For years now there have been reports circulating of these Big Cats roaming round the countryside, with so many sightings a lot of people believe these Big Cats do exist, due to lack of evidence some don't believe in them.
As for me ... I believe in them, I have tried to get as much info as I could and have joined some community's to find out as much as I could on this subject. While there are a few community's out there on this subject I found them hard to navigate and to be honest other then collecting reports on the subject, most seemed to be closed groups who did the field research and wasn't open to the idea of "members from the public" helping them out. I was unable to find a group locally to me that was interested in doing any research and in the last few years other things have come along that have taken my time, so any research I could have done on my own hasn't happened yet.
As time goes on I believe that the Big Cats are getting used to their surroundings and are developing a good sense of where they can roam and where it is best to stay away from. There is plenty of livestock and wild animals for the cats to live on, not including the fact that there are many places that are largely not populated making it easier for them to move around.
One of the big problems has been getting some good evidence to prove they exist, of course as the Big Cats themselves are hunters and used to living in the wild, keeping out of sight and moving stealthy. This would always cause us problems hence not being able to get solid evidence. We do have to remember that these Big Cats are hunters and experts at moving in cover and keeping themselves from being seen. Hopefully as the equipment we use gets better and more technical (Thermal imaging) getting images/pictures will become easier, and we will have the evidence to prove they exist and put to rest the controversy that surrounds this myth.
I myself have spent many hours at various times of the day/evening looking for signs of a Big Cat in our local forest Cannock Chase. I even at one point trailed the Fallow Deer and learnt there main travel patterns through parts of the forest. I also had a few vantage points that gave me a good view of a large area which I knew the Deer passed through, but I wasn't fortunate enough to see and signs of a Big Cat.
As for me, personally I will still keep an eye out for the elusive Big Cat as sooner or later it will show itself and hopefully someone will get the evidence that is needed. I heard that several years ago when the sightings where starting to grow in the local area that Forest Rangers were instructed to keep quiet about anything strange they came across. I did enquire as to this information but was told it wasn't true and that no Big Cats were roaming our local area. Since then the local Forest Rangers have attempted to get the feeding/leaving of food for Deer stopped. This I believe is in relation to the fact once the Big Cats have worked out where the Deer are grouping together to eat it would be easy for a member of public to sight one and get evidence, of course this is not the "official" reason that is given.
If anyone else is has any information from about sightings from our local area, then please don't hesitate to contact me about it as I'm genuinely interested in building up a overview of their roaming habits in the local area (Staffordshire).
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