Just saw a wild cat?

Royal Legend

Where exactly did you see it on the Cork Road?

kylith

foxinsox wrote: »

I would put money on it that what you saw was a " young fox".

Happened to me a few weeks,ago, early morning walk. I was convinced I'd seen a lion cub and was going to be eaten.

Google "baby fox" while in image search.


You can pm the cash later :-)

Wouldn't be big enough, according to OP's description.

MaeveD

dlofnep wrote: »

Was driving here in Waterford on the Cork road, and I saw a wild cat. I'd say it was little over twice as big as a normal cat - was reddish brown in colour. At first I thought it was a fox, due to it's size and colour - but I stopped up next to it and it looked at me - had a very distinct wild cat face - sharp pointy ears. Absolutely not a fox.

Wondering what it could have been? I know some people have Ocelots, but it wasn't spotted.

Any ideas what it might have been?

Could it have been a serval or a serval cross that got dumped or escaped?

dlofnep

MaeveD wrote: »

Could it have been a serval or a serval cross that got dumped or escaped?

It wasn't spotted, are there mix breeds of them that are reddish brown?

dlofnep

Royal Legend wrote: »

Where exactly did you see it on the Cork Road?

Sorry - it wasn't the Cork road. Was right next to it - whatever the name of that road is by the Riverwalk apartments - inner ring road I think.There's a ditch right before that car sales place. I'd imagine if he's just an exotic pet, he maybe escaped from the houses across the road. Maybe someone knows someone up that way with an exotic pet cat.

MaeveD

It wasn't spotted, are there mix breeds of them that are reddish brown?[/Quote]

As far as I know yes, they keep the size and shape. They're wild so its probably fine :-) a few years ago they were a trendy pet but apparently quite a handful.

foxinsox

kylith wrote: »

foxinsox wrote: »

I would put money on it that what you saw was a " young fox".

Happened to me a few weeks,ago, early morning walk. I was convinced I'd seen a lion cub and was going to be eaten.

Google "baby fox" while in image search.


You can pm the cash later :-)

Wouldn't be big enough, according to OP's description.

The "thing" I saw would have been about twice the size of a domestic cat, maybe a bit bigger. Seriously looked like a lion cub, cougar, mountain lion. Very pointy ears and not really like a fox at all.

I'm on mobile and can't post pics now. But we were puzzled also so when we googled (images) of baby or young fox it was def what we had seen.

Maybe teen fox is what it was but the pics came up under baby or young fox can't remember exactly which term I searched.

Mountainsandh

dlofnep your description reminds me of an abyssinian cat, I wonder how big they get, never seen one for real.
http://petscollect.com/abyssinian-cat-and-kitten-personality-and-pictures/abyssinian-cat/

and http://www.abyssinianclub.com/images/4b-2005-aby-kitten.jpg

edit : I just checked, wiki says "medium size cat"...

re-edit : omg, look at this cat ! it looks so much like a fox ! that's a jungle cat, but the page I found it on is about the Chausie
http://cat-chitchat.pictures-of-cats.org/2008/03/intelligent-cat-breed.html#!/2008/03/intelligent-cat-breed.html

dlofnep

That looks like it! It had a dark stripe down it's back too like that first guy. If they are much larger than other domestic cats, I'd be willing to guess that may be the cat in question.

Mountainsandh

The abyssinians are said to be medium sized on wiki, but you wouldn't know what crosses people may have made or bought, like abyssinian + wild (jungle or serval...), that would give you a pretty big cat wouldn't it ?

Rommie

Abysinnians are actually quite small as cat breeds go, but there is a new fad of breeding abys to caracals and calling them caracats. Might be what you saw OP though I'd be surprised if there really were some over here. Especially if they're on the loose!
The lower down cat is a caracat. The other is a maine coon so that should give you an idea of the size!

http://pfotenhieb.cadmos.de/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/caracat-003.jpg

loveisdivine

I remember a while back an Asian leopard cat went missing from malahide. The owners actually posted about it here on boards. I don't think it was ever found.
Maybe it could have bred with other cats to create what you saw. An Asian leopard cat is spotted, so it wouldn't have been that exact one you saw. But maybe a descendant?

dlofnep

I live in Waterford - doubtful. A leopard wouldn't be able to mate with domestic cats. They are too distant. It's obviously just someone's exotic pet on the loose. The cat had those pointy ears like that caracat. More darker fur. Oh well, I'm sure someone else will spot him.

Mountainsandh

the size of the paws on that caracat ! :eek:

Rommie

dlofnep wrote: »

I live in Waterford - doubtful. A leopard wouldn't be able to mate with domestic cats. They are too distant. It's obviously just someone's exotic pet on the loose. The cat had those pointy ears like that caracat. More darker fur. Oh well, I'm sure someone else will spot him.

It was actually an asian leopard cat that went missing, they are used to breed bengals so indeed they can mate with domestic cats

http://www.lostandfound.ie/pics/375034_lili.jpg


Anything like that ?

dlofnep

Nope. It was not spotted or striped. Reddish brown fur, a single slight line down it's back. Pointed ears, and large.

Mountainsandh

This popped up on my Facebook today and I thought of you .


Essex Police investigate 'lion' sighting near St Osyth

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-19388301

dlofnep

Hah, yeah - saw that

Mountainsandh

I also just read that search has now been called off, they reckon it was a very large domestic cat or a wild cat.

You'd wonder what kind of exotic crosses some people might be smuggling into our countries though... they do it for monkeys and other exotic species, it's probably easy enough to procure jungle cat hybrids in Uk and Ireland.

brianregan09

Deleted User wrote: »

http://www.lostandfound.ie/pics/375034_lili.jpg


Anything like that ?

I want that cat looks really cool

Jogathon

Look, deadly serious. In light of the lion roaming wild around Essex recently, should we call the gardaí, mountain rescue and the ISPCC?

Jesus, was that a roar I just heard???

Mountainsandh

ISPCC ? you mean in case the lion had a tough kittenhood/cubhood ? how thoughtful

ChihuahuaLover

I know this is an old thread but i was looking for a thread on tnr rescue feral cats but found this and I wanted to comment.

I would just like to say I too have seen a big cat like this twice.
the first time was by extravision on the dunmore road one night at about 4am ran in front of my car I thought it was a fox but it ran and jumped up onto a wall and turned and looked at me.I stopped because it was a near miss but when I looked again I realised it was definitely not a fox and it was most definitely not a domestic cat it was easily three times the size.with a really long tail.It was an orange fox collar but had no markings like a bengal or anything plus it was chunkier.

Anyway I got back to our apartment which was across from the hospital at the time but I got back and told him and he laughed and said I was crazy I told others the next day and they also said i was bonkers and laughed.

So then one night we had my brother stay with us and he was out on the balcony having a fag so I went outside and was talking to him when my boyfriends shouted out omg look at the size of that thing haha we looked down and it looked up at us we were on the third floor but there was other cats that would pass at night underneath the balconys but none this size it was crazy it was the very same cat I had seen and they all said i was mad now they had seen it for themselfs. they ran down the stairs to look for it but could not find it. Havint seen it since but I have looked online and cant find anything that resembled it so if anyone else sees it anywhere please keep us updated

Pumpkinseeds

There are some huge breeds such as Maine Coon and Norwegian Forest cat, that's before you factor in some of the huge exotic cats being bred in America, some of those are crossed with Lynx's etc. So it's not a huge stretch to see how one of those breeds could be mistaken at night for a wild cat. So far as I know only Scotland has Wild cats and the numbers are declining rapidly:(

Capercaille

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

There are some huge breeds such as Maine Coon and Norwegian Forest cat, that's before you factor in some of the huge exotic cats being bred in America, some of those are crossed with Lynx's etc. So it's not a huge stretch to see how one of those breeds could be mistaken at night for a wild cat. So far as I know only Scotland has Wild cats and the numbers are declining rapidly:(

http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/8543/0
Wild Cat (Felis silvestris) is a widely distributes species across Europe, Asia, Africa. European population now fragmented. Scottish Wild Cat is declining mainlydue to hybridization with feral cats.

boomerang

The truly feral toms can be absolutely enormous! We've trapped and neutered two toms that were over 8kg. Consider the fact that they weren't neutered at the time so that was 8kg of muscle; they were lean!

Pumpkinseeds

boomerang wrote: »

The truly feral toms can be absolutely enormous! We've trapped and neutered two toms that were over 8kg. Consider the fact that they weren't neutered at the time so that was 8kg of muscle; they were lean!

I've got an almost 9kg neutered male at home:o, not us doing the feeding, is unknown neighbours. But I always get comments on what a big lad he is. He also has a very big frame, huge paws etc.

Pumpkinseeds

Capercaille wrote: »

http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/8543/0
Wild Cat (Felis silvestris) is a widely distributes species across Europe, Asia, Africa. European population now fragmented. Scottish Wild Cat is declining mainlydue to hybridization with feral cats.

Stunning cat in that photo.

DBB

boomerang wrote: »

We've trapped and neutered two toms that were over 8kg.

:eek:

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

I've got an almost 9kg neutered male at home

:eek::eek::eek: