variable in size and markings. Lion cubs and puma cubs have rosette markings and some adults retain these as faint markings. Claims of "puma-leopard hybrids" should therefore be treated with scepticism, not confidence, as they are far more likely to be sub-adults with residual markings.

While there are genuine sightings, to date all big cat captures have been pure-breds - a puma in Scotland, a lynx near to London and an escaped clouded leopard. There have been a far greater number of misidentifications. Some of these inexpert identifications (which make excellent tabloid newspaper headlines) have caused "flaps" (groups of sightings). To demonstrate how inexpert some people are, here are two of the most ludicrous misidentifications. A "lion" on a railway bank turned out to be a large ginger moggy viewed from a passing train. And to demonstrate just how little many people know about cats, in America, a woman reported a "lynx" sitting on her fence; this turned out to be her neighbour's Siamese cat - a popular and very distinctive breed! If people can mistake a relatively small domestic cat for a big cat, then they are even more likely to mistake a juvenile puma with faint markings as a "hybrid leopard-puma"!

A NEW SPECIES?

Some groups erroneously claim that the Exmoor Beast is a "prime example of micro-evolution", being descended from an escaped black puma that mated with a leopard and created a new species of cat. The small and isolated gene pool, the rare black colouration of the puma became a "common" trait while the adaptability of pumas supposedly enabled the new species to fit a non-native environment. This is nonsense for several reasons. Melanism has not yet been confirmed in pumas. A single dark puma was shot in South America, but it was not melanistic and more recently a litter of charcoal puma cubs was found, but it is not known if these will retain that colouration. The "rare black colouration of the puma" remains anecdotal. While a leopard has been crossed with a puma in captivity, the offspring were dwarfed and short-lived. In addition, male hybrids are almost invariably sterile while female hybrids are only fertile if bred back to a pure-bred male of one of the parent species. This "backcrossing" would lead to later generations being more absorbed back into one of the parent species (a good example is the Bengal cat created by crossing Asian Leopard Cats with domestic cats - backcrossing to domestics has resulted in a wholly domestic conformation). The identification of the beasts as black pumas is due to poor light/silhouette and the fact that the British public are not familiar enough with big cats to distinguish between puma, leopard, jaguar or lioness (a trip to a zoo or an Africa safari does not qualify a person to identify a big cat!).

Most British Big Cat "evidence" is in the form of paw-prints and kills. These have been shown to tracking and trapping experts with experience of big cats in the wild in other countries. These experts are people whose livelihoods depend on them being able to identify big cat signs and track and even trap or shoot big cats. They identified almost all of the paw-prints as dog, with the remainder being too indistinct for identification. In the cases of supposed ABC sheep kills, those big cat experts noted that the pattern is consistent with dogs - lacerations to the neck and belly with the skin being removed from the neck and with the belly area being eaten. Dog packs tend to kill by evisceration. Big cats go for the throat or neck and leave four deep puncture wonds. Either the neck is broken or the prey is strangled. Big cats do not leave gashes in the throat. Dogs kill more messily and leave gashes. It would seem that most of these livestock kills are caused by dogs running out of control or gone feral.

I am not denying the possibility of big cats in the British countryside. There are plenty of prey animals to support a small population of big cats. Even hybrids are possible, albeit unlikely given the genetic problems, under the right circumstances. Personally I am sure there are big cats living wild in the more remote parts of Britain, but for the reasons given above these are more likely to be pure-breds than hybrids and any claimed sightings of hybrids must be treated with caution. The supposed big cat kills are actually dog attacks, but many people refuse to believe that "man's best friend" can go rogue and kill livestock.

Big cat sightings often lead to ill-advised hunting expeditions and current advice to farmers is to shoot if they encounter panthers. Unfortunately this could result in a wounded and dangerous animal on the loose rather than one which has confined its attacks to livestock. Wildlife researchers Lena Godsall Bottriell and Paul Bottriell recommended not shooting for this very reason. For the same reason safari expeditions are discouraged as a cornered big cat will defend itself and could seriously injure a human. Di Francis has suggested that farmers who have lost livestock to ABCs should put elderly barren ewes in outlying fields. The big cats would probably prey on these rather than on the more valuable younger livestock. Since the cat kills appear to have been swift and clean and old ewes would be slow and easy prey, it would not involve any more cruelty than transporting them to a slaughterhouse. However the kills attributed to big cats are almost certainly made by dogs.

It seems that panther-like creatures, whether indigenous or introduced, do haunt parts of Britain. Some have been captured on film or have left behind evidence by way of pugmarks, tidy kills and, more rarely, their own remains. Some humans have actually trodden on a well-camouflaged ABC which was lying low in undergrowth! So far no-one is certain what they are or where they came from; but most people agree that the 'Surrey Puma' and 'Beast of Exmoor' are more than just myths so if you ever visit the British countryside, keep a loaded camera handy!