LINDSAY SELBY: A big cat blog

My Impressions Of The Big Cat Conference 22/03/09.

I was only able to attend the final day of the conference but all the displays were still up. As I hadn’t been through Middlesbrough, where the conference was held, in over 20 years, it was decided Daughter would drive and I would navigate. We missed the turn off for the hotel and had to turn back (that road wasn’t there last time I came here, I pointed out to daughter who just sighed) but made it about on time.

The room was upstairs ( I believe there was a lift for disabled access), however not wanting to appear an old crock, I struggled up the stairs. Daughter was about 3 miles ahead at this point and had found the room. Walking in ,there was a desk and a lady with a smile ,who welcomed us and assured us we weren’t late. I had to of course buy a Tee shirt...been there ,done that , bought the tee shirt. The room was set out with displays all around the sides and a group of chairs in front of a flip chart. I got daughter taking photos whilst I stroked the model cats. (Well it was Mothering Sunday in the UK).

The day started with people voting, via filling in a chart, with what workshops they would like. All very democratic and nicely done. I noticed there were a lot more men than women present and estimated about 25 people were there, possibly more.

The three workshops organised themselves and we attended the one on: Is there a viable population of Big Cats and if so should we do anything about it?

The two other workshops were: Field evidence -what to look for, and Why is there an absence of bodies and photos. I noticed the field evidence one was all males.

Our workshop seemed to go well and no one seemed to mind me asking questions or taking notes. We came up with the answers you would expect that we need to prove they are here first .It was suggested a computer programme could be set up too look at probability of a population. As they are not causing a problem to humans or livestock nothing need be done.

The other workshops results were also fed back to the whole group.

Workshop Field Evidence - what to look for: Conclusion: problems of identification especially other animals being present. Jonathan McGowan who lead the workshop seemed very well informed and professional.

Workshop Absence of bodies and photos. Conclusion: Low in numbers therefore not many bodies plus they tend to disappear (possibly road cleaners). The use of poor equipment e.g. camera on phone photos not clear enough, and also the shock of seeing something unusual makes the photos shaky.

After a coffee break (as some dispute seemed to be going on over a photo being genuine or not), Two interesting people that I had talked to before coffee did their turn: Brian Percival and Sam Ingleston

These two artists who used their art as part of education, had done a performance art as big cat hunters. They were working with Bolton Museum. This lead to a cast of a big cat footprint being found at Bolton Museum which they used to involve local schools. Schools went big cat hunting and documented local flora and fauna and finding out of place animals. Displays and a book produced won the schools a prize. So Cryptozoology as an educational tool, which I found a great concept. The artists are now also making card and board games to use with groups to produce discussion and are basing one on Big Cat hunting.

Next up was Dr Peter McCue a retired clinical psychologist who talked about Cannock Chase as a hot spot, a window for strange phenomena including big cats. Then we broke for lunch and I chatted to Peter over sandwiches and another interesting man whose back ground was micro biology. It was a very intriguing conversation.

After lunch it was Rick Minter who is a social scientist, who I believe works in ecology. He talked about big cats being out of people’s comfort zone and the difficultly to get people to report sightings. I pointed out that many people would not have said they were coming to this conference because anything seen as an interest in a fringe subject can impact on jobs and family. Unfortunately It was running quite late at this point so we had to leave so missed Jonathan McGowan’s talk on recognising signs of big cats.Our overall impression was that there were good display materials and opportunities to ask questions and discuss aspects of the phenomena, without feeling intimidated. People came to talk to us about who we were and said what they did, and generally made us feel welcome. There was a great enthusiasm about people, and some wonderful characters. We enjoyed the day. Obviously, as in all conferences, there were undercurrents of different camps people belonged to and disputes, but on the whole is was good natured and certainly not as belligerent as some academic conferences I have attended.