Are we tracking a big cat or a bunny?

The Abominable Snowman, Big Foot, the Loch Ness Monster and the beast that stalks the Fens are just some of the myths that have yet to be proved fact or fiction.

The Fen Tiger was first reported in 1982 in Cottenham, and this week a paw print was found in the snow.

But big cat experts from Linton Zoo and Shepreth Wildlife Park are split over the existence of the beast.

Paw prints photographed in the snow at Histon prompted claims they might belong to a big cat.

One reader, Kerry Goodayle, said: “I can’t imagine it was a dog – it could be a big cat, maybe a puma.”

Since the story was reported in the News, Linton Zoo has received a number of calls from the public asking about animal prints they have seen.

And Kim Simmons, spokeswoman for the zoo, has spoken out to scotch suggestions that a big cat is out there somewhere.

She said: “There is no way that the prints shown in the photos in the News could be a big cat.

“There is a lot of hysteria about the so-called Fen Tiger, but I am sure it doesn’t really exist. If it does, where does it come from, and what is it feeding on?

“The zoo has been keeping all kinds of big cats since the late Sixties, including pumas, leopards, panthers, tigers and lions, so we have many years’ experience of behaviour and footprints.

“We have always kept an open mind about the Fen Tiger, which has become a bit of a Loch Ness monster, and we have been called out to sightings, been sent photographs and film, and been shown casts of prints – but we have never yet seen evidence to suggest there is such a beast on the loose.”

She has sent the News pictures of lion paw prints – to show readers what a big cat’s print really looks like.

“The print pictured in the News was probably just a rabbit’s,” she said.

Last July, another News reader suggested a mutilated muntjac might have been killed by a big cat, but Ms Simmons said: “In fact it was probably just a road kill, which had then been partly eaten by a fox.”

Her view about the latest prints was supported by another reader, Mandy Knowles from Willingham, who contacted the News to say: “I had similar footprints in the snow in my garden in Willingham and thought they belonged to a big cat. I followed the prints until I came to the fence, and found a small hole where something had scraped their way underneath. My husband and I concluded that the prints belonged to a rabbit hopping around in the snow.”

But keeper Chris Knowles, no relation, from Shepreth Wildlife Park, is certain the cats exist.

He told the News: “I’m absolutely convinced they are out there. There is so much evidence. Big cats have been hit by cars. One was hit in Scotland – you can’t deny a body being found.

“I went to Brazil to film them and, seeing how elusive they are in their own habitat, I am convinced they could live here without being seen.

“I think they have probably been released by people who kept them as pets.”

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_news_cambridge/displayarticle.asp?id=477179
(Submitted by Caty Bergman)