Summary: <p>Here’s another in the 2018 series of out-of-place animals, this time ABCs–alien big cats: big cats where there shouldn’t be any big cats. Like the British Isles, where no one should find a lynx or puma wandering around these days. But not only do people see big cats in Britain, they sometimes catch or kill them too.</p> <p>The Eurasian lynx:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-464" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Eurasian-lynx-300x211.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="211"></p> <p>The European wildcat:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-465" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/wildcat.jpg" alt="" width="183" height="275"></p> <p>The puma:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-466" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/puma-300x202.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="202"></p> <p>A photo of the Beast of Bodmin Moor:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-468" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/BeastofBodminMoor-300x189.png" alt="" width="300" height="189"></p> <p>Mr. Tinkler’s unexpected serval:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-463" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Surreypuma2014-300x202.png" alt="" width="300" height="202"></p> <p>The Kellas cat:</p> <p><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-467" src="http://strangeanimalspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/kellas-catdetail-300x131.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="131"></p> <p><strong>Show transcript:</strong></p> <p>Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.</p> <p>This week’s episode is about some more out of place animals, but a specific type. There are so many reports of big cats in places where big cats should not be, especially black panthers, that cryptozoologists have a term for them: ABCs, or Alien Big Cats. Thanks again to Maureen for the topic suggestion!</p> <p>There are whole books written about ABCs, so I won’t be able to do more than touch on the highlights in this episode. Big cat reports from Great Britain are especially common, so that’s what I’ll focus on this time.</p> <p>Many reports of black panthers turn out to be large domestic cats seen at a distance, where tricks of perspective and poor light contribute to the cat looking much bigger than it really is. Some big cat reports turn out to be real animals that escaped from captivity, but other reports are not so easy to explain away.</p> <p>The British Isles only fully separated from mainland Europe about 8,000 years ago as the land rose due to isostatic </p>
