Police hunt weirdness with Helicopters

Police Helicopters are busy in Wales and the marches. While one was used to hunt the Ammanford Wolfman recently and of course there was the massive Cardiff UFO - helicopter chase last year. The latest report from the Marcher county of Gloucestershire is that the Police are using them to hunt a "Lion".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/8061265.stm

Clearly I should have tried to get a police helicopter to hunt the Swansea Crocodile last year :)

Link courtsey of the CFZ blog where Tim Mathews notes the similarities between Big Cat hunts and Ufology. Which I guess is true enough regarding enthusiasts though the authorities too seem to take Big Cat reports far more seriously than they do UFOs nowadays.

TIM MATTHEWS: Are big cat hunters the new UFOlogists?

Big Cats in Wales - Academics support

Another report on Welsh big cats. It is good to see that academic examination of Big cats is still ongoing in Wales and Swansea University is at the forefront. This is a more than usually interesting article on Big Cats.

MAUL OF THE WILD

Daily Star - ‎May 16, 2009‎

By Rick Lyons
BIG cats are on the prowl in Britain – and today we reveal West Wales is their favourite hunting ground.

Shocking figures leaked to us show sleepy Aberystwyth has seen more attacks by the beasts than anywhere else.

Black panthers, pumas and lynx are all thought to be roaming free – and breeding – in remote rural locations.

And 34 of 39 suspected big cat kills probed by the Government in the last ten years were in the Aberystwyth area.

Just last month the Veterinary Laboratories Agency – responsible for post-mortems on big cat kills – said a calf attacked there in March had its ribs splintered by a large mammal.

Since 1998 the agency has also studied the carcasses of 15 lambs, 19 sheep, a dog and a fox – all thought to have fallen prey to foreign big cats.

Most sightings in Wales are attributed to panthers, which are capable of killing animals as big as a horse.

Experts think they were released in the 1970s and have now formed breeding populations in sparsely populated areas like rural Wales.

Dr Dan Forman, a carnivore biologist from Swansea University, said he had “relatively conclusive”
evidence big cats were out there.

And he said they were being helped by the climate and rugged terrain round Aberystwyth.

Dan told us: “It’s milder – you don’t get hard frost.

“There’s also a lot of food around here and a lot of caves which are in remote locations near abandoned copper mines, gold mines and things like that. They are fantastic refuges for these animals.

“There are feral populations of racoons in the United Kingdom, there are feral populations of
wallabies. People don’t believe it but it’s true.

“There’s no reason why other predators couldn’t exist in an environment where there’s lots of food, lots of cover and where people don’t normally go – like West Wales.”

The introduction of the 1976 Dangerous Wild Animals Act is being blamed for the rise of the big cats.

It required the owners of exotic cats to have licences – prompting many to dump their pets.

It is now thought they are all over the United Kingdom and may even have inter-bred, creating new species.

Numbers are unknown but there are an average of between three and four sightings every day.

The National Farmers Union of Wales admits big cats are “a serious issue” for its members, and Danny Bamping, of the British Big Cat Society, said: “People need to realise that these cats are out there.

“They’re real and they are not in the same category as the Loch Ness Monster.”

While Swansea Uni’s Dan Forman added: “Three hundred years from now we might have pumas walking around the countryside and people simply accepting it.

“These animals integrate themselves into our animal assemblage and they become part of it.”

So the cats are living in abandoned mines no wonder there are so many in Wales.

Meat Eating Squirrels in Wales?

Fascinating blog post from a while back from Richard Holland which features a Welsh wild cat and more strangely a carnivorous squirrel.

Squirrel

Big Cats in Wales - More sightings

There have always been stacks of Big cat reports in Wales. They are definitely out there as this summary of reports from the Wales on Sunday show.

WalesOnline - News - Wales News - Shock number of big cat sightings4 Jan 2009 ... BIG cats are clawing their way into the limelight as Welsh sightings of the “

purranormal” creatures rocket, Wales on Sunday can reveal.

Soon after this there was a shocking report of a mass sheep killing in Camarthenshire.

Big cats in Britain - Welsh NewsBig cats in Britain provide a good summary of Big cats repoorts in Wales at their site.

Welsh Cryptid Comic

Unbelievable Signing - Insomnia Captures The Beast of Bryn Boncath

A new neighbour has moved in. A man long thought dead has returned. Livestock are missing. There are noises in the night. People are afraid to go into out after dark and sightings of a giant hound, or maybe a big cat are on the increase once again.

Suddenly it seems to Ben that what he took to be the tall tales of his grandfather may be more than just stories. It seems that something is stirring in the forests and the mountains around Bryn Boncath. It seems that ancient history is repeating and this time round Ben has an important part to play.

Unbelievable is a dark masterpiece that weaves strands of Welsh legend, modern murder mystery and horror with a dash of crytozoology that wonders: What if seeing isn’t always believing, but believing will allow you to see?

Igauna in Mumbles!! Milk Snake in Townhill!!! Pythons in Birchgrove !!

Found an old news report from 13 Jun 2007. An Iguana on the loose. Could it be that someone is leaving a trail of exotic pets in the Swansea area?

BBC NEWS Wales South West Wales Iguana fright as man cuts hedge

13 Jun 2007

Experts say iguanas would not survive a British winter outdoors

A gardener has told of his shock at coming face to face with an iguana as he trimmed his hedge.

The 18in (46cm) reptile is now being cared for by an expert after Bryan Harris called the RSPCA to his home in Mumbles, Swansea.

Attempts are being made to trace the lizard's owner and to find out how it came to be on the loose.

Iguanas can grow more than 5ft long (1.5m) and RSPCA inspector Neil Manley said they do not make very good pets.

He said: "The man said he was cutting the hedge when he suddenly saw this great big lizard sat on it. [Read more at site]

Besides the Iguana an escaped Milk Snake made headlines in 2006.

BBC NEWS Milk snake hiding in Shop's door

19 April 2006- An escaped snake caused mayhem at a grocery store in Swansea when it became trapped within a metal door.

The non-venomous snake was striking out at customers at the Costcutter in the city's Townhill area over the weekend.

A local snake expert and his wife had to be called to extricate the 3.5ft milk snake.

Geraint "the Snakeman" Hopkins and his wife Yolande had to remove the letterbox to recover the snake, which later died from injury and illness. [Read more at site]

Vaireties of Milk Snake are found all over America and are popular pets.

Pythons stolen from garden shed
09 Feb 2006

Police are hunting thieves who have taken 22 young python snakes from a reptile breeder's garden shed. The snakes, described as "gentle" and no threat to people, were grabbed from a house in Birchgrove, Swansea. The royal or ball pythons, measuring 18in to 2ft (45-60cm) in length, were kept in 14 boxes with lockable lids. [Read more at site]

There are in Swansea like all over the UK a large number of reptile fanciers. You can judge some of the extent of this hobby from these adverts:

Reptiles For Sale around Swansea + 30 miles - Lycos Classifieds

Of course the vast majority of exotic pet owners are responsible people, who care for their animals and this respectable side is typified by Exotic Pets Magazine, but there are some rogue people out there keeping animals illegally in bad conditions. The RSPCA is calling for tighter controls on the sale and ownership of dangerous wild animals as you can see here: Exotic animals

There have been a number of Big Cat sightings in the Swansea area especially round Margam. One of the latest is here:

I Came Face to Face With a Big Cat in Swansea Valley South Wales Evening Post: 29th June 2007