Big Black Cat photographed on one of our cameras

Another one from Charlie at the Sussex Big cat group.

Now if only we could get one just a little bit bigger...........but I'll let Charlie tell the story.



Be careful what you wish for,as they say.

I suppose I should of wished for world peace, harmony at home or something else mutually benificial but no, big cat fanatacism grips tight, so on a recent birthday celebration I wished for pictures of a cat and not just that, but posing nicely in front of the trailcam. Maybe I should also of been more specific and prefixed "big" but I was under pressure, what with my lungs bursting under the pressure of blowing out all the candles on the cake.

So, taking the day off work I took the journey to deepest rural Sussex to check on the trailcam. It's been a week and the long trek in the sultry dog days of late july brought me sweating and exhausted to the cam spot. "I saw a big black cat" was the sighting description there from the sheep farmer previously. "No, not a leopard or anything like that,just a very big,black cat the size of a labrodor", he had told me.

Checking the 150 odd pics on the 2"lcd screen I came across 2 pics of a definitely black cat. The sweat had gone in my eyes and shaking with adrenaline, as I tried to make out scale on the tiny screen, the battery went. Well,I had planned to make a bit of a day out of it. Swap the card and battery over and maybe do a bit of bird watching. And let the dogs have a cooling swim in the river a few miles away, aiming to get home not far short of midnight.

But with some sort of cat pics on the card and the laptop sitting at home, it was a drive in nightmare rush hour traffic to get back and analyse the pictures. Uploading with the Hamas card reader is quick and simple now and as soon as the first one showed it was obvious what it was. The small neat feet,stumpy legs and short fur gave the clue, a feral cat. Albeit a big tom, miles from the nearest town and it had to amble past the cam! Never mind, onwards and upwards,if anything it just goes to show the trailcam is in top form and if a small one went past it just maybe it's bigger cousin will.............

Charlie Bones
Sussex Big Cat Watch