An Abersoch resident has reported spotting an animal they believe could be a puma standing in their back garden. It’s believed to match the description of recent sightings in Pwllheli, only a few miles away across open countryside.
Nigel Burras encountered the big cat around 4pm on Saturday 25th August and says he contacted the police almost immediately as “Abersoch at this time of year is choc full of tourists!”
In the minutes after the sighting, Nigel told Puma Watch: “I was sitting out in my back garden, having just finished a cup of tea. I came back into my kitchen to wash my cup, on looking out through the window I saw to my total shock and amazement a large, what I guess to have been a puma standing on a step next to my shed. It was facing me head-on.
“The head was approx 2 1/2 feet off the ground. The front legs were long and slim and lighter in colour (as was the face). The sighting lasted for maybe 5 seconds or so, (long enough to reduce me to a bit of a jelly !) My startled and somewhat noisy reaction was enough to send it away. It was gone in a flash!
“My garden is secluded despite being in the village centre. There are several mature trees, also the garden backs onto areas where there are numerous trees providing good cover. Also, I have a pond in the garden, maybe it was looking for water?”
The next day, Nigel also told us: “I should perhaps mention that I reported said sighting to the police within 10 mins or so, on the grounds that Abersoch at this time of year is choc full of tourists! (Even more amazing that the puma appeared in my garden in what is essentially the middle of the village with lots of people around!)
“But as I mentioned my garden is very secluded, so maybe it seemed to be a bit of a sanctuary?
“Anyway, I thought the police should know as a cat this size could pose a potential threat (not least to itself! It was a magnificent animal and I would not want it to come to any harm).
“I am confident of my identification of the animal as a puma as I have seen several in the wild in the Spanish Pyrenees mountains a number of years ago, so I know what they look like.
“It is interesting to note that several sightings have been in the Pwllheli area in recent months, which would seem to match my description fairly closely, and is, via golf courses and beaches, only about 6 miles away from Abersoch.”
North Wales Police have been approached for comment.
The spate of Pwllheli sightings referenced by Nigel began in March, when three friends out night fishing reported coming face-to-face with a “very large cat” they believe could have been a puma.
Paul Wilson told Puma Watch: “Myself and two friends had turned up to do night fishing.
“We had just parked our cars when we noticed what at first appeared to be a dog of medium to large size sat upright watching us at approximately 20 metres from us.
“It was sat amongst the dune grass which was on a slope going upwards away from us. I walked a few metres towards it whilst my friend turned his headlights on to illuminate it more.
“We all then realised that it was not a dog but a very large cat that then stood up and turned away and loped away from us turning its head to look back once at us. We didn’t see it again. The cat was as big as a golden retriever.”
Then, in May on the same Pwllheli beach, a father and son were forced to abandon their barbeque when they spotted a big cat matching the same description.
Weeks later, a man found a pawprint at the same location and captured what could have been the same animal on a thermal video camera.
Any further sightings can be reported to us via this form.
Big cats such as pumas are solitary with a hunting range of dozens of miles. They’re mostly spotted in Snowdonia and the Clwydian hills but reports of sightings in urban locations some distance from these areas are becoming more frequent.
Just last month, we shared a report of a big cat in Leamington Spa. While we focus on North Wales and the surrounding areas, we often receive reports from further afield and have shared sightings from as far out as Scotland and Cornwall.
As seen with Llandundo’s now-famous goats, who have taken to roaming the town’s deserted streets during the coronavirus lockdowns, it’s likely that the reduced levels of human activity during the pandemic are encouraging big cats to roam further from the hills into more populated areas.
When big cats were banned as pets in the 1970s, it was legal to release them into the countryside to avoid expensive rehoming costs. Owners from across the UK travelled to areas like Wales to release their cats in the remote environment, where small but significant populations have thrived ever since.
Earlier this year, the Welsh Government responded to the recent spate of sightings and confirmed the steps they take to investigate any reported to them, including taking casts of paw prints.
A visitor to a Snowdonia animal rescue centre back in 1994 recently claimed he was introduced to four puma kittens. He said: “I strongly suspect that these were released into the wild as they had no paperwork and no money to feed or house them.
“They certainly weren’t there six months later.”
Any further sightings can be reported to us via this form.
Abersoch image credit: Stephen McKay – CC BY-SA 2.0