You'll Think I'm Mad - Big Cats on Dartmoor

Or he could be perpetuating the myth of the 'Dartmoor Beast' which the previous owner subscribed to. Nice bit of publicity for the zoo. Certainly does not make ex-journalist/first-time zoo-owner Ben Mees a reliable source.
I agree that historically that pumas may have escaped from the zoo and hung around locally. I very much doubt that the descendents from those animals still roam the moors...

 

I don't buy that. It's possible, but the completely separate zoo professionals who convinced me on the subject had absolutely no reason to lie to me and my party, and absolutely nothing to sell. I've never met Ben Mees personally so I can't comment on him, but I don't think that theory can be assumed of all experts who've claimed to see something.

~Thylo

 

I didn't know know anything about the supposed big cats in the UK, but I looked and it is pretty interesting. However, I see no reason to believe that the UK has anything other than feral House Cats and Scottish Wildcats.

However, it is interesting that a Jungle Cat (!) was was hit by a car in 1989.

 

I have heard both first hand and second hand accounts about wild big cats roaming the UK. Some have come from people that would be considered reliable witnesses, and I include park rangers and zoo people in that category. But too many times it is shown that people have mistaken domestic cats or foxes for 'black panthers' (foxes mistaken for thylacines in Australia are another example). Commonly the witnesses have misjudged scale because of poor light or some other reason. There are so few examples of true feral wild cats, excluding Felis catus. Yes, there are a couple of isolated individual cases of lynx and jungle cats found in the UK which have been proven, or surmised to be, escaped pets. And they can appear to survive quite well in UK conditions. Whatever the case for their freedom, they were never part of a breeding feral population, nor were they large predators like leopards or pumas.
What I also find intriguing is the longevity of these rumours. Big cats can live up to around 20 years in captivity, but 12 years would be more normal in the wild. But the stories of some of these cats have persisted for multiple decades, indicating not one lonely cat but multiple individuals which are able to meet up, procreate and live full lives under the noses of people.
While I agree that big cats are notoriously difficult to see in the wild even within their normal range when living close to humans, it is certainly not impossible to have definitive proof that they are existing there. I once heard an interesting talk about tiger researchers in dense rainforest in Sumatra who had built up a good knowledge of all the individuals within their study area, but had never physically seen one of their animals! From my understanding camera traps, roadkill, pug marks, scat and fur samples have all failed to show definitive proof of wild big cats in the UK. Happy to be proven wrong.

 

I've never met Mees either. But the previous owner Ellis Dawes was a well known eccentric even within the world of private zoo ownership. I don't see why it would be inconceivable for a new owner to continue a story of wild/escaped pumas living close to his zoo. Afterall he happily sold his story to write a book, and had a TV show and a movie based on his story/zoo. Publicity obviously works for him! Personally I don't have a problem with it or him, but a pinch of salt is probably required.

 

Whilst Mee might be an honest witness, I'm not sure I'd call him reliable -when he took over Dartmoor he had next to no wildlife/zoo experience (hardly an expert).

Even if he were an expert, as I and others have pointed out, eye witness testimony is notoriously unreliable. Would all those who believed based on eye witness reports similarly believe that we're being visited by space aliens? There's a wealth of witnesses, many experts, though no conclusive physical or photographic evidence (sound familiar?).

As said before, you pay your money and takes your choice -extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence -I want to believe (but can't given the evidence on display).