Big Cat Roundup 14

Reports of sightings received by BCIB over the last week.

England

Bedfordshire
Cople – in July 1998, a local woman was sitting on a fence early one morning when she saw a very large (3ft high, 5 ft long) black cat about 100 yards away. She watched it for about 10 minutes but although it apparently did not notice her she became frightened and left.

Berkshire
Shinfield - an army dog handler saw a "black panther" leap across the road while he was on the way to work.
Read more at Crawley Observer and Get Reading

Dorset
Wool - on the sixth of December at 8:15 p.m. a driver saw a labrador-sized black cat in the headlights of her car. It stood for a couple of minutes staring into the lights, with something in its mouth, then backed away into the woods.

Leicestershire
Sileby - at 8 a.m. on the 29th of July a local resident saw a big black cat in the railway sidings. Brown circular markings were clearly visible in its coat.

Stapleford – on 4th November around 4.15 p.m., a passenger in a car watched a large black cat walk along a hedgerow.

Somerset
Yeovil - just after 7 p.m. in early April this year a local woman saw a large black panther-like cat standing on tree stump at the bottom of her garden.

"We have never seen it again but I am always aware when I am gardening that it once stood up on that tree."

Read more at Yeovil Express

Sussex
Telscombe Cliffs - on the seventh of December around 1:45 p.m. a local resident looked up from reading a book, and saw a large black cat in her garden. She thought it was a dog at first but as soon as it moved she realised it was a cat. She ran outside to get a closer look, but the animal ran away.

Scotland

Angus
Longforgan area – On 2nd December at 3.30 p.m., witnesses watched from their car as a muscular black cat, bigger than dog, prowled along the top of the hill and disappeared into bushes.

Read more at The Courier

CatStats at a glance

Panther type (black) - 8