Experts say they have finally found proof a leopard is prowling the Lake District.
Rumours of a big cat roaming the British countryside have been floating around for years. But it is not until now that scientists have analysed a DNA sample from a dead sheep in Cumbria, that it could be proven.
Professor Robin Allaby told BBC Wildlife magazine he analysed a sample from the sheep’s carcass and discovered ‘Panthera genus’ DNA – meaning it had to have come from a lion, leopard, tiger, jaguar or snow leopard.
READ MORE: ‘Big cats roam wild in UK and you shouldn’t run away if faced with one like I was’
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There was not enough DNA to determine exactly which but the expert said a leopard was the most likely culprit, adding: “If this were a fake, I would expect plenty of DNA to be present in order that we would be sure to find it.
(Image: Getty Images)
“It would be very difficult to plant just a few molecules with any finesse – I don’t think I could do it, let alone a lay person.”
It is the first scientific proof that large, non-native cats roam the UK, he said. Prof Allaby said: “It makes me a convert. On the balance of probabilities, I think this is a genuine hit.”
The remains of the sheep were discovered by Cumbrian resident Sharon Larkin-Snowden in an undisclosed upland location in October.
She said: “I saw something black, running, and I assumed at first it was a sheepdog. “Then I did a double take and realised it was a black cat. It ran towards a stone wall, stopped and then jumped the wall. It was big – the size of a German shepherd dog.”
(Image: Supplied)
Claims of big cats in the UK are not a new phenomenon, with the theory fuelled over the years by various blurry photographs and unexplained big tracks.
Several people have also reported seeing large animals that couldn’t be explained away.
The so-called Beast of Bodmin has been rumoured to be stalking the moors in Cornwall since the 1970s and a DNA test on hair found in barbed wire in Gloucestershire two years ago potentially matched a big cat.
Last year, a deer stalker took a thermal camera to a Devon field to investigate reports of strange animals and recorded a clip of a supposed feline with a long tail pouncing on an animal.
(Image: Getty Images/Mint Images RF)
Prof Allaby said more samples were needed before he could publish a paper or definitively say a big cat was roaming Cumbria.
Dr Egil Droge, a researcher at the University of Oxford, said he was sceptical.
He told the BBC: “There haven’t been any good photos of big cats from the area, not a spray of reports of killed sheep. I would like to see more, and repeated, convincing evidence.
“If a big cat would roam in England, you’d expect to see clusters of sheep kills. A big cat in a confined space, like a field, with sheep, very quickly would lead to many of those sheep being dead. That wouldn’t go unnoticed.”
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