A fisherman and his partner have reported spotting a large black cat, which they believe to be a puma, at the coarse fishing lakes of Conwy Water Gardens, near Rowen on the evening of April 30, 2026.
Andrew told Puma Watch: “Was fishing on the lake and on the other side me and my partner saw a large black cat much bigger than a domestic cat walking along the path with a bird of some sort in its mouth. When it saw us it started to move a lot faster. I am sure it wasn’t a domestic cat. I thought it was a dog at first about the size of a small Labrador, was looking for someone walking it until I realised it was a cat of some sort.”
Conwy Water Gardens sits within the Snowdonia National Park in the scenic Conwy Valley, near Rowen, and its woodland-fringed fishing lakes, surrounded by natural farmland and forest, provide ideal cover for a large predator. The Conwy Valley and the wider North Wales region have produced a significant number of big cat sighting reports over the years, and a woman living in Conwy previously phoned police after seeing a “black panther” on her garden fence. North Wales big cats are mostly spotted in Snowdonia and the Clwydian hills, but sightings in valley locations, such as this one, are not uncommon.
Under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976, it became illegal to keep big cats such as pumas as pets in the UK without a licence. It is widely believed that many owners released their animals into the wild rather than comply with the law or have them destroyed, and that a population of these cats, or their descendants, continues to roam the Welsh countryside to this day.
Have you seen a big cat in North Wales or elsewhere in the UK? Report your sighting here.