Black leopard sighting at Staplehurst

Email received 17th May 2013: 'Found your blog on the internet this afternoon.  I saw a big black cat in a field alongside the A229 about two miles below Staplehurst, at about 1pm today.  We were in the car, my husband driving, so he didn't see it, and there was nowhere to park at that particular spot to go back and look.  It took me a while to get the words out - I have never seen anything like this before in the fields around here, although I do not dispute that they are around.

There is a lot of woodland around this specific area, and a free-range chicken farm just down the road on the other side.  The field is on the left of the A229 if you are traveling south, Grandshore Lane borders the bottom edge of the field, but I saw the cat at the top end of the field, just on the edge of the crops and about 12 feet out from the hedge/woodland.  It was about the size of a labrador, and was moving slow, quite low to the ground (a lazy loping movement) towards the road.  Smooth coated, with a long thick rope-like tail and square-ish head.  Definitely a cat, not a dog.  I have domestic cats myself, even quite a "big" cat as domestics go, but this was definitely not a domestic cat.

Sorry I cannot provide any proof - or corroboration - but there really was nowhere safe to stop and even so it may well have slunk into the woods and disappeared by the time we doubled back.

Will keep a better look out in future!'

Neil's lecture on MYSTERY ANIMALS OF KENT

Neil Arnold will be lecturing on 22nd June 2013 on MYSTERY ANIMALS OF KENT at the UnXplained Conference in Margate. The venue is the Glenwood Hotel, 19-25 Edgar Road, Margate CT9 2EG. Tickets are £10 for the whole day

Black leopard seen on Gravesend marshes

During the week ending 3rd May 2013, a black leopard was seen on marshes at Chalk, near Gravesend. A woman who resides in the village had awoken at midnight to fetch an indigestion tablet when she saw a huge black cat in her garden. The animal slinked off towards the marsh. This had been the woman's second sighting of an animal she described "bigger than a large dog", as she'd seen possibly the same animal six months previous.

Several reports have been received over the last few weeks, most of these involving the usual towns such as Maidstone, Sevenoaks and Ashford.

Was it a 'big cat' in London? Or was it an April Fools joke?

Every now and then we receive a handful of 'big cat' reports that seem just a little strange - mainly due to the fact that they are said to have taken place in an extremely built up area. London is, of course, an incredibly crowded city, but there are a few large green spaces dotted about the place, even so, how can we explain the following possible sighting of a 'black leopard',

"I was walking to work in New Cross South London and looked to my left and saw a long black tail hanging down from the roof that covers the bins outside our block of flats. I then looked up and saw the biggest black cat i have ever seen - this was no domestic cat. It was very built with strong large leg muscles/joints that you could see very clearly from the rear view. It was just perched with its tail dangling down.
I completely freaked out and ran so fast as i was the only one in the area at the time and terrified of being spotted by this animal.
I have reported it to the police, who checked the area and can no longer find it. (They had suggested it was a large stuffed animal) - i guess we can now definitely rule that out.
I am disappointed that I wasn't taken more seriously by the local police who asked me almost straight away if I had been drinking when I first reported it.
The point is I was a meter away it was perched just above me and it was morning so I did not see this in the dark or at some distance and it was intimidatingly big.
The thought that it is now roaming around somewhere in the area is very scary and I am very nervous to walk home. "

One only has to look at a map of New Cross to realise how built up this area is, most London-related sightings tend to come from towns such as Bromley, but when one consideres that in the past there has been sporadic reports at Nunhead, Dulwich, Sydenham, it is clear that these areas are part of one particular animals territory. Little else is know from the sighting, maybe the witness got it wrong, as so many seem to do, but a large, predatory and very elusive cat moving at night could simply end of anywhere when one considers the network of tunnels, alleyways, back streets and green areas that run through London's outskirts. However, due to such sightings being so sporadic it is difficult to pin-point any route this animal would take and due to a lack of consistency we have to wonder just what people are seeing.

Some witnesses are adamant that they are seeing large exotic animals, in this instance we can only file the report, look around the area, and hope that more sightings occur.
Sadly, the story made The Sun newspaper, leaving some to believe it was nothing more than an April Fools prank.
For more information on 'big cat' sightings around London you can read Neil Arnold's book MYSTERY ANIMALS OF THE BRITISH ISLES: KENT. Available on Amazon.

KENT URBAN LEGENDS - A new book by Neil Arnold

What happens if you dance naked around the Devil's Bush in Pluckley, Kent's most haunted village? Do 'big cats' roam the local woods? Does the Devil appear if you manage to count the 'countless stones' at Aylesford? Is Bloody Mary more than just a childhood rumour? Does a phantom hitchhiker haunt the dark lanes of Blue Bell Hill? KENT URBAN LEGENDS is a new book by full-time monster hunter and folklorist Neil Arnold, a strange, quirky and downright weird collection of tales reputedly true yet never proven, passed down through generations and best told around a flickering campfire.

Chinese whispers, playground murmurs, internet rumours, and friend of a friend tales are the most potent in that they can embed themselves into a local community despite the fact such yarns are not true. Stories can spread like wildfire despite lacking any detail, causing a snowball effect that can affect an entire village, town or city. KENT URBAN LEGENDS looks at a number of stories not just related to the county of Kent, but legends which have spread across the world, varying depending on the storyteller. Have you heard the one about the famous footballer who paid the mortgage of a couple who had booked their wedding on the same day as his? Have you heard about the girl whose hair was so dirty that all manner of creepy crawlies took up residence and eventually burrowed into her brain? And what about the woman who chomped down on her Chinese takeaway only to find the remains of some animal? These type of stories are known the world over, and you can guarantee that there's always someone you know who knows someone else this has happened to.

Urban legends come in all shapes and sizes, but for the most part they are tales of horror - confined to mist-enshrouded lanes and eerie woods, but with KENT URBAN LEGENDS you'll also find out what happens if you play a heavy metal record backwards, or if some horror movies are cursed. You'll also find out if the Chelsea Smilers really did slash the mouths of school children in the 1980s, and what really happened to the woman who had a Killer In The Backseat of her car. Whilst tales of the Bunnyman, The Hook, and The Babysitter & The Man Upstairs may seem to have their origins in the USA, Neil proves that there's more to these scare stories than meets the eye, and delves into similar tales from Kent often involving lone female motorists and cavorting couples brave enough to venture into the night. From video nasties, to phantom viruses, from chain letters, to tales of monstrous bogeymen and out of place animals, KENT URBAN LEGENDS is one book you won't want to read before camping, driving, babysitting, or eating a meal! Be warned...the bogeyman is real after all!

KENT URBAN LEGENDS is published by The History Press, with a foreword by Janet Bord (Alien Animals), is an essential book to be read by candlelight!
Available from Amazon and all good bookshops, priced £9.99

The Lion of Essex and other UK 'big cat scares'

Neil Arnold's unedited article concerning the Essex 'lion' scare, and other UK 'big cat' hysteria can be read in the 2023 CFZ Yearbook available on Amazon. For more info the on contents of the issue read more HERE

"I wish I'd had a camera..."

Well, it seems that for every sceptic quick to dismiss reports of so-called 'big cats' there is a witness who comes forward to report another. On Wednesday 6th March 2013 there was a sighting of a black leopard at Sandy Lane, Ashford. A male witness observed the cat, which stood just fifty yards away, at 7:00 am as he was working in the area. Again sceptics will argue that "he should have got a photo" but it must be worth ading that when someone is out working, the last thing they expect to see is a 'big cat.' The witness said: "Something caught my eye and I was drawn to the head and ears of an animal that was at least the size of an alsatian dog - the animal had a long tail, appeared jet black and was looking in my direction. It was about fifty yards away, I could see it wasn't a dog or domestic cat, and I turned away for a few seconds and then looked back and it had gone. I went home and looked on the internet and saw a picture of a 'panther' and that was definitely the cat I saw." A few days previous there was a sighting at Folkestone of a similar animal, this time a female witness whilst visiting her daughter, had been having a cigarette in the garden when she spotted a large black cat mooching through wasteland just a few yards away. The animal slinked off into undergrowth. The witness stated, "If it had been a domestic cat it would have been relatively small considering the distance but this thing was huge, and was built like a big cat. I wish I'd had a camera..." If we could have a pound for every time we heard a witness say "I wish I'd had a camera..." but this is a natural reaction. However sceptical you may be to the existence of such animals roaming our wilds, not everyone sleeps, drives, or has a cigarette with their camera at the ready. Most sightings reported last only a few seconds, and in most cases involve animals in the distance. Unless a leopard walks up to someone we're pretty much of the opinion that a majority of photo's and pieces of film footage will be heavily criticised, which is understandable. And so, we have to rely on other evidence - and yet even faeces, paw prints, and sheep/deer kills are arrogantly dismissed, leaving us asking the question, just what evidence will be good enough? A dead cat? Well, lynx, jungle cat and leopard cat have been shot or run over, still not sufficient evidence? Hopefully the number of trigger camera's set up in woodlands across the UK will get a convincing photo, but even then we're sure that the sceptics will argue that the animal on film is an escapee from a zoo.