“It was rolling on the compost heap, where I rake up deer droppings,” a groundsman explained, as he told of a giant black cat sighting back in 2012. “It jumped the fence and went like a rocket across the next field.”
And it would seem this isn't the only sighting, of what many believe may actually be a black leopard.
Sightings of black leopards
Reports across the country tell of mysterious sightings that are hard to explain.
In Essex, a fisherman was hissed at by a leopard as he came across it cornering a deer. In Dorset, a woman spotted a black leopard jumping from a tree having chased a squirrel, and in Somerset, a dog walker watched a black leopard chasing a deer in the neighbouring field.
DNA evidence
Positive DNA results for black leopards in Britain are very limited, with just six pubicly reported.
The most recent were found in Gloucestershire in 2022, from a hair on a fence at the site of a sheep kill. The other was from Cumbria in 2023, when DNA was found on a sheep carcass.
Rick Minter first became fascinated with the presence of the black leopard 24 years ago, following what he believes was a sighting in Cumbria.
"It was walking side-on to me across rough pasture, about 70m away. I assumed it was a labrador, but then noticed no collar and no owners in sight. Its purposeful strides, low and long-bodied form, tubular tail and fluid movement were completely unlike a dog." he explains. Rick now hosts Big Cat Conversations, a podcast where he interviews witnesses of big cat sightings across the UK.
