Searches for big cats in Wales surge after increase in alleged sightings
Online searches for big cats in Wales have surged following an increase in alleged sightings.
Research by AussieBoots has revealed that Cardiff and Wrexham saw a 100% increase in searches for ‘Big Cats UK’ from 2021 to 2023 – with Swansea seeing a 50% rise.
It comes after multiple big cat sightings have been reported in the press across the country in recent months and years.
The term ‘big cat’ is usually used to describe large wild felines such as tigers, lions, panthers, jaguars, leopards, cheetahs and cougars.
Big cats such as pumas are solitary and their hunting range is dozens of miles.
When big cats were banned as pets in the 1970s, it was legal to release them into the countryside to avoid expensive rehoming costs.
Experts believe that owners from across the UK travelled to Wales to release their cats in to the remote environment.
Most sightings tend to be described as large black panther like cats.
A BBC study collated more than 100 big cat sightings in 18 months across north and mid Wales.
Another study recorded 123 Welsh sightings over two years with frequent reports of big cats in Flintshire, Denbighshire, Conwy and Gwynedd.
In February, a man claimed he had seen a big cat roaming wild in Powys.
In June, another sighting was recorded four miles from the Welsh border in the Shropshire area.
DNA
Earlier this year the DNA of a big cat was identified from a swab which was taken from a dead sheep in the Lake District – proving that at least one could be running wild in the UK.
Wales overall has seen a 50% increase in internet searches for big cats whilst Northern Ireland was the country that saw the highest rise in searches (133%).
Scotland came second (127%), and England came third (84%).
The UK saw an 84% increase overall.
Pete Bryden from AussieBoots said: “The increase in big cat sightings across the UK has certainly captured the public’s imagination.
“It’s fascinating to see how interest has grown, particularly in Wales where searches have surged.
“Whether these sightings are fact or folklore, it’s clear that the British countryside still holds plenty of mysteries for us to discover.”
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They’re dogs (if they exist at all). If there were big cats roaming the Welsh countryside I’m sure a farmer would have spotted (and possibly shot) one by now.
I’m intelligent enough to know what a cat looks like and I saw a cat.
My partner and I saw one with two cubs last August near Mt Snowden.
I came across a black panther in Argyll 40 years ago, it had been released by its previous owner who didn’t want to kill it. Local farmers lost sheep and the police offered to carry out a sweep of the land however the risk of animals being killed by the police exceeded the risk so the farmers cancelled the hunt. Carcases of dead sheep were found with the skull crushed in leopard style, children heard them on their way to school and life carried on as before.
Never see clear photos of these cats all the decent camera phones out these days but no always blurred or out focus etc how would they still alive they been seen for decades .