Black leopard sighting at Dover Castle

A black leopard has been seen within yards of Dover's historic castle. On 27th February 2012 at 9:10 am a Mr Donnelly - who lives in Dover - had visited the Duke of Yorks School and was turning right towards Castle Hill past Boadless farm, when he decided that at a nearby lay-by he would stop his car and admire the view across the fields and channel. Upon doing so he noticed an animal on ground in the vicinity of the Napoleonic Fort (Edingburgh Hill). Realising the animal was more than 300 yards away Mr Donnelly reported, "I watched it for a full minute, it was much too big to be a domestic cat, the body was 3ft in length and stocky and the tail long and thick. It was creeping through long grass down a bank towards the field. I got my binoculars but lost sight of it." The area the cat had been seen is disused, and this isn't the first time such an animal has been seen in the area. Last year a group of six people watched a big black cat slinking near the fort, and there have also been several sightings over the last few months at Western Heights too. Meanwhile a few years ago an architect claimed he'd found some unusual excrement in a tunnel at the fort and sent them off for analysis. The samples returned as leopard scat.

Sighting of a black leopard cub

On Saturday 25th Feb' at 10:30 pm a couple were travelling on the New Romney to Ivychurch road when they were stunned to see a black cat - about 2ft 6" long, with a long tail, very stocky in appearance, playfully hunting a rabbit by the roadside. According to the witness, "The animal took a swipe at the rabbit with its paw but missed it and then the animal chased its prey but couldn't catch it and then we lost sight of the animal.We drove back but couldn't see it. It was definitely a leopard cub as we went home and looked on the internet - it was chunky and not a domestic cat"


The interesting thing about the incident is the fact that the witnesses had seen a similar animal before - in November 2011, but much, much larger. The witness commented, "In November I was driving on the A2070 between Hamstreet and Brenzett when the car headlights picked up the bright green eyes of an animal standing in the road. As I neared the animal seemed to freeze and it was huge. It had a very long, curving tail and was jet black and it leapt into the undergrowth."
Over the last fifteen years or so there have been numerous sightings of large, black cats around Romney Marsh and Ashford, these are hot areas of activity. In the last few months there have been several reports near Hamstreet and also towards Kingsnorth where six months ago two leopard cubs were seen crossing a road. Just before Christmas a female witness observed a black leopard in broad daylight whilst walking her dog and then found several sheep carcasses stashed in a reed bed.

From the files: The Folkestone 'cat'

A few years ago now professional photographer Dan Desborough got in touch after he took a blurry snapshot of an animal entering undergrowth at an undisclosed location in Folkestone, Kent. Dan used red arrow markers to pin-point the areas he thought suggested a head and tail. Sadly, like most images this is extremely inconclusive, but as Dan said at the time, the last thing he expected to creep behind him was a cat. Original thoughts were that this animal was nothing more than a domestic cat  and we stand by that. Image courtesy of Dan Desborough

Interesting scat

This interesting scat was found by contact James Mitson, in Kent woodland. James has been a great contact finding numerous deer kills and scat over the last year or so. The scat is full of deer fur.

Black leopard and puma sighting at Surrey.

For more info visit the Surrey puma website HERE

Seaford 'big cat' update

This email received on 8th Feb': 'The cat was spotted the next day by a woman I know in her front garden, it left prints across her back garden. I've been here 15 years now & live next to the open downs where it roams in from, Seaford has enough twitterns etc for it to mooch about unseen & it always surfaces with snow, the sheep stick together more or are barned so less easy pickings & when the sheep are sent off for market too so the fields being empty brings it in.The foxes are very unsettled this week past & it isn't merely a delay on mating season.I'm keeping my cats in now though they're none to eager to go mooching & one of them loves snow but he's been glued to the windowsill.Tomorrow I'm going to stick meat out after dusk see what that rustles.'

If there is a large cat around the area, and it's leaving paw prints or any other evidence we'd like to hear from you please.

Did big cat walk into front room in Seaford ?

Extremely close encounters with so-called 'big cats' seem highly unlikely, but on 6th Feb' Meridian News reported that a woman from Seaford, in Sussex, had in fact got the shock of her life when a black cat, "the size of a labrador dog with green eyes" had walked into her front room. Read more HERE

Is this a 'big cat' caught on film in Gloucestershire ?

The Sun online have today featured 'exclusive' and 'conclusive' video footage of an alleged 'big cat' caught on film in Gloucestershire. As usual it's in the distance, and whilst the animal appears to have a long tail, sceptics would once again have the right to argue that it is far from being the conclusive proof it is made out to be. Numerous and very similar examples have been floating around the internet for years - strangely, witnesses always feel the urge to plaster their footage on You Tube or rush to major tabloids, however inconclusive their evidence is.

Leopard and lynx sighting...

A female witness has reported that whilst travelling through Grain, a remote 'isle' in Kent, she swerved and crashed her car to avoid a massive black cat which loped across the road. The woman stated categorically that the animal was only a few feet from the car, but when the witness - once she had removed herself from the damaged vehicle - told a friend he stated it must have been a cow!! A lynx has been seen in the Gravesend area after it was observed peering through the patio doors of a couple's home. The woman reported that she had walked into her front room and was startled when, "I looked out the back garden and the animal was just sitting there, casually looking back at me. It had tufted ears and a mottled coat. I called my husband and we both stared at the animal for a few minutes without even thinking about getting the camera. The animal then leapt down from the wall and headed off toward the marsh."

Lynx have been observed in several areas of Gravesend. A few years ago a man named Mick Cole claimed that he'd had his hand scratched after cornering an animal which at first he thought was a large fox. The animal which inflicted the wounds was a large cat. A male witness came forward to report that in 2009 he'd seen a puma in the Ide Hill area of Sevenoaks. Recently there have been several sightings of a black leopard in the area as well as a wild boar which damaged land.
A large cat has also been blamed for the death of a goat in Dartford, and in today's edition of The Sun newspaper it was mentioned that police had investigated a report over Christmas in the Sandwich area of East Kent, regarding the death of a trio of piglets. Why this story appeared over a month after the incident took place we'll never know.

Gloucester deer kill just the work of a scavenging fox! Shock horror!

 So, the deer found dead at Woodchester in Gloucestershire turned out to be the work of a hungry fox then - what a surprise. The Guardian newspaper article (read it HERE) stated the obvious, in that dog and fox had been at the deer, as the photo of the carcass suggests and DNA tests proved. Original suggestions made stated that a cat had suffocated the deer - cats sometimes suffocate their prey by placing their mouth over the muzzle of prey - but dogs also bite the face. The image here shows several sheep attacked by dogs, all with the same wounds around the face, even so, when a cat kills there can also be found puncture marks in the throat and the kill is extremely clean and then scavengers such as foxes and birds will do the rest. Sadly, with all the media exposure this story has created, there'll probably be a few sceptical folk come forward and say, "We told you there are no big cats....", even though hair samples in the past have proven otherwise and kills are relatively easy to find, as is scat. Mind you, if the DNA tests had been proven to belong to a cat, then what ? Another dramatic headline ? A feather in the cap of the believers ?

What exotic cats roam the British wilds ?

Find out in Neil Arnold's latest blog post at KENT ONLINE