Mendips Sighting Of Panther-Like Animal[Original headline: New sighting adds to big cat mystery]
Experts gathering in the Mendips to discuss reports of big cats roaming the countryside have already got one on their doorstep.
Mrs Norma Jenkins came face to face with a “big black animal with a head like a panther and a long straight tail” as she walked her Jack Russell terrier in a field on the Bath side of Wells on Wednesday [Jan 31].
She was astonished to see the creature, which she estimated to be three bus lengths away from her. She contacted the Western Daily Press about her sighting after reading in Thursday’s paper that a stall will be dedicated to the mysterious big cats of the region at the West country Game Fair at the Royal Bath and West
Showground near Shepton Mallet, in March.
Big cat experts are worried about a growing number of reports from farmers and landowners about attacks on sheep and want to collect more evidence for a report to be sent to the Government.
Mrs Jenkins does not want to reveal where she lives or the precise location of the field for fear that too many people may be attracted to the site.
She said yesterday: “I have lived in the Mendips all my life and I know a fox when I see one. This was not a fox. It was much bigger and it was dark – black – and it had a straight tail, not a bushy one.
“I had been looking down at the mud as I walked and when I looked up I suddenly saw this animal about three bus lengths away.
“It was looking away from me at first, but then as it turned its head I could see that it had a round face. It loped away across the field out into the Mendips. I have no doubt that what I saw was a big cat.”
There has been one other sighting of a similar creature in the Wells area in the past two years [See: Monster of the Mendips].
Other big cat sightings have come from as far afield as Devizes in Wiltshire to Sturminster Newton in Dorset.
• Story originally published by •
Western Daily Press, Bristol / England | By Tina Rowe - February 3 2001
