Big Cat Conversations

Our guest Paul recounts his big cat encounters at Glenfinnan and then at Arthur’s Seat near the heart of Edinburgh, where the police also documented a big cat. Paul also re-lives his experience confronting a mountain lion in the Canadian Rockies. Paul now investigates reports of big cats in the Scottish Borders and networks with local people to understand the nature of the cats.                   ...

Peter our guest explains the challenge of living with a freshly released black panther around his property in southern Spain. (An area which is not part of the Iberian lynx’s range). As he realised a panther was making regular visits close to his home, Peter had to adapt to the animal itself, and the different views of his guests, local people, hunters and the police…  Words of the week:    Xeric,...

Cumbrian sculptor Shawn Williamson recounts his view of a panther spooking deer in the back lanes of the Lake District. He explains how panthers and big cats inspire some of his sculpture making. Rick and Shawn also discuss people’s elemental connections with wildlife including big cats and even the Tasmanian wolf or Thylacine, which itself has a historical link with Cumbria, as Shawn explains. Wo...

Lincolnshire witnesses Wendy and Angela discuss the quandary of spreading the word about local big cats amongst sceptical neighbours.   Wendy was growled at by a puma when she disturbed it stalking feral cats. Her friend Angela is 12 miles away and has encountered black big cats, seeing a mother and young one night.    Word of the week:    Feral   15 December 2019

Our guest Peter Taylor suggests that rewilding helps nature and the human soul. He meets Rick at Wild Place, a new outpost of Bristol Zoo. Here brown bears, wolves and lynx can be viewed in a British woodland setting.  Peter considers how Eurasian lynx could be re-introduced in Britain but only with support from local communities. Rick and Peter note that spontaneous rewilding has already happened...

We meet Gareth who lives in Gateshead district in north-east England. He describes how he had a surprise view of a puma stalking a deer on holiday in Florida a few years back. He then explains what happened early one morning in October 2019 when walking his dog in his local park, when he witnessed the same type of animal.  Gareth and Rick consider how a puma might pass through residential areas li...

An in-depth discussion on the panthers and pumas reported across Australia with author and researcher Simon Townsend from Victoria. Simon explains why he feels the Australian panthers match black leopards and are not outsize feral cats. Tawny coloured cats resembling pumas are also reported, which Simon includes in his accounts of witness reports. The discussion ranges over the origins of these ca...

We discuss how big cats use heathland as their territory with Jonathan McGowan, and hear about two of his encounters in Dorset and the New Forest. He scouts out suspected prey remains of deer in these areas, looking for tell-tale tooth marks on the bones.  We then hear from Dr Andrew Hemmings in the lab at the Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester.  After receiving these skeletal remains from...

Matt Everett describes holding the gaze of a black leopard after he confronted the animal from his car on a sunken Somerset lane. The incident inspired him to create the forthcoming documentary Britain’s Big Cat Mystery . We hear some of the highlights and challenges from making the production.  Our second guest Paul explains his sighting of a black panther in deepest Dorset and the reaction of hi...

An in-depth interview with Nigel Spencer reveals how he and his late father supported police follow-up work on big cat reports in Leicestershire & Rutland. Nigel recounts his own sighting of a puma in Essex and summarises key big cat incidents from Leicestershire including from farms, quarries, stables and gardens.  Our second guest Emma from Leicestershire explains how she is now extra-cautio...

If you thought Buckinghamshire and the Chilterns was a tame area of countryside close to London, maybe think again… We hear from Darren who kept close watch of his dog when he realised a young puma was nearby in scrubby land by an airfield – he felt the mother could be close by. Darren is a councillor and discusses the pros and cons of acknowledging the presence of big cats.  We then discuss the r...

Gloucestershire’s Frank Tunbridge recounts his own close-up encounter with a big cat in the Cotswolds – he watched it snatch some rabbit bait at dusk and it later crept behind and gave him a warning growl. Frank then discusses the stealth of cats like leopards and pumas and refers to the writings of Jim Corbett who tracked leopards and tigers in India last century.  We hear highlights from some of...

Our two different guests explain the challenges of sheep farming when a big cat makes a visit. Gordon ran a small sheep enterprise when he was based in south Wales. A silent predator would sometimes take one of his ewes (also called yowes) or a tup (young male). Gordon explains how he made adjustments to life on the farm as he realised a large cat was making occasional visits. Our second guest Jea...

Most witnesses of big cats in Britain claim to see one cat. This would match the fact that most species of wild cat are mainly solitary in their lifestyles. In this episode each of our guests watched two cats together. We meet Di who watched a mother and cub black panther as she walked in her local Somerset countryside, and then we hear from John who came close to two adult pumas (also called coug...

We hear from Coryn near Stroud in Gloucestershire who explains her several sightings of a black panther across the valley from her house. She managed to film some snippets of the cat and she explains how it was scaled. Find out what happened when she later saw the same or a different black panther much closer. We also speak to Dave, 20 miles away, who was out lamping one night when he noticed an a...

We hear snippets from big cat witnesses in and around Exmoor as we visit Exmoor Zoo and the North Devon Show. A zoo keeper explains her encounter with a wild puma, while a retired butcher describes his view of two panthers isolating their prey in a flock of sheep several years back in Exmoor. We speak to Endymion and pay tribute to the late Trevor Beer, the naturalist and writer who researched big...