Laura describes her three black panther encounters in north Hertfordshire, each of which seemed a different cat, while Lian our second guest runs the County’s big cats Facebook group, with ongoing reports of panthers, pumas and lynx.

Word of the week:  exotic

15 January 2021

Ann, her son and their dogs disturbed a stalking panther on their evening walk in November 2020 – it was poised for attack as they watched events unfold…

Rick and Ann discuss several other reported big cat encounters across Gloucestershire in recent years.

1 January 2021

Word of the week:  safari

One night in the Derbyshire Peak District, Billy our guest had some unexpected company as he did his rail-line inspection.

Billy also explains why big cats might find railway lines convenient for food supply and for travel routes.  

Word of the week:   ABCs

19 December 2020

Annie re-lives several close encounters with a panther in Somerset in a nearby quarry in 1993 – a reminder that big cats were experienced many years past, and close to where similar reports happen now.

Annie now lives in southern Ireland and briefly considers big cat reports across the republic and Northern Ireland. 

Word of the week:   chatoyant

5 December 2020

Tim was amazed to see a black panther in fields neighbouring his house in Berkshire in 2020 – he’d previously seen one on Salisbury Plain in 2004, while our second guest Maria watched a tan coloured puma carrying a rabbit in its mouth in Gloucestershire, then sensed it lurking in the dark and spooking her dogs, in July 2020.

Both guests explain setting up trail cameras in the hope of filming the cats they encountered.

Words of the week:   green bridges

21 November 2020

David Hetherington, author of The Lynx and Us, re-lives the moment he was watched by a lynx in Switzerland and explains how the vivid wildlife and lynx photographs for his book were captured by Laurent Geslin. He considers when the lynx died out in the past in Britain and discusses how lynx reintroduction projects have been carried out in parts of Europe.    

7 November 2020

Word of the week:  lucerve

Maria in Cornwall saw a lynx leap away in her woodland, while Rob in Gloucestershire drove past a lynx walking along a roadside ditch – both our guests explain how these encounters changed their view of the British countryside.   

30 October 2020

Word of the week:  stochastic 

Matt Jones explains the challenge of filming large cats in Devon and Cornwall with trail cameras – one of his photos is discussed in the coming documentary Britain’s Big Cat Mystery, and we also hear of his sighting of a panther-like cat in October 2020.

17 October 2020

Word of the week:  pardus  

We hear from Amy-Louise who did an emergency stop to avoid hitting a large unusual puma when driving in Hampshire, and then from Joel who was shocked to see a tall black cat in reed beds near Hastings – Joel contrasts his sighting with a wild puma he witnessed in Texas. 

Words of the week:  landscape connectivity

2 October 2020

Our first guest Paul watched a black panther in Essex for 15 minutes in August, struggling to take photos at dusk – we then visit Exmoor Zoo’s black leopards, and hear why local police sometimes ask if they’ve escaped. 

Words of the week:   chuffing and prusten

18 September 2020