A wildlife photographer has reported seeing a large black cat cross the A470 midway between Trawsfynydd and Bronaber in Gwynedd, believing the animal to be a panther. The sighting happened at around 9:00 PM on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, as the witness was driving south on the road.
Chris told Puma Watch: “Driving south on the A470 the animal walked from left to right across the road in front of the car, around 30 metres away. It disappeared into undergrowth. I’m a wildlife photographer and it definitely wasn’t a dog/domestic cat/fox. As I was driving I don’t have a photo unfortunately.”
The area west of Trawsfynydd has been affected by a huge wildfire in recent weeks, which was still raging at the time of the sighting and may have pushed any big cats to relocate further afield and could lead to an increase in sightings.
The stretch of the A470 between Trawsfynydd and Bronaber runs through the dense conifer plantations of Coed y Brenin and skirts the eastern edge of Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park, terrain well suited to a large, elusive predator moving unseen between cover.
This sighting has been added to our interactive map.
*Due to a technical issue, sightings between January 2023 and June 2026 are not displayed on the map. Going forward, all sightings will be recorded on this map system and we are working to import the missing sightings.
Most recently, a tourist in nearby Llan Ffestiniog spotted a black panther from their Airbnb, well within the territorial range of a single animal to Trawsfynydd. This part of Gwynedd already sits within an established sighting hotspot: reports have come from nearby Blaenau Ffestiniog, where a wild camper described golden eyes reflected in a head torch, and from Snowdon itself, where hikers on the Pyg Track reported hearing a growl and later spotted a “brown or tawny big cat”.
We’ve also been told about an animal rescue at Arenig, between Bala and Trawsfynydd, allegedly raising four puma kittens back in 1994.
Puma Watch has also logged a cluster of big cat reports across Snowdonia in recent years, reinforcing the pattern of sightings in this upland corridor.
Big cats such as pumas and panthers are solitary animals with a hunting range covering dozens of miles, and while most reports in Wales cluster around Snowdonia and the Clwydian hills, sightings further afield are becoming increasingly common. When exotic pets, including big cats, were banned under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976, it remained legal for owners to release them into the countryside rather than pay for expensive rehoming or licensing, until a further act was passed in 1981. Many owners travelled to remote areas of Wales to release their animals, and small but resilient populations are believed to have persisted in the region ever since.
If you’ve seen a big cat, you can report your sighting via our online form.