Hmm… the professor seems to have seen some really big kitties.
“Pet cats are turning feral and growing to more than 4ft in the wild, a British professor has claimed in the wake of the furore over a lion on the loose in Essex.”
Pet cats are turning feral and growing to more than 4ft in the wild, a British professor has claimed.
Stephen Harris, professor of environmental sciences at Bristol University, said that since wolves and other large animals had become extinct in the UK, a gap had opened for a large predator.
He believes the niche could be being filled by previously domesticated cats which have turned feral and grown to large sizes.
It may explain sightings of the so-called Essex lion which was apparently spotted in Clacton-on-sea over the weekend.
While lions, leopards and pumas are unlikely to be found on the prowl in Britain, a number of pet cats turned feral could be causing the confusion, claims Professor Harris.
The domestic animals can be as long as 4ft from nose to tip of tail in Britain and Mr Harris claimed he had seen domestic cats growing to more than 5ft in Australia.
This sounds like the premise for a cheesy grade B science fiction feature from the 50′s: “Them!”, “Night of the Lepus”, “Attack of the Crab Monsters”, etc.
Hey, Them! was pretty good! With James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, James Arness, Fess Parker, and Leonard Nimoy, why wouldn’t it be?
Well, then we have to release the monitor lizards to control the cats….
This is absolute balderdash. Anyone familiar with cats that have “gone feral” know that, if anything, they tend to be smaller due to nutritional challenges (they only get to eat what they catch, not graze all day from a bottomless bowl). What rubbish.
That cat in your house is feral. They aren’t domesticated. You are.
This is what happens when someone is educated 20 years beyond their intelligence and learned more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.
Right on Stan B. However they grow in diameter not length.
Far and away the biggest “house” cat I’ve ever seen was a Wyoming ranch cat, apparently descended from a long line. It was as big as a large bobcat. So I almost think it’s plausible that feral cats are getting bigger.
We have a tabby that’s probably a meter from nose to tail, definitely in the 10kg range, and mostly muscle for all that weight. Given unsuspecting prey (he’s a mouser, not a birder) and a reason to exercise that bulk, I could see him and his progeny getting into that 4′ range.
Size is a defense against the cold. Dunno where Essex is; is it cold there?
The further north you go in North America, the bigger the deer get.
It would seem that the “domesticated” variety would stand a better chance of getting bigger because of a regular and abundant food supply.
Set you moggie loose in Mumbai: 80million rats there. Lots of food for a growing pussy.
Cats catch mice. You need dogs to catch rats. All but the largest of cats can be fought or even killed by rats.
Main Coon Cats are supposedly the largest breed of housecat @ about 32 pounds
Good account on Spiked:
http://www.spiked-online.com/site/earticle/12813/
“just about the only people to take the whole piss-takey story seriously were the local authorities. They really did act as if there were a bona-fide, red-in-tooth-and-claw killing machine stalking holidaymakers and locals alike.
Thirty officers, a marksman, several local zoologists, a police helicopter and an extensive police cordon were deemed entirely appropriate. Why? Neither zoos nor a recently departed circus reported any big cats missing. Nobody else in the area owns a lion as a pet (apparently they play havoc with soft furnishings).
And the campsite owner had actually said it was no more than a big domestic cat – one that looked suspiciously like local Ginny Murphy’s hefty ginger Maine Coon cat. ‘We thought it had to be Ted’, she has since told reporters, ‘as he’s the only big gingery thing around there and he does tend to wander into that field’.”