Our guests Annie Brazier and Shelly Coles discuss recent big cat encounters in Norfolk and in Ireland, as well as a shot cat from 2019 in Herefordshire. Annie and Shelly are both centrally involved in big cat sightings Facebook groups – they discuss the influence of Facebook on big cat reporting and they consider how the topic of big cats can affect people’s mental health.

All photos, illustrations and videos discussed in this edition are available on the Big Cat Conversations web site, on the refs and links page.

 Word of the week:   ocelli

1 January 2022

Frazier watched a big black cat hunt for geese in marshland at the Suffolk coast in November 2021 – he describes the spectacle of the autumn arrival of geese on the marsh, complete with the lurking predator.

Words of the week:    macan kumbang  

11  December 2021

In the first of two episodes featuring big cat reports of France, Michael describes watching a black panther creeping through summer pasture at the edge of his village in the Pas de Calais in 2020. We discuss why France has panther and puma reports and whether such cats could be breeding, or are released pets finding their feet in the French landscape.

Words of the week:  bêtes éphémères

27 November 2021

Frances explains what happened when she noticed a puma following 3 schoolboys in southern Lanarkshire, Scotland. She then cautiously asked around her village and learnt that big cat reports were nothing new.

Word of the week:   solipsism

12 November 2021

Black panthers, assumed to be black leopards, have been reported in the Wirral in Cheshire for over 20 years – our 2 guests describe some of these past sightings and explain their own encounters. 

Ben met a black leopard in woods in the Wirral peninsula in 2021 – he explains how it changed his outlook on the nearby countryside, while Matt witnessed a similar large cat in a close-by location 18 years ago. Now, as more reports emerge from the Wirral, Ben and Matt try to understand the routes of any black leopards in the area.

Words of the week:   occupancy survey   

22 October 2021

Paul MacDonald describes the discovery and lab testing of a large cat’s carcass near Bannockburn in 2020, and then discusses how the mapping of witness reports in south Scotland has identified key places to investigate. We then discuss the recent night-time cat footage in Larkhall, Scotland, with the houseowner Derek, asking whether it was a puma on the pathway, or a domestic cat on the fence, and how it influenced his family and neighbours.

Word of the week:   riparian  

8 October 2021

Author Nick Albert wrote about sensing and then seeing a black panther near his family’s West of Ireland home in his series of books Fresh Eggs and Dog Beds – we delve into those incidents with Nick in this episode, and we also hear from Dave, who had a black panther cross the road in front of him near peat cuttings in County Kilkenny in August 2021, coincidentally on his way to collect fresh eggs!

Word of the week:   aclaíocht

24 September 2021

Three guests chat through their big cat sightings at a Herefordshire pub – Dave D watched a panther jump a gate back in 1996, Sam saw a panther on the edge of the Brecon Beacons in 2018, and he may have snapped a grainy trail-cam photo of a lynx, while Dave Starkey updates us on his big cat novel Tonmawr and a possible sequel, following his south Wales sighting.  They discuss how they strive to understand more about the animals they encountered… 

Words of the week:   spectral sensitivity

10  September 2021

Tom re-lives his close encounter with a black leopard like cat near Stroud town centre in 2015, and his sighting of a similar looking cat which stopped the traffic when he was driving up a Cotswold hill in 2016. Rick and Tom also discuss some of the notable big cat reports in Gloucestershire during 2021.

Word of the week:   Corinium

28 August 2021

On 1^st August near Wexford, Ireland, Lar filmed a large black animal wandering past his house in the neighbouring field – still raw with emotion speaking on the podcast, he explains how he quickly sensed it was a large black panther, how he feels as a father of young kids, and how the Ireland big cats Facebook group has helped him assess the whole experience. Lar also explains why he thinks this could have been a recently escaped big cat.

Word of the week:   beithioch   

13 August 2021