Couple shocked to identify ‘black panther’ roaming UK countryside in jaw-dropping footage

A couple reckon they’ve captured footage of a black panther on the prowl in the Welsh countryside. David Davis and his wife, Natalie, were enjoying a paddle on the Llangollen canal in Denbighshire when they clocked the beastie last week (16 October).

On their way back around 5pm, Brummie David, aged 48, was gobsmacked to spot what he thought was a massive cat. “I spotted a cat in front of a gate in a field through the trees to my left,” said the Willenhall native to Need To Know.

He was baffled at first, seeing the cat from such a distance – it was about 400 metres away, up top of the field. As he got to a break in the trees, he had to steady his kayak for a proper gander.

READ MORE: Aliens are ‘abducting humans, stealing eggs and sperm and creating hybrid monsters’

Click for more of the latest news from across the world from the Daily Star

He was flabbergasted, dead sure he was peeping at a black panther. The creature was perched halfway up the farm gate, stretching about half across it, looking as big as a hefty Alsatian.

It was side-on, giving Dave a cracking view of its profile. He gave his wife a shout, and she blurted out, “Holy s**t it’s a big cat”, reports Wales Online.

With a nudge from Natalie, Dave tried to get the animal on film, but couldn’t manage a clear shot. Their video, taken from a fair old distance and zoomed right in, shows a sizeable black animal with a long tail legging it across a field.

They watched the mysterious critter for a good “two or three minutes” as it darted down and then back up the field.

David was left gobsmacked after spotting what he thought was a big cat in the wild, only for it to disappear into the forest. Rick Minter, who hosts the Big Cat Conversations podcast, weighed in on the footage: “I can understand why the witnesses checked and filmed this cat.”

He added, “I have a domestic black cat and watch it in our neighbouring fields – this Llangollen cat seems bigger than mine. However, I don’t feel it’s the scale of a black leopard, which are the main cats described across Britain, and are also called panthers.”

Minter continued, “It’s tricky to gauge the scale in the Llangollen footage because of the distance and the short video clip. Personally, I feel the scale is more towards a domestic cat, albeit a larger one, than an adult black leopard.”

He also mentioned, “I don’t believe it could take down a deer when I look at its apparent scale and its form. However, the region certainly yields credible sightings – I had several incidents of cats matching black leopards described to me at a visit to the Denbigh and Flint Show in 2023, when we produced a podcast episode from there.

Minter concluded by saying, “In some cases, people’s dogs react as well, mainly nervously, during an encounter. So dogs as well as people see can sense these cats. Black leopards are stealthy and elusive, and people rarely see them in their native lands.”

For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.