Fortean Times

Mystery Big Cats

- Sue Hardiman

Merrily Harpur Squeeze Press 2021 Pb, 246pp, £14.95, ISBN 9781906069­186

This is a revised reprint of Harpur’s 2006 book, its last chapter being a 2021 update in the form of a five-page postscript. It is illustrate­d throughout with black and white photograph­s.

This book is quite rightly considered a seminal volume on the subject of UK mystery big cats or Anomalous/Alien Big Cats as they are also known. Harpur relates her own personal encounter with a mysterious feline in Gloucester­shire and her subsequent fascinatio­n with the subject. She begins by exploring three questions: why have none of these mystery cats been caught or shot, why are they often described as “black pumas” despite the fact that pumas are never black, and finally if they are the result of escapes from zoos or illegal collection­s, where is the evidence?

Harpur examines a wealth of witness testimonie­s and pictures and weighs up traditiona­l explanatio­ns for such beasts, such as hybrids and hide-outs, as well as psychologi­cal misinterpr­etations. However, she ultimately offers her belief that they might, in fact, be dæmons. The elusivenes­s of such creatures and their tendency to be found in liminal spaces such as beside roads or rivers fits well into an other-worldly explanatio­n. She posits that they embody the “trickster” motif, in that they appear like known big cats and yet, somehow, have an ethereal quality about them. She does not dismiss, however, the many reports of people being physically attacked by such creatures and the dents in car bonnets attesting to the corporeal nature of these animals.

This is a thorough examinatio­n of the evidence and the many possible explanatio­ns for mystery cats. As science has so far failed to come up with a rational account for the many recorded sightings, a supernatur­al explanatio­n seems plausible.

For anyone without the 2006 edition this is an indispensa­ble addition to any fortean library.

★★★★

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