Forteana

The presence of 'big cats' in the West Country was discussed at a special meeting of witnesses and experts. The gathering was organised by Rick Minter, who runs Big Cats Conversations, to celebrate his his 100th podcast.

Big cat incidents from across the region featured on the podcast include 'a panther' disturbed by the witness as it was cornering a fox, a metre-long black cat 12 metres up a tree devouring young grey squirrels in their nest, cats resembling black leopards seen with smaller ones presumed to be cubs, sightings and reported calls of tan coloured pumas, and cats resembling the Eurasian lynx, Britain’s former larger native cat.

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“A bone from that carcass had tooth marks pitted into it, assumed to be from the consuming animal. The Royal Agricultural University is examining that sample in its study of ‘tooth pits’. The students use a forensic process to gauge the shape and pattern of tooth marks from leopard and puma sized cats. This follows up published work in Wales in 2007 which confirmed that a tooth pit sample on a sheep bone was from a large cat the size of a leopard or puma.

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And DNA from a black hair caught on a barbwire fence following a sheep attack has offered 'definitive proof' big cats are roaming the West Country countryside. The strands were sent off for testing after being recovered from a farm in Gloucestershire where there had been some "unusual predatory" activity. Suspicion was raised when video footage of a large black animal was also captured only a few miles away from where the sample was taken.