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big cat sighting in Plymouth

Discussion in 'United Kingdom' started by dean, 2 Jul 2015.

  1. dean

    dean Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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  2. devilfish

    devilfish Well-Known Member

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    It does look reasonably fox-like but if it absolutely has to be a cat I think I'd go with something like Savannah cat or maybe a golden/bay cat. ;)
     
    Last edited: 3 Jul 2015
  3. stubeanz

    stubeanz Well-Known Member

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    Looking at it's body shape and tail I think it's clearly a fox...
    They never seem to have a good camera phone when aliens, ghosts or big cats in the UK are photographed !
     
  4. adrian1963

    adrian1963 Well-Known Member

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    To me it looks very much like a dog that my neighbour as got seems to move in the same way and as the short hair the same (name of species unknown but will ask)
     
  5. spike241

    spike241 Well-Known Member

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    Don't read the comments! :)
    Some people are a bit thick when it comes to animals.

    It's a really crap photo, it may well be a cat but it's virtually impossible to tell. It could be a horse for all I know!
     
  6. bigcat speciali

    bigcat speciali Well-Known Member

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    Last edited: 3 Jul 2015
  7. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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  8. Pertinax

    Pertinax Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    I think the original 'story' i.e. the rather poor photo taken by a lady, still
    stands. Its just been mimicked by a few other people photo-shopping(or whatever they do) pictures and its those that have been debunked as hoaxes, not hers.

    Btw, the outline of body and tail looks like a fox to me (they are pretty short-coated at this time of year, particularly the growing cubs) but the indistinctness of the photo makes for the usual doubts.
     
  9. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    yes, exactly. The woman herself thinks it is probably a fox (according to the articles), and it is clearly not a cat of any sort. There is neither "faking" nor "debunking" with regards to the original photo.
     
  10. Gary

    Gary Well-Known Member

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    Shouldn't worry about it-B.S. seems to think he's the authority on big cats in the UK and aggressively attempts to dismiss and debunk any mention made on this site-check the previous thread on this subject.

    I have seen a "big" cat in the South of the UK (and I was with one other witness who actually stopped the vehicle we were in as it crossed the road in front of us in broad daylight) and so has my father-I don't know what it was as it clearly didn't fit any known species and my own bet would be an over-large feral animal.

    I have cats myself and it 'trotted' in the manner of a cat as it moved quickly over a railway viaduct. It would have been maybe three times the size of a normal house cat.

    In the case of this photo, it most clearly resembles a cheetah in shape-oddly, the most dog-like of cats-I suspect it probably is a greyhound or similar given the long skinny legs.
     
  11. Pertinax

    Pertinax Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    I think certain people should pay more attention to accuracy before they make statements on here. Its not difficult.
     
  12. bigcat speciali

    bigcat speciali Well-Known Member

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    The fake that had the believers drooling at the mouth...
    Within the past week there has been a small flurry of alleged sightings of a "puma" along with "photographic evidence" in the fields at Tamerton Foliot in Plymouth. The small coverage that was within the local press then hit the daily tabloids, the press made a meal of it and the believers fell hook line and sinker for a pack of lies.

    The Plymouth puma? Mystery of the 'big cat' photographed on the outskirts of the Devon city | Daily Mail Online

    Is this the latest sighting of a big cat in the Westcountry – or just a fox? | Western Morning News

    What appears to be a feline walking across the grass does appear to be somewhat strange looking, not quite true. The front leg is bent and the overall picture appears to be similar to a cardboard cut out, there is a lack of depth, a lack of movement and a lack of reality coupled with a picture quality that fails to make sense.

    Then we have another story, same place but different people and a new picture. This new picture is of a puma but the image is somewhat poor as compared to the overall rest of the image still itself. The image was taken from a tripcam and was time stamped and date stamped, both showing very clear image but not that of the alleged puma. This image of the puma was all wrong, for a start, there is what we call or term ghosting, this ghosting appears over the spine of the alleged feline, you see white ghost marks. The next is that there are five legs. Then we get to the man body of the feline, this is showing what appears to be a skinny puma as the ribs are showing. This part of the image shows the use of tone management tools. Thus, the image shown is not real, it is a photoshopped image, but a question then arises; where has this image come from?

    After googling for the image, you find his same image from a website: Cougar and this website is for holidays and eateries within the Montezuma area. The picture of the puma within this website is the same as that of the alleged puma image taken by the tripcam in a chicken coop at Tamerton Foliot, Plymouth.

    After sending this information onto the newspapers that covered the stories, I received a reply email back informing me that Neil Arnold, the dandy ghost writer, has beaten me to it by some 20 minutes.

    However, the believers still believe and still maintain that the pictures are real... Alas, common sense and fake images just do not mix.

    There have been numerous websites commenting on the so-called puma (mountain lion/cougar) allegedly caught on film in the UK this week. However, after a quick trawl on the internent you will find two sites that use the same stock image (1) Cougar and (2) https://animalcorner.co.uk/animals/puma/

    Big cat controversy fuels speculation - and hoaxes and humourists | Western Morning News
     
  13. adrian1963

    adrian1963 Well-Known Member

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    We are yet to see a perfect photograph of any British Wild cats why?

    Maybe one reason is the people who see the cats and take the photographs do it without thinking and are not experts in the field.

    I can work a digital camera to a good degree but a phone camera well that's another story.

    Another reason maybe there are none.

    Photoshop comes in very handy for certain people, who was it who said a photograph never lies?
     
  14. Pertinax

    Pertinax Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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  15. Arizona Docent

    Arizona Docent Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Assuming the highly pixelated image is real, my vote is domestic dog.
     
  16. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    again, have you even read the articles you link to? I presume you at least skimmed them given you quoted the entirety of one of them.

    The original photo looks like a genuine photo to me - like some others here I lean towards a domestic dog, greyhound looks like a suitable match - but there is nothing in any of your links that even hints at it being debunked as a hoax. It is just a photo taken which has garnered a lot of speculation.

    Your posts about a follow-up hoax using photoshopped puma photos from other websites are not accompanied by any links at all.
     
  17. bigcat speciali

    bigcat speciali Well-Known Member

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    Oh I have read the article, the first poor quality image could be a dog, it could be a cardboard cutout, it could even be a photoshop image...as the image is that poor then who knows but it is not a "big cat". As for the second alleged picture which turned out to be a hoax and a photoshop job, andthe press have no corrected themselves and also withdrawn the original s as it was pointed out that the press were had, then yes, I have read the story, have you?
     
  18. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    no I haven't read the story, you haven't provided any links to it.
     
  19. bigcat speciali

    bigcat speciali Well-Known Member

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  20. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    I've read that article. It only has a couple of paragraphs about the puma photo, and it was pretty much incidental to the original story. I thought you were talking about an article which actually had photos on it because of what you wrote earlier: