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

Two retired police officers report their big cat encounters and incidents, including black leopards & lynx. We conclude the episode with comments on the January 2025 lynx release & capture saga from Paul Macdonald of Scottish Big Cat Research.

Andrew our first guest from County Durham recounts his encounter with what he believes was a black leopard, when walking his dog in 2003.  Through his police activity he then learnt about similar big black cat reports nearby, and his interest in the subject grew.

Nick from Kent nearly hit a big black cat in his vehicle when driving on police duty in the back lanes of Kent, in 1994. Nick raced out of the car to pursue the animal and soon realised the folly of his actions. A colleague then had a nearby sighting, which they felt may have been the same cat, while another contact shot a lynx in error, as it was flushed from woodland when he was out shooting foxes.  

16 January 2025

Word of the week:   truncheon

Our end-of-year extended episode features Mandy from Worcestershire and Jon from neighbouring Herefordshire.

Mandy explains the events which led to her setting-up a big cats Facebook group in Worcestershire, as a hotline for reports and discussion. Her own sighting was a close-up view of a black leopard type of cat, and instantly drew her to the subject.

Jon watched a puma slink through his garden one night in 2003, close to the house he was renovating. His initial shock and concern turned to respect for big cats, as he and his wife experienced three different large cats in and around their remote garden until they moved in 2018. Jon kept a ‘big cat diary’ throughout that time – he takes us through the events for this episode.  

Word of the week:   estrangement

12 December 2024

Tommy had two sightings of black panthers in the north of Exmoor as a teenager in the 90s.  His first viewing was of a mother guiding a small cub, which made a lasting impression on him. 

Tommy recounts a local vicar’s sighting of a big black cat at the time, and he explains how local teenagers related to the Exmoor Beast legend. Later in his army career, Tommy heard fellow soldiers admitting to seeing pumas on Ministry of Defence land in Northumberland.  

Word of the week:   Inquisitive

17 November 2024