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Felicity the puma

Felicity the puma is often cited as evidence that there are non-native cats at large in the UK. Others believe that her capture was a staged event. What seems almost certain is that she was a pet who had been released recently as she was exceptionally tame. Felicity was also quite old and arthritic. After her capture, she was kept in the Highland Wildlife Park where she became quite a celebrity. When she died in 1985, she was stuffed and can still be seen in the Inverness museum and art gallery.

See Felicity the puma, Lurking Menace of the UK's Big Cats, Still On The Trail Of Killers and Death of man who caged wild puma for additional information.

The origin of the puma, which was captured near Inverness in 1980, is unclear, but it was quite tame and has subsequently been kept in a wildlife park. That sounds like a case of a semi-domesticated animal that was released into the wild.



Elliot Morley MP, Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, February 1998

It was reported that a prisoner serving a sentence at Winchester Prison, David Carter, claimed he had released a pair of pumas near Cannich and Felicity was one of these. Detective John Cathcart, who was called in to investigate, said all the details could have been gleamed by the man from press reports. It is interesting, however, that the sightings of pumas in the Cannich area did not end with the capture of Felicity.



Chris Smith, Scottish Big Cats

Were the cats released by that bloke from Derbyshire, ever found?



The only captured wild cats that immediately spring to mind are the ones that were found dead, such as the ocelot that got run over in the Midlands.



There have also been hybrid cats, such as the offpring of the domestic cat which crossbred with a wild cat or lynx! These offspring were allegedly half 'ABC'! You may remember this featured on the BBC Midlands Report Documentary.



Mark Henson, The British Big Cat Mystery

I have a cutting from the (Edinburgh) Evening News of 9 th July 1997 which states:



'The Highlands are also a fertile ground for big cats. A puma was captured in Aviemore in 1993, eleven years after another puma had been captured in the same area.'



The first was obviously Felicity, but I haven't been able to find any other references to the second puma. Can anbody else enlighten me?



I also have the following information, source unknown:



'Small cats are very sensitive to disturbance and are often difficult to breed in captivity. In the early 1980s, the Leopard Cats at Edinburgh Zoo successfully reared a litter. One of these was sold to a private collection in Cumbria from which it escaped in the summer of 1987. It was loose for eight months before a gamekeeper killed it attacking pheasant in February 1988 on the Minto estate in the Border Country, near Jedburgh. A second Leopard Cat was killed in neighbouring Berwickshire a year later.'



I'd be very interested in any further information on these leopard cats, especially the second one.



Chris Smith, Scottish Big Cats

We received notification of the following escapee big cats on 17 th April 1998 in a letter from MAFF.



We pass on this information because some people must have seen these animals before they were recaptured or shot (and many are of species we would not normally believe to be British feral big cats).



Species Number of animals that escaped Location of escape Time before they were recaptured or shot. Clouded leopard 1 Canterbury, Kent. Free for 7 days. Jaguar 2 Colwyn Bay, Clwyd. Free for one day. Lion 4 Grimsby, Humberside. Free for one day. Lion 1 Cromer, Norfolk. Free for one day. Puma 1 Not known where or when this escaped Not known how long it was free.This was captured near Inverness, Scotland. (Felicity) Snow leopard 1 Welwyn, Herts. Free for one day. Tiger 5 Canterbury, Kent. Free for one day.



We suggest that people take the number of days before the recapture or shooting of these animals with some sceptism. The 'official' dates do not correspond with our own information.



We place the Clouded leopard escapee in 1975 (two years before the official dates). We believe this animal was free for 8 month, during which time in fed on local agricultural animals, and not the 7 days reported. This animal was, according to our research, shot and killed by a local farmer.



A Snow leopard is believed to have been shot and killed in Kent in the 1980's having escaped from a zoo (this is not 'officially' mentioned.



The Snow leopard mentioned above was said to have remained free for only 1 day. Could this have escaped from Welwyn, Herts and traveled to Kent in this period of time?



If anybody knows when these animals actually escaped, how long they were at liberty, when they were caught or shot, or of any others not mentioned above, please let us know.



Bob & Lyn Engledow, Operation Big Cat!

An article in the Western Morning News on 14th December 1999 mentions the following:



1980, a puma was captured live at Cannich in Scotland;

1987, a puma shot by police near Greenwich Observatory;

1988, a swamp cat was killed by a car at Hayling Island, Hampshire;

1988, an Asian leopard cat shot and killed by a farmer at Widecombe-in-the-Moor, Dartmoor;

1989, a swamp cat found dead with back injuries, Ludlow, Shropshire;

1990s, Puma hairs positively identified from Exmoor.



An article in the Sunday Telegraph in January 1994 reported that three young Servals escaped on the Isle of Wight in 1973.



On the 11 th January 1994, the Sun printed a photograph of cat shot near Brading on the Isle of Wight in 1987 which had been "identified as a Serval or Ocelot." However "Markings and ear-shape suggest that this particular mystery cat is actually a Persian Leopard Cat, (Felis bengalensis.)"



Chris Smith, Scottish Big Cats