Big cat

The fuck is wrong with you? But today, though, we've got some good stuff to talk about.

We've got big cats in Britain.

We've got 80 celebrities trying to put a squash on allegations coming out.

That's really interesting.

I think, yeah, I'm interested to see where that goes.

But whatever happens with that, though, you know, we're trying to figure out...

who is predatoring around, what would be worse, that form of predator jumping out of a bush or a literal predator jumping out of a bush? Have you heard there are big cats in Britain? I already knew that.

Okay, cool.

Climate models suggest 2026 will be the warmest year on record, beating out 2024.

When it comes to people privately keeping big cats in Canada, there's a patchwork of wildly varying regulations across the country.

CBC News has learned authorities in Ontario don't know how many big cats are in private hands.

And it's the only province with no licensing or permit system for keeping non-native wild animals.

Colin Butler

the Panthers, and the Lions.

Of those four big cat teams, which one is the most likely to reach the Super Bowl this year? And you put all four big cats in a cage, guys.

Who comes out alive?

What are they again? Say it again.

It's a scrappy animal.

Pound for pound strength.

Larger big cats like tigers and lions can exert a higher total amount of raw force due to their massive size.

All right, so we got that.

It's not a fact, but a question.

I am severely allergic to cats, and I've always wanted to know if that means I'm also allergic to big cats, lions, jaguars, tigers, etc.

I assume that I would be.

But not sure how I could ever check.

I should probably just say, welcome back to Joe and James Fact Up.

We were just fact-checking on behalf of Christy.

We wanted to know that if she's allergic to cats, if she'd be allergic to big cats.

Lions, et cetera.

And I think he bites his shoulder, but...

Big cats have like poisonous bites.

They have like a poisonous bacteria in the bites.

And I think he died from like, I don't know if he's blood loss or sepsis or something like that the following day.

It's a deep dive like you've never heard before to better equip you on this topic and get you in the know.

Now today's episode brings together two of the world's leading voices on big cats in captivity.

And we couldn't be luckier to have these two in one room to listen and learn from.

Their experience and extensive research is quite something.

He's authored and co-authored multiple peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on wildlife exploitation.

Now, if that isn't enough, we also have Dr. Louise Duval.

who is the managing director of Blood Lions, where she helped build the coalition to stop captive breeding of lions and big cats for commercial purposes and now sits on its steering committee.

She founded South Africa's Hands Off Our Wildlife campaign and has published numerous peer-reviewed papers on captive predators and was appointed by former minister Krissi to a national task team on captive lions.

So going to villages and in remote areas like Tusheti region and saying to people, here's what you do if you see a leopard and, you know, mitigation measures for human wildlife conflict to try and ensure that there aren't these retaliatory or otherwise killings of leopards and other species.

So I recently spoke with Sharon Gynup and Steve Winter about their book, Big Cats, and in it, they described leopards as the most persecuted big cat.

Do you agree with that statement?

Well, Sharon edited this story.

Yeah, there's lots of stories and the only limitation really is time and resources.

So I'm enthusiastic.

Yeah, I guess the last thing I would like to talk about with you is that, and this has kind of come up in my conversation with Sharon and Steve, is that big cat species are an umbrella species, right? And so if you protect big cats, you're protecting the entire ecosystem.

And I know you mentioned that conservationists in the Caucasus tend to take a holistic view.

For full access to our archive, visit patreon.com slash oldtimeretroradio.

On June 15, 1954, NBC aired episode 252 of Dragnet Big Cat.

Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Frank Smith, working the Los Angeles Police Department's auto theft detail, receive an unusual report from a carnival operator.

Animals have disappeared from a disabled circus truck.

Dragnet.

The story of your police force in action is a presentation of the United States Armed Forces Radio Service.

our Dragnet presentation of Big Cat now comes to a close follow Dragnet for more classic broadcasts

They were...

You think about your cat at home, the behaviour was so similar to what you would see there, and these are the big cats.

I know, the preening, just how relaxed they are, and then also the sleep factor.

I think they slept for 16, 18 hours a day, and then night times when they come to life and they go hunting.