Big Cat Roundup 6

Sightings reported to BCIB over the last week

England

Cambridgeshire
Huntingdon – a couple, driving on the Kings Ripton road at dusk, saw a black cat the size of a St Bernard dog in a field about 300 yards away. They stopped and watched for eight minutes as it first stalked something, then sat in the middle of the field with its catch in its mouth.

Cheshire
Holmes Chapel area, 1 mile before J18 southbound on the M6, on 31.09.07 at 7am, a lorry driver saw a black cat the size of a large dog. It was next to large tree in a field, apparently drinking.

Derbyshire
Belper – a Mansfield couple out for a walk saw a black cat on an old track at the Chevin. They judged the cat to be smaller than a Labrador dog, but still a lot bigger than a domestic cat.
Read more at Belpernews.co.uk

Dorset
Dorchester – on Friday morning 12.10.07 at 8.05 a.m., a local woman travelling to Weymouth by bus saw a big cat in the field just after the football stadium. It was standing in the field about 200 metres from the road, and was pure black with a very long tail, a little larger than an Alsatian dog.

“I had about 4-5 seconds to look at it and it was beautiful!”

Essex
Colchester – a man walking his dog saw a large black cat near the north station.

Gloucestershire
Dymock – a couple walking a dog were startled to see a large black animal following the hedgerow on the far side of the field about 200 yards away. It saw them and began moving towards them, crouching like a cat. After initial disbelief when they realised they were being approached by a big cat, they turned and ran.
Read more at This is Gloucestershire

Hertfordshire
Kings Langley – on Sunday morning at around 8.00, a farmer saw a large dark brown animal run into a crop.

Kings Langley – also on Sunday morning, at around 8.30, a local couple travelling on the Watford road saw a large black cat, bigger than a lynx, near J20 with the A41 road to Tring.
Read more at Harrow Times

Leicestershire
Melton Mowbray area – while driving the road between Garthorpe and Waltham on the Wolds at 8.15 on 9.10.07, a man saw something cross the road about 80 yards ahead of his car.

“I could only describe it as ‘cat like’, dark and extremely fast!”

Knossington on Leicestershire/Rutland border – on Tuesday night 9.10.07, a local woman heard an animal in the field by her house. The sounds were very similar to the cries of a puma. She had previously heard them in January 2006, after which she found that a sheep had been killed.

Somerset
Frome – in April of this year a man saw a lynx-like animal in a field at the bottom of Egford Hill.
Read more at This is Somerset


Scotland

Fife
Glenrothes – on 2nd October, the latest of many sightings of a large black cat in the area, took place outside Homebase where a retired couple watched a cat “about the size of a collie dog” pounce and disappear into some bushes.
Read more at BBC online
Listen to an interview with the witnesses at BBC online

CatStats at a glance

Panther type (black) - 10
Lynx type - 1
Cries - 1