A woman who was on her way to work this past weekend spotted a rather peculiar creaturesnacking on a pigeon in the Cumbria countryside.
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The brave woman got out of her van and took photos of the big cat which was thought to be a puma or caracal. These are the clearest photos ever taken of a big cat in the area.
The images were uploaded to the Big Cats in Cumbria Facebook group and shared by the page's administrator Sharon Larkin-Snowden.
Sharon stated that 'The witness said it was muscular and the size of a collie. Either a caracal or young puma. She left it a chicken sandwich before she left after the sighting. She is going back just in case it’s still about.'
This has to be some of the best photographic evidence up-to-date. To get a decent photo is difficult...The size of the cat caught her attention and she was lucky enough to get these photos before it slinked off.
Big cats in the UK have been spotted as far back as the 1900s but it is unclear how they ended up in such a foreign environment. Experts speculate that the cats could have once been illegal pets that were released into the wild. According to the Cumbria Police, there have been more than 40 reports of a black panther south of the Lake District.
In 2017, one couple out for a walk got a terrifying shock when they spotted a black panther stalking a heard of sheep. Liz Wild stated that there was no mistaking what they saw:
It was very feline and very, very big. You know how a cat stalks? It was like that. It was jet black and walking slowly.
Her husband, Stuart, added:
It had a big, black long tail... It looked exactly like the pictures of black panthers I found when I searched online.
