In Search of the Durham Puma (1 Viewer)

ITV Tyne Tees Tuesday 7.30pm
In Search of the Durham Puma

So will anyone admit to seeing it ?

Regards Cuddy.

Thanks for that, I'll be watching it as well.

dampflippers said:

ITV Tyne Tees Tuesday 7.30pm
In Search of the Durham Puma

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Surely that's the Pink Panther (cue music)
Durham Durham
Durham, Durham, Durham, Durham, Durhammmm

There has been two sightings of a big black cat, Pumalike is the description, in Bishops Stortford recently

BTW, pumas are grey. Leopards and jaguars can be black.

Which proves, that around Durham there are BOTH puma and leopard in the wild.

someone at work heard about a black panther type beast roaming around consett (Durham) is this the same big cat?

definetly a programme to watch. cheers for the reminder.

jurek said:

BTW, pumas are grey. Leopards and jaguars can be black.

Which proves, that around Durham there are BOTH puma and leopard in the wild.

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Leopards aren't black, they have black spots but that's it - the rest of them are mild yellow / cream colour, like a lion

Taryn said:

Leopards aren't black, they have black spots but that's it - the rest of them are mild yellow / cream colour, like a lion

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Leopards can be black, but this variation usually only occurs in very dark, humid rainforest habitats (where a yellow animal would be conspicuous!). I think most reports of black Leopards are from southern Asia

I´ll second that, Leopards and Jaguars can be black- black leopards are often called panther or black panther, but I don´t know of any such a special name for black jaguars. In both these cats the black individuals mainly occur in in humd environments with a dense growth and are rare elsewhere. For example on the island of Java, black leopards are not that uncommon, black leopards have also been found in humid mountain environments in east africa, but up to now I think there are no reports of black leopards from South Africa...

The only other wild cat apart from leopard and Jaguar which has a totaly black variant seems to be the serval... and I seem to remember in that species the rare black animals are also more common in humid montane environments?

Aren't black leopards AKA panthers? (Or is that the pink variety??) The Isle of Wight is also said to have a 'big cat', also several other places too, I gather. BUT we really DO have red squirrels. Sadly no black ones...

I live in County Durham, and 5 yrs ago I saw a big black cat. it was as big as a sheep in length, with a tail as big again, but slightly shorter height-wise... I know this because it was seen walking through a flock of swaledale ewes a couple of hundred yards from my home.
The previous night it was "calling" like a domestic cat in season, but deeper and louder, so it MAY be female.I have heard it since, but not seen it for 5 years.

how big

hey i am from Canada and i was just wondering how big is durham? its not a city is it? its just a county? like a area kinda like a province? How much of the UK does it take up?

scuba0095 said:

hey i am from Canada and i was just wondering how big is durham? its not a city is it? its just a county? like a area kinda like a province? How much of the UK does it take up?

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Hello Scuba,
The Country of Durham is approximately 1,000 sq. miles in area. Over 90% of the population live within some 15 miles of the eastern coastline in what may be termed 'industrialised areas'. There are no large cities as such. The country town is called Durham City, although in reality it's only a town covering just a few square miles.

Nearly all of the heavy industry for which Co.Durham became famous, i.e. Coal Mining, Steel Production, Ship Building and Heavy Engineering have declined so much as to be almost none existant.

Once away from the areas of heavy population, most of the county is poor quality agricultural land (mainly confined to river valleys) and upland Heather moorland managed for sheep grazing and Game Bird Shooting. There are many scattered woodlands comprising mainly of Pinus species. Small villages exist in the western parts of the county but their populations are very small and seldom more than a few hundred inhabitants. Land elevation is from sea level in the east rising to some 800 metres in the western uplands.

There are many large areas of land and woodland where a 'puma' or other large cat could live virtually undetected and plenty of Sheep, Rabbits, Deer etc, on which they could feed.

There is more information about the county on the following website:-

http://www.thenortheast.fsnet.co.uk/CountyDurhamHistory.htm

Edit. A web search has shown that the population of Co Durham is some 230.000 or 23 persons per square mile. As 90% of the population lives within 15 miles of the eastern coastline this gives an indication of just how thinly the rest of the population is distributed. The adjoining county of Northumberland is even more thinly populated with 307,190 persons present or 15.35 per sq mile. Here most of the population live in the south east corner of the county around Tyneside. Northumberland has a land area of over 2000 square miles. This county has within its boundaries, the largest man made forest in Europe as well as many other smaller forests. Again Sheep, Rabbits and Deer are abundant.

Regards,

Harry.

melanism