An expert has spoken out after several people in a rural area in the UK reported sightings of a ‘panther-like’ big cat that some believe savaged a lamb and left huge paw prints.
An unnamed dog walker who spoke to Worcester News brought the issue back to light when she claimed to have encountered a large beast that scared her four-legged companions stiff. The unnamed woman was walking in the ‘pitch black’ at Gorse Hill and Elbury Mount Local Nature Reserve in Worcester when she heard sticks snapping before a huge growl.
Despite nay-sayers, in May the DNA of a cat in the Panthera genus was found on a swab taken from a sheep carcass in Cumbria. In 2022, meanwhile a hair found on barbed wire in Gloucestershire was identified as belonging to a leopard.
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And Rick Minter, an expert who has a podcast on big cats in the UK, has told the Daily Star that large cats resembling black leopards, tan coloured pumas (also called mountain lions), and slightly smaller lynx, “have been described by witnesses over several decades across Britain” and in Worcestershire especially.
(Image: Courtesy Tim Whittard / SWNS)
He describes the cats’ clandestine lives, and why people usually encounter them, saying: “Because they have a stress free life in the wild in Britain, with abundant natural food, they are not stressed and rarely cause issues for people.
“Like most wild mammals, they are wary of the noise and actions of people so they lead stealthy lives, and are more active at night, dawn and dusk.
(Image: RICK MINTER)
“That’s why late evening and early morning dog walkers sometimes encounter them in relevant places, like woodland edges, where the cats are on patrol for deer and rabbits.”
The aforementioned Worcester dog walker said she did not see the animal during the encounter six months ago. However, she added: “But I heard it and I know it was big because of the sound of the growl and how hollow and deep it was.
“And when it ran off I could hear the branches breaking and sticks snapping but the biggest clue came from my dogs and how they reacted.”
Details of the incident were shared with the Evesham and Villages Big Cat Group, the meeting point of those who claim to have experienced encounters with some sort of large animal.
And, as usual, there were plenty of doubters.
Rick added: “If people want to scoff, perhaps they don’t know how stealthy these animals are, and don’t know the extent to which people have released and dumped trophy pets.
“Not all released animals can survive well and naturalise, but these large cats seem to have managed, because the British countryside suits them well. “
In June, Martin Burford was convinced he sighted a ‘panther’ on the border of Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. He claimed there was a thriving population of these cats in the area and that this one had been attacking and killing lambs.
(Image: Courtesy Tim Whittard / SWNS)
However, BBC Wildlife showed Martin’s video to Dr Luke Hunter, executive director of the Big Cats Program at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and he said it was a common cat.
“It’s a moggy. The gait is very much a small cat’s, not a leopard or another big cat’s,” he said.
But Rick said Worcestershire is its own specific mystery because “the same three types of large wild cats are reported” despite there being “40 species of wild cats of different sizes”.
Sightings of big cats throughout the British countryside have been common over the past 30 years or so.
“It amazes me that these claims persist,” said Hunter. “If there were big cats in the UK countryside, it would be almost unavoidable that unequivocal evidence would emerge.”
However, Hunter did not touch on the Panthera DNA that was found on a swab taken from a sheep carcass in Cumbria or the hair found on barbed wire in Gloucestershire.
(Image: SWNS)
Furthermore, in April, a motorist was stunned after spotting a ‘panther-like’ big cat in a field – then finding its prints.
Geoff Thompson, 37, had pulled over in a layby on a country lane between Great Witley and Martley in Worcestershire. The YouTuber and classic car enthusiast stopped to take photographs of his beloved classic Renault 10 – when he noticed something strange in the distance.
He then spotted a large feline shape lurking in the field behind the car on April 14 – and then investigated and found its prints.
Geoff, of Worcester, said: “I just went out for a sunny drive – I noticed it as I started photographing my car. I think it was a panther.”
In the 24 second video, filmed on his mobile phone, he can be heard exclaiming, “What the heck is that animal?!”
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