Charlie our guest recounts 6 months of his life at the age of 9 back in 1973-74. Around his house in Ayrshire his family lived alongside a female big black cat, seen active in fields and woods and at one stage she was lactating. 

Charlie regularly encountered the cat during spells when he escaped the ongoing stress at home. He describes its consistent behaviours, including its calls and its hunting. It took rabbits from his snares and he observed it resting in sun traps. 

This episode tells a remarkable story of a large black cat, most likely a female leopard, out in the wild before the 1976 Dangerous Wild Animals Act. Charlie considers why the cat tolerated him in particular, as well as his family members. 

Since recording the episode, Charlie has recalled one other memorable account of the big cat, which was not described in the conversation with Rick. Charlie explains it here… “One thing I didn’t mention was the night it walked on the roof of my largest den it was fully enclosed with a door and a lift-up window and all closed up.  It walked across the roof making the acknowledgement snorting snuffle noise. It stayed up there sitting or lying for a while. I then heard the soft pads on the leaves as she jumped down into the wood…”

In terms of the origins of the cat, Charlie adds this…  “I think it was likely a released one, possibly when she was pregnant as it wasn’t scared of people. Wary yes but not scared.  It would happily eat rabbits etc with human scent on, so she was possibly used to eating meat handled by humans?”

Words of the week:   gypsy warnings 

1 September 2025

Our first guest Malcolm was an arch sceptic on big cats being wild in Britain. Then one night driving home in 2011 he encountered a big black panther on the lane outside his property in Herefordshire. It rushed off, doing a long leap through a high gap in the hedge. Malcolm then asked around and found that other people in the area had also seen a panther around the same time.

Malcolm is coincidentally about 3 miles away from Craig, a podcast guest from episodes 72 and 116. Craig joins us again for the second half, updating us on events in the area where he found the clawed carcass and set out trail cams. Craig has a recent trail cam photo to describe, captured in mid July 2025 – see copies on BCC website Refs & Links. Then the following week, at 7pm in the woods, he experienced a full-on hiss directed at him – a google search confirmed his view that it came from a big cat, most likely a puma. 

Craig and Rick discuss the reports of both black and brown big cats, described over many years in this corner of Herefordshire and seemingly keeping to themselves…

Word of the week:   GISS (General Impression of Shape & Size)

9 August 2025

Our first guest Simon Lea had two close encounters with a large black panther at his farmholding in Oxfordshire. He later created the life-size metal panther that was positioned in Charlbury in a large garden close to the station. The ‘panther’ was spotted by train passengers and sometimes got reported as a real big cat, as previously discussed on ep 93 of the podcast. We hear the full story behind the Charlbury Panther from Simon.

Simon has just made a replica Charlbury Panther for the coming event, Depicting Britain’s Beasts – the art of British big cats, at Nature in Art gallery, Gloucestershire, 12-22 August, 2025. 

Our second guest Andy Council is a Bristol based mural painter and graffiti artist. He discusses three of his British black panther illustrations which will be at the Nature in Art event in August. He explains how he came to use British big cats amongst his public artwork. One of Andy’s paintings is the Five Valleys Panther, based on big cat sightings in the Stroud area. Andy and Rick discuss sightings they have heard about in people’s gardens in that area.  

Andy is interested in awareness raising through his art. He explains the importance of showing panthers, pumas and lynx in a British setting, and he describes the challenges of  depicting a big cat in a modern street-art style.      

Word of the week:   tagging

16 July 2025

Our first guest Hugh Williams recounts his close encounter with a big cat on a Worcestershire hillside. He also runs the Mysteries of Mercia website which explores quirks of history and folklore in the midlands and Mercia. 

As well as discussing his panther incident, Hugh mentions other big cat sightings he’s heard of and even a dogman description he’s received. He also considers the treatment of big cats in folklore, he touches on the black dog phenomenon, and he and Rick consider the black panthers reported in eastern Canada where Hugh is currently based.    

Our second guest Graham describes his recent incidents involving a large cat in County Durham. He and his dog were growled at from close quarters one winter evening, then months later, just a week before this podcast recording, they came close to a black panther at dusk.  Graham explains how he’s been coming to terms with the reality of big cats in the first few days after the experience. Both Hugh and Graham mention a feeling of ‘joining a club’ after their cat encounters.  

Word of the week:   liminal

22 June 2025 

Cat Fight is the new novel from author Kit Conway which centres around big cat encounters in Kent, published in the UK in May and the US in June 2025. We speak to Kit about how Big Cat Conversations helped shape her ideas for the big cat aspects of the plot. The book has already been optioned as a future TV screenplay, and Kit discusses how she weaved big cat sightings into a novel about the developing frictions across a close community in south-east England. It is a rollercoaster of a story which explores people’s switch to wild behaviour on different levels.

Our second guest Gary describes some big cat incidents in Surrey, just 50 miles west of where Cat Fight is set. He himself has twice observed a black panther in a neighbouring agricultural field, viewed from the same spot in his parents’ house. Believed by Gary to be a black leopard on each occasion, the sightings were 20 years apart in 2003 and 2023.   

Word of the week:   rosette

Cat Fight book availability in UK:

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/463613/cat-fight-by-conway-kit/9780857506597

Cat Fight book availability in North America:  

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Cat-Fight/Kit-Conway/9781668066348

Copies of Cat Fight are available for UK and for North America listeners to win by emailing ‘word of the week’ suggestions – details in the podcast.

Kit Conway, Cat Fight author’s website: https://www.kitconway.com/ 

1st June 2025

John explores the wild forests and farmland of his local Scottish borders area.  

It’s a sparsely populated region where black panthers and lynx are quietly discussed by some of the locals.  John takes us through various lynx encounters, including two of his own, and describes his three experiences with large black cats – one seen nearby from a slow moving train, and one unnervingly close at night.  

John starts the episode by explaining how his military background helps his observation and tracking skills. He also discusses lynx reintroduction proposals which have been considered for his part of Britain. 

John is a musician and with his wife & friends created his own outro track for this edition…  Eyes Burning Bright. 

Words of the week:   orienting response 

9 May 2025 

John met a “black panther” during his evening dog walks four times in 1996 in Staffordshire. On the first occasion he was confronted directly by the cat at close range. As the predator was poised, there seemed no easy way out. John explains his thoughts and the subliminal messages he received at that moment, as he reached in his pocket and unlatched his Swiss army knife… 

‘Big Cat Mystery’ outro track courtesy of Lancashire band DRIVE. 

Words of the Week:   beauty in the beast  

17 April 2025 

Bonus feature – British wolverines?

Our first guest Darren was asked to despatch a troublesome fox in south Wales in 1998. In the snowy conditions he actually saw a puma though his gun sights – he re-lives the high emotions on the winter hillside as bright green eyeshine stared back.  

Rick and Darren also consider the prospects of a big cat  being trapped, and they discuss an event in 2011, when the police and the Home Office verified a plaster cast as from a puma-like big cat.

For our second guest we return to Exmoor Zoo, meeting owner Danny Reynolds. He briefs us on the new female black leopard, Bagheera. She is a lively three year old, who enjoys playful stalking of the visitors and keepers.

Exmoor Zoo also hosts two wolverines, last known in Britain 8,000 years ago, or has this podcast found that they are back somehow?  We discuss some footage which might hold the clues, with some extracted stills on the Big Cat Conversations website. Danny and Rick discuss the traits of wolverines, a big type of mustelid, both in the wild and at the zoo. 

Words of the week:  talon   &   Gulo gulo

26 March 2025 

Andrea is a podcast listener in Victoria, Australia. She didn’t expect to experience big cats on her land. But she explains how events and sightings have indicated she has visiting pumas, which seem to predate kangaroos, wallabies and rabbits. 

She looks after two pure dingoes, which have reacted to calls and movements of what appear to be a nearby big cat. Andrea discusses life with the dingoes, and her heightened awareness of new hidden predators in the local bushland. 

In the final section, British and SA tracker Mark Graves returns to discuss key issues which have cropped up in recent episodes, including the ‘clawed’ carcass, alarm calls from birds when predators are around, and why big cats’ fur can change in colder conditions. Rick describes two recent black panther-leopard reports from witnesses, and Mark explains how big cats drag their larger prey items.    

Words of the week: ‘upside down country’   

&  piloerection

3 March 2025

We return to Cumbria for latest news of the mother and cub black leopards, being experienced by Liz on nearby land to her property. In autumn and winter sightings Liz has noticed longer fur develop on the mother, as well as alarm calls from magpies harassing the cats.  Liz and Rick discuss the challenges of getting evidence from this ongoing case.

UPDATE:  Between recording and then releasing this interview with Liz, she reports that her husband has now had two evening encounters with the mother.

Our second guest, Neil, describes a situation as a 14 year old, when he and his dad stumbled upon what appeared to be black panther cubs being recovered from the wild in Devon in an official covert operation…  

Words of the week:   winter coat

8 February 2025