Myth About 'Big Cat' Prowling British Countryside Becomes Reality With New Discovery

By Sam Goodwin | Apr 26, 2013

Myth About 'Big Cat' Prowling British Countryside Becomes Reality With New Discover (Photo : Flickr)

Scientists have made a new discover that might confirm claims of a popular myth about a "big cat" prowling the countryside of Britain.

As famous as the myths about Loch Ness monster, Big Foot and New York City's sewer alligators, is the popular myth that a large cat roams the British country. Now, scientists have made a discovery that suggests that there might indeed be a 'big cat' that prowled the British countryside in England, or it might have in the early 1900s.

The discovery was made when a mounted Canadian lynx was rediscovered in a museum's underground storeroom. Since its entrance into the museum, it has been labelled as a Eurasian lynx, which once roamed the British countryside and became extinct around the 7th century. However, on further investigation it was discovered that the creature has been wrongly labelled and that it was actually a non native cousin of the Eurasian lynx.

A landowner in the Devon countryside had shot this Canadian lynx in the early 1900s when it killed two of the owner's dogs. The lynx is known to be twice the size of a normal household cat. The creature is originally an inhabitant of North America. Northeast, the northern Rocky Mountains, the Great Lakes States and the southern Rocky Mountains are four regions in the U.S. where this creature generally exists. The animal prefers hunting and travelling alone and is found in both young and old forests. As of now, only 1,000 lynxes exist in the U.S..

"This Edwardian feral lynx provides concrete evidence that although rare, exotic felids have occasionally been part of the British fauna for more than a century," said Ross Barnett, lead researcher, in a news release. "The animal remains are significant in representing the first historic big cat from Britain."

"There have been enough sightings of exotic big cats which substantially pre-date 1976 to cast doubt on the idea that one piece of legislation made in 1976 explains all releases of these animals in the UK," said co-author Darren Naish in a news release. "It seems more likely that escapes and releases have occurred throughout history, and that this continual presence of aliens explains the 'British big cat' phenomenon."
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