Sightings of strange big cats roaming about the wild places of England is not something one would expect in the rural idyll of South Warwickshire or the conurbations of the northern parts of the county but like many counties right across the country such creatures have been spotted here in the county.
The most famous big cat is the Beast of Bodmin Moor. This big black cat is often described as a Black Panther or Jaguar but sightings have been made of more Puma and Cougar like animals as well.
Warwickshire big cat sightings
In Warwickshire a golden coloured cat was seen at Hopwas Wood and a stripy cat in Dosthill. Austrey and Measham are both hot spots in the county (and nearby) where numerous sightings of big black cats have been seen since 2001. Other sightings have occurred at Baddesley Common, Polesworth, Shuttington, Baxterley and Warton.
In zoological terms large cats do not live in Britain. Lions almost certainly lived in Britain thousands of years ago but there is no evidence of them surviving the ice age. Sightings are usually ascribed to individuals that have escaped from private collections. These are sometimes reported and recaptured, but either way there is unlikely to be breeding populations. In fact the Mammal Society has kept a record of all known releases, accidental or otherwise, and any recaptures.
Scepticism
There is much scepticism on the true identity of these sightings; in the past many have been found to be misidentifications of domestic cats, black Labradors and other everyday animals or artefacts. Warwickshire has little really wild space in which these species to live. They need large amounts of land and a ready source of food and it is highly unlikely that such striking creatures could live so unnoticed without being seen more often and more farmers reporting livestock losses.
In places like Bodmin, the Beast has come to embody more a spectral quality; a creature of some other world or plane which would explain their fleeting glimpses but this is outside the realms of zoology.
Comments
Hi, a few years ago I used to keep lurchers and I used to work my dogs so one windy night I was lamping just of the Ashby road the road from Tamwroth to Measham road and I had a dog called lurch, lurch was a well known dog for fighting and he wouldn’t back down from anything anyway I was lamping it was very windy and also raining there was nothing about so I started to make my way to my car at Shuttington and I caught a glimpse of it looked like a a large shadow of a cat in the distance I shin my lamp on it and slipped my dog it run down the beam and I saw bright icy blue eyes looking back at me well my dog had a scuffle with this creature in the distance he come back really Scittish and scared and had all pin holes all over his face and a scratch all under his neck and I always believed it to be a panther or a jaguar because of the size of it,ever since then I have always believed there are big cats on the loose around the Tamworth area
Lorna adds, on 29th May, that she heard a strange noise whilst sleeping in the tent last night. It may have been a big black cat puma. It was breathing heavily. Seemed quite heavy padded on the foot. B49 5HA
We lived in Little Dassett, a hamlet at the foot of the Avon Dassett country park. Our then cottage was adjacent to fields. One evening, it was still light, my wife and I looked out across the fields as we were in the front of our house, and looked across the field. We both looked at each other and couldn’t believe what we saw. We saw what looked like a huge black domestic cat. Despite the distance across the field, it was clear that this was large creature. It had a long black tail, which flicked as it ran. It quickly ran away. We’d heard stories of a local big cat and assumed that was what we’d seen.
The unusual thing about the “Beast of Bodmin” was its disappearance. When the farmer’s claim for compensation for the livestock killed by the beast was refused, the animal was never seen again.
Multiple family members in our area have recently began to note large paw prints or animal carcasses that had stripped down to the bone apart from the head. Recently in our village a huge black figure was spotted stalking across the fields. It was far too large to be a housecat and too feline in movement to be a dog. We assume it’s one of these black cats seen all over the country
Myself and two others were walking along the lanes. In Shustoke in Warwickshire and we saw a large black cat at first we thought it was a dog, however when we looked it was definitely a large black cat. It was definitely to large for a domestic cat .
In 2004 I was working at Arbury Hall and almost ran a black panther or puma over driving through the woods to Griff Lodge gate exit. A few days later a courier driver arrived at the estate saying at the risk of sounding crazy he had just seen a black panther sunning itself on grass after entering main gate on Arbury road. The gardeners believed me then.
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