BIG CAT IS AT LARGE ..DNA TEST PROVES IT
Black hair matches leopard
DNA from a black hair caught on a barbed wire fence after a sheep was savaged backs up claims big cats are prowling the countryside.
The sample returned a 99% match to a Panthera pardus, or leopard, sparking fears the beast is still at large.
It comes after video footage of a large black animal was also captured a few miles away from the sheep kill.
Film-makers investigating sightings across the UK for the documentary Panthera Britannia Declassified retrieved the hair from a farmer’s fence in Gloucestershire.
Matthew Everett, from Dragonfly Films, said: “The DNA was from hairs on a barbwire fence where there had been some unusual predatory activity.
“It’s taken five years for the team to find such evidence. People in Gloucestershire and across Britain have described what appear to be black leopards for decades.
“So, a leopard DNA result from a black hair is unsurprising.
“This is is not the first such DNA result and is unlikely to be the last. There is a
great deal of ‘secondary evidence’ for these cats, such as consistent witness reports, but evidence like DNA is hard to get, so the contribution from this documentary is very helpful.
“Collecting such evidence from locals, farmers and landowners is essential. This will hopefully help us learn more about the Bagheera-type big cats which may be quietly naturalising here.”
Several sightings of a large black cat in Gloucestershire were reported last year, including one on the side of the motorway and another near an airport.
There was also video footage captured of the “Beast of Rutland”, prowling on farmland at Empingham in August 2021. The animals mainly prey on wild animals such as deer but have been known to kill foxes, ducks, geese and, rarely, sheep.
In 2009, DNA from the carcass of a hare in Devon matched that of a leopard.