Over at Cryptomundo, Loren Coleman notes the links between sightings of hairy man-beasts and railroad lines. On reading Loren's post, I was reminded of the fact that there are numerous reports of large, out-of-place cats seen in the direct vicinity of railroads in Britain. Rather oddly, there are a significant number of sightings of such cats on British golf-courses, too. One particularly thought-provoking book that addresses this issue is Merrily Harpur's Mystery Big Cats, which delves into some controversial - but stimulating - areas of the Fortean kind.
Merrily Harpur's book attempts to make a non-existent connection between 'out of place' large cats, and the fact they are seen near gateways, railways etc, as if to suggest a supernatural link, which is rubbish. A large cat will use a railway line, river bank, stream, for navigation and also food source. A railway line of a night is a perfect place for a cat to roam, food is in abundance - rabbit, fox, rats, and these lead in and away from towns and at night are rarely frequented by humans. The same could also be said for a golf course. No mystery - a cat seeks shelter and dark corners to hide and hunt with stealth, a golf course is a great place to find food and also travel without detection.
ReplyDeleteIt's rather frustrating when extremely normal, down to earth links are padded out with esoteric mystery.
Cheers Neil!
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