Our two different guests explain the challenges of sheep farming when a big cat makes a visit. Gordon ran a small sheep enterprise when he was based in south Wales. A silent predator would sometimes take one of his ewes (also called yowes) or a tup (young male). Gordon explains how he made adjustments to life on the farm as he realised a large cat was making occasional visits. Our second guest Jean runs a croft in North Scotland. At certain times she and especially her neighbour lose yowes to a large predator on their crofting land – they feel they are experiencing a rogue big cat, and a black panther gets reported in the area… 

Word(s) of the week:  Obligate carnivore

1 September 2019

Gloucestershire’s Frank Tunbridge recounts his own close-up encounter with a big cat in the Cotswolds – he watched it snatch some rabbit bait at dusk and it later crept behind and gave him a warning growl. Frank then discusses the stealth of cats like leopards and pumas and refers to the writings of Jim Corbett who tracked leopards and tigers in India last century. 

We hear highlights from some of the witness reports Frank receives, and the questions these beg… Are the big cats here sometimes targeting domestic cats? And are some of the panthers seen in Britain assumed to be black leopards but possibly something else…? 

Word of the week: Digitigrade

1 September 2019

We hear snippets from big cat witnesses in and around Exmoor as we visit Exmoor Zoo and the North Devon Show. A zoo keeper explains her encounter with a wild puma, while a retired butcher describes his view of two panthers isolating their prey in a flock of sheep several years back in Exmoor. We speak to Endymion and pay tribute to the late Trevor Beer, the naturalist and writer who researched big cats in Devon, and we hear from Alex who had a brush with a panther on the high moors. The Exmoor Beast lives on…

Word(s) of the week:  Confirmation bias

August 2019

We hear from Coryn near Stroud in Gloucestershire who explains her several sightings of a black panther across the valley from her house. She managed to film some snippets of the cat and she explains how it was scaled. Find out what happened when she later saw the same or a different black panther much closer.

We also speak to Dave, 20 miles away, who was out lamping one night when he noticed an animal watching him from the other side of the field. As he moved closer and checked its eye shine he started to realise it wasn’t the fox he’d assumed… 

Word of the week:  Preternatural

August 2019

Most witnesses of big cats in Britain claim to see one cat. This would match the fact that most species of wild cat are mainly solitary in their lifestyles. In this episode each of our guests watched two cats together. We meet Di who watched a mother and cub black panther as she walked in her local Somerset countryside, and then we hear from John who came close to two adult pumas (also called cougars and mountain lions) as he cycled to work down a back lane early one morning in Gloucestershire.

Word of the week:  Crepuscular (and Dimpsey)   

August 2019