Bits for Pets Blog

BIG cats are clawing their way into the limelight as Welsh sightings of the “purranormal” creatures rocket, Wales on Sunday can reveal.

Details of these incredible sightings have been kept in top secret files until now – but today we can really let the cat out of the bag.

Our Big Cat Dossier, compiled from material released exclusively to us from Government and police files, shows scores of ABCs (Alien Big Cats or Anomalous Big Cats, as they are known) have been spotted across Wales. Experts last night said sightings were soaring.

The astonishing sightings, which mainly centre around rural Mid and West Wales, include:

nThe terrifying moment two bus drivers spotted a big black cat prowling along a Dyfed road;

na gamekeeper who watched a brown big cat leap 12ft up a bank before it disappeared into a hedgerow;

na tiger-like animal spotted lurking on an M4 bridge by a passing motorist;

nthe sighting of a big black panther with two cubs in Troedyrhiw;

na schoolchild who watched a large black cat bounding around a field through his home window;

nthe sighting of a cat the size of a Labrador with “lynx-like” ears by the light of a Carmarthen street lamp;

na shiny black animal the size of a sheep with a long tail spotted burying an unknown object;

nthe moment a terrified puppy came face to face with a big black cat at the bottom of his owner’s garden; and

nreports of a giant puma in a garden in Bonvilston, in the Vale of Glamorgan, last year, as well as a big cat spotted lurking on the Taff Trail by two young mums.

And, as if that’s not enough, the dossier also gives chilling details of other evidence that points to the existence of the not-so-friendly felines.

It details the rare killing of eight lambs, found with two puncture-marks to the neck, in the space of just two nights in rural Powys.

In Llandysul a farmer found the remains of a dead fox polished off by what he believed to be a big cat. And in Carmarthen, another farmer described discovering large Panther-like paw prints on a cycle path, saying he had “never seen anything like it” in his life.

Last night experts said there was no doubt that the strange sightings were becoming increasingly common in Wales – and warned that it wasn’t just rural areas where big cats are on the prowl.

Mark Fraser, the founder of Big Cats in Britain, said: “Sightings are certainly on the increase. We average one sighting every day in the British Isles and Welsh sightings are definitely on the increase. In fact, some farmers rang us a couple of weeks ago from Brecon because there had been unusual sheep kills in the area that they thought had been big cat-related.

“Wales has always been a hotspot because of the terrain – there are a lot of very rural communities.

“But it’s not unusual to spot these creatures in towns nowadays.

“If you see leopards and jaguars on the outskirts of a town that isn’t a problem, it is their natural habitat.”

Mark said that, in Wales alone last year, his group recorded 86 sightings, but the true figure of sightings is much higher with many more also reported to the British Big Cats Society (BBCS), along with police and the Assembly Government.

Mark said 80% of those sightings were black cats and he added that there had been scores of livestock kills last year.

Wales’ big cat hotspots were Anglesey – where a huge number of sightings have been recorded over the years – and the area to the west of the Forest of Dean, he said.

“It’s a strange phenomenon. You’ll find them (big cats) in the Brecon Beacons, Anglesey and South Wales – throw a dart and you’ll get a lot. It is what people are reporting everywhere,” added Mark.

Wales ranks number four in the UK’s “top 10” area for big cat sightings, according to latest BBCS statistics. Scotland is number one, followed by Kent and Yorkshire.

One of the most disturbing big cat incidents was back in 2000 when Josh Hopkins, then aged 11, was slashed across the face by what he described as a black leopard as he searched for his lost pet cat. Gwent Police dispatched marksmen equipped with infrared lights and mounted a helicopter search but the creature, which left vivid claw marks on the boy’s right cheek, was never found.

But one big cat boffin said there was no need to panic.

Paul Westwood, who runs bigcatmonitors.co.uk, said: “Of every 15 sightings only one of those will be a genuine big cat. Others will be people seeing things from an unusual angle or in different lighting.”

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