Something lurks in the shadows of our rural idyll. Similar incidents play out in farms, stables, rural estates, golf courses, utility holdings, landfill sites and even nature reserves across the country. Large cats, mainly resembling black leopards (also known as panthers), but also sometimes mountain lions, and, very occasionally, lynx, are reported across such locations.

I became immersed in the possibility of big cats being present in Britain 24 years ago, after seeing what I’m convinced was a black leopard in Cumbria. It was walking side-on to me across rough pasture, about 70m away. I assumed it was a labrador, but then noticed no collar and no owners in sight. Its purposeful strides, low and long-bodied form, tubular tail and fluid movement were completely unlike a dog.

The suspected sightings are far and wide across the country. In Essex, a fisherman was hissed at by a black leopard (he noticed its rosettes) at 5am as he disturbed it cornering a muntjac deer. In Somerset, a dog walker watched a black leopard take down a roe deer in the adjacent field – she located the dragged and neatly eaten carcass three days later, when she felt safe to return. In Dorset, a woman watched a black leopard effortlessly descend a tree after targeting a squirrel’s drey 12m up.

Snippets of footage from the last two events are on the Big Cat Conversations website, but otherwise footage is rare, or just a pixelated blur.

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We must also look at the scientific evidence. Positive DNA results proving the presence of big cats in Britain are limited, yet do exist. There are six publicly known positive DNA results that match the leopard (Panthera pardus), two from recent years: from Gloucestershire in 2022, from a hair snagged on a barbed-wire fence in the vicinity of a sheep kill; and from Cumbria in 2023, when DNA was found on a carcass – again, of a sheep.We must also look at the scientific evidence. Positive DNA results proving the presence of big cats in Britain are limited, yet do exist. There are six publicly known positive DNA results that match the leopard (Panthera pardus), two from recent years: from Gloucestershire in 2022, from a hair snagged on a barbed-wire fence in the vicinity of a sheep kill; and from Cumbria in 2023, when DNA was found on a carcass – again, of a sheep.