A member of the public has reported seeing a big cat on Heswall’s Whitfield Common last night, calling it a “very frightening experience”. It comes just over two weeks since an animal matching the same description was seen limping down a residential street in the town.
Jon Devoy was walking his dog at around 9:30 PM on Monday 1st September when he spotted the “black, large cat” near the trees. After stopping to get a better look, he kept cool and calmly left the area while keeping the animal in his sights.
Jon told Puma Watch: “Was walking the dog, didn’t suspect anything was up as the dog was acting as she usually does.
“I saw a large black silhouette in the tree line (perhaps the size of a fairly big dog). I stopped to get a better look and could see, fairly clearly, that it was a large cat.
“I know you’re meant to keep your cool in these situations so I slowly walked away whilst keeping my eye on it and it followed in the treeline.
“My dog was oblivious to the whole thing, fortunately, I was near the exit and so exited the park area and made it home safely.
“The experience was very frightening and I’ll be walking my dog in very residential areas from now on.
“I thought I was going mad as I didn’t think the UK had big cats but I googled and found this site which has vindicated me.”
Previous sighting nearby
Whitfield Common, where Jon encountered the animal, is just a few minutes walk from the location of a previous sighting when Terry spotted what he believes was a ‘puma’ limping down Kestrel Road at 2:30 AM on Sunday 15th August.
At the time, he told Puma Watch: “I heard a cry like cats fighting.
“I saw a large cat about the size of a German shepherd dog walking down the road.
“It was limping on the rear left leg.”
Previous sightings of big cats on the Wirral include Willaston, Prenton, Bidston Hill and Burton Woods.
The most recent occurred at around 7:15 AM on Wednesday 21st June 2021. Peter was using the Wirral Way cycle path when he spotted an all-black cat, the size of a German Shepherd, run down the embankment on his approach to the Damhead Lane bridge.
He told Puma Watch: “Out on morning cycle from Willaston to Neston direction.
“Approached Damhead Lane bridge when a very large cat ran down the bank, at which point I veered off to the right and the cat shot back up the bank and away.
“The cat was about the same size as a German shepherd dog, all black and without doubt, it was a cat.
“Extremely frightened and couldn’t believe it. A little scared to go back out in the morning.”
Big cats have also been spotted in Ellesmere Port’s Whitby Park and behind the nearby Costco store this year. A few miles away, Chester has become a big cat hotspot in its own right. This includes one occasion where an animal was caught on camera on Chester Meadows by a delivery driver.
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.
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 over the last year is encouraging big cats to roam further from the hills into more populated areas.
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.
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.
