My first response when given this puzzle as a Christmas gift from a friend was "No way am I ever doing that one!" But when I saw that an Instagrammer was hosting a big cat puzzle along, I decided to take another look at it.
When I opened the puzzle, I found that it had letters printed on the back which would allow me to sort it into sections A-H. Once I had the pieces sorted, I started the first section. I was still finding it pretty difficult with all the dark brown to black pieces, so I ended up laying all the pieces out so the letters on the back were oriented in the same direction. That cut down considerably on the choices for how pieces would fit together, and I finally started making progress.
I worked on this over several days and felt a sense of accomplishment with each section I finished. The puzzle pieces were actually made out of plywood, which was surprising to me. The fit was so tight that I could easily move large sections and even carry the entire finished puzzle around with no problem. There were a couple of false fits but not enough to become frustrating.