by A new documentary investigating whether big cats roam the wild in the UK offers possible explanations for many sightings across Cheshire.
The town has become a popular spot for big cat sightings in recent years. In 2022 alone, eight were reported to Puma Watch North Wales.
These sightings include a ‘dark, shadowy animal’ that ‘dismembered’ a pet dog in Ashley’s village and Craig Charles’ home; a big cat that ran across traffic in Blacon; and a puma was spotted on the roof of Chester Market toilets by a man ‘going out drinking with the boys’.
READ MORE: Chester Zoo is celebrating the ‘incredibly special’ birth of a rare baby orangutan
Panthera Britannia Declassified, a new documentary that looks at whether the big cats do, in fact, live in the UK countryside, may help make sense of some of these sightings. Several years-long cases are being investigated including the Bodmin beast, the Exmoor beast and Felicity the puma, who was captured in the Scottish Highlands in 1980 before ending her days in a wildlife park.
In the case of Felicity, her body was preserved by a taxidermist and for several years was displayed in a museum, the documentary is told that she was probably an “abandoned pet”. Until the introduction of the Endangered Species Act in 1976, there were no regulations in place to deal with the growing trend of people owning wild and exotic animals.
When these new laws were introduced, many people found that they could not abide by the strict laws to protect people and animals. It is believed that some pet owners release them into the wild rather than hand them over to zoos or wildlife parks, and in some cases see them released.
The documentary looks at how this could affect the growth and survival of the UK’s big cat population. Jamie Mintram, founder of Arc Wildlife Park, says that would explain the sightings in the 70s, 80s and 90s but he doubts these abandoned animals will “replicate” themselves, meaning today’s sightings will be runaways. current collection”.
He tells the documentary that there is still a black market in the UK and Europe where wild and exotic animals are sold. TV personality and anthropologist Dr Todd Disotell is not convinced that the big cat species can survive for long in the UK.
“They would have to have a very large population to maintain enough genetic diversity so I don’t think it’s possible for anything to last long in a country as dense as Britain as a whole,” he said.
Another interesting case comes across the border in Staffordshire with a beast called Smallthorne. Forensic video analyst Emi Polito has read what has been described as “the clearest photograph” of a big cat walking through the village of Stoke-on-Trent.
The unidentified image, said to have been found in a zoological archive in 2021, has caused a stir, with many surprisingly claiming it was a photo shoot. Mr Polito says there is a “metadata inconsistency of the file”, adding: “That doesn’t mean the image is messed up or anything like that.”
Mr Polito tells the report that there are other things about the photo that make him “suspicious”. He says the animal has a “clear purple tint” that “doesn’t match” the overall color tone of the image.
The edges of the animal set throughout the photo show “potential signs of something wrong”, continues Mr Polito. He concludes that the authenticity of the image is “not visible”, adding: “I can’t be sure if it is 100% true or not.”
US TV presenter Cliff Barackman, a wildlife expert and bigfoot researcher, also questions the “authenticity” of the photo. He tells the show he “suspects” the animal is a domestic cat from a wildlife park or rescue center.
Mr. Barackman pointed out that the cat is not looking at the camera. In terms of proximity, he says the wild animal in this situation will “stop” the photographer as it is “the biggest threat around”. The narrator concludes that following “expert analysis” the authenticity of the photo “remains unknown”.
A look back at five big cat sightings in Cheshire:
Cheshire Cat of the Ince Marshes
Three sightings of a black puma in the Ince Marshes were reported by Puma Watch North Wales between December 2020 and January 2022.
Last year’s sighting involved a dog walker who found a large claw in the mud after seeing what they called a ‘black puma’ the month before.
Sealand Road’s ‘fairly large’ animal
A commuter from Chester saw a ‘black, fairly large animal’ near Blacon on the A494. A motorist reported seeing a ‘coordinated’ animal ‘definitely not a fox’ on Sealand Road, near the Texaco garage at 12.30am on Saturday, June 18, 2022.
Davidson Drakes-Jarrett told Puma Watch North Wales: “I was driving home from Chester, where I work towards the A494 when I was on Sealand Road about 30 meters behind the Texaco garage and 120 meters in front of me a large black animal ran across the road. on the farm.
“It was definitely not a fox and it ran so fast that I couldn’t pick out any signs or have time to take a photo. All I could make out was its body which was large and well proportioned.”
Big Welsh Road cat ‘looked bigger than a Dalmatian’
In August 2022, a woman reported seeing an animal ‘slightly larger than a Dalmatian’ sitting on the side of the A550 Welsh Road in Wirral. He was traveling as a passenger in a car when he saw the ‘big cat’ at 12.30pm on Sunday, August 21 at the junction with Ledsham Hall Lane near Little Sutton.
An onlooker, Izzy, told Puma Watch North Wales: “I was in the car and as we turned onto the Welsh road I saw a big cat sitting on the road next to the bushes. I caught my vision for about 5 seconds and the animal looked bigger than a Dalmatian. It was brown in color, with black and pointed ears. It was sitting about 15 meters from any car.
A ‘drinking with the boys’ man puts a giant cat on the roof of Chester Market
A man who had been ‘drinking with the boys’ says he saw a puma on a roof in Chester city centre. James Davies told Puma Watch North Wales he saw an animal ‘too big to be a dog’ near Chester Market at around 7pm on September 3 last year.
He had gone out with his friends in the market before going to the toilets. He said that’s when he saw ‘something walking on the roof’ facing him. He told Puma Watch: “I was out drinking with the boys in a pub in Chester. You have to go outside and enter another old building to get to the toilets and when I turned the corner where the toilets are, I saw something walking on top of the house opposite which made me look up at my phone.
“It was crawling behind the wall so at first I thought it was a dog on the roof for some reason. He must have heard me because he raised his head and looked down, immediately turned and ran. I ran to the corner and looked towards the roof to the parking lot but there was nothing, it had disappeared.
“When he looked at me, I could clearly see that he was a cat of another kind. It was too big to be a dog, with short pointed ears and yellow eyes and a face exactly like a puma. The evening sun caught its coat and I saw it as white as a cat, and with a large curled tail. “
A mysterious creature in Chester Meadows
Delivery driver Richard Evans said he took a photo of the mysterious creature as he was returning to the city at 3.45pm on December 13, 2020, after delivering McDonald’s.
The food delivery man said he pulled over and took a photo on the A51 near Barrel Well Hill and Mount Place and believed what he saw was a puma. He reported his sighting to Puma North Wales and told them it was “huge” and “like nothing” he had ever seen before.
A motorist told the group: “I was riding my bike back to town after delivering someone’s McDonald’s when I saw a big cat across the river in the pasture. I went closer and took a picture and tried to shout to a nearby dog walker but they didn’t hear me.
“It wandered along the tall grass and then disappeared into the undergrowth. It was huge though, like nothing I’ve ever seen. “
The documentary ‘Panthera Britannia Declassified’ is available on Amazon Prime and Apple TV. It aired under the name ‘Big Cat Britain Declassified’ on the BLAZE channel on 3 September.
NEWSLETTER: Sign up for CheshireLive email direct to your inbox here
#big #cat #documentary #reveal #truth #Cheshire #sighting
