Alien Big Cat Sightings in Britain
A Possible Rumour Legend
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8932202 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael Goss (0000-0003-2106-9210, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1992 |
| Volume | 103 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 184-202 |
| Publication date | 1992-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Folklore (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0015-587X • E-ISSN: 1469-8315 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0015587x.1992.9715841 |
| OpenAlex | W2069889577 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
BRITAIN'S largest native carnivore averages 853mm in length and a little over 10kg in weight.' It is Meles meles, the well-known and inoffensive badger; our islands have had contact with no more formidable indigenous predator since the extinction of the wolf, Canis lupus, some three hundred years ago. But these zoological truisms seem to be contradicted by a wealth of newspaper reports which affirm that our country hosts surprisingly high numbers of pumas, 'panthers' lynxes and other fittingly-named 'alien big cats': a media phenomenon which has displayed fluctuating yet durable vitality over the past two decades without receiving much by way of critical examination. From whence are these exotic animals supposed to have come? How come they to be ranging wild and free in a country which, as my introductory remarks defined, is not noted for a wealth of large carnivores? There are several acceptable responses. The big cats are releasees or escapees. They are former inmates of zoos, wildlife parks, private menageries or (if such things still exist) travelling circuses; specimens which have escaped or else been covertly released by former owners. Misidentification of native animals, whether wild (deer, foxes, mink, etc.) or domestic (ponies, dogs and cats, including feral cats), also presents itself as an explanation, particularly where reports suggest that the sightings were of brief duration, principally taking place unexpectedly and at night with the witnesses not infrequently situated inside a speeding vehicle. Then there are also a few responses less acceptable-to zoologists and other hyper-rational species, at least. One naturalist proposes that the cats are in fact indigenous to Britain-that they have been so since prehistoric times, yet without entering the field of ken represented by those constitutionally conservative zoologists just mentioned.2 More esoteric thinkers dwell upon the strange elusiveness of the animals and put forward the idea that they are hallucinatory, paraphysical, 'thought-forms', symbolic expressions of environmental consciousness, or perhaps any combination of these. But my intention here has less to do with the literal reality or unreality of the alien big cats and a good deal to do with them as a media artefact. I wish to concentrate upon the possibility that our news media have propagated a form of rumour legend which, regardless of its basic factuality or lack of it, conditions our very approach to the subject. I begin by quoting a short news item entitled, 'I faced (a) puma ... in Wales' from the Daily Mirror of 24 January 1990
Alien · Archaeology · Badger · Big game · Biology · Canis · Carnivore · Ethnology · Genealogy · Geography · Legend · Meles · Population · Predation · Sociology · Wildlife · Zoology · Demography · Ecology · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Human-Animal Interaction Studies · Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,15 |
| Citation span | 1992 - 2024 (33) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |