A member of the public has reported an animal they believe was a puma walking alone through a field between Moelfre and Llanallgo on Anglesey.
The “light beige/grey lion-type colour” creature was spotted in a field on the left-hand side of the A5025 when approaching the Moelfre / A5108 roundabout, heading North towards Amlwch. The sighting occurred around 8:30 PM on Saturday 17th July and was reported to us later that same evening.
The witness, who asked to be identified only as A. Rose, told us: “I was on the bus heading toward Amlwch. I saw the cat in a field on the left. It was walking through the empty field alone at a relaxed pace.
“It clearly wasn’t a dog or any other animal you’d expect to find locally because of the way it was moving.
“It had a flattish face with no visible snout as you’d find in a dog of that size and it had a very long tail which was curving up at the end. It was large, bigger than a German shepherd in height.
“I didn’t believe what I was seeing and did a quick internet search for big cat sightings. Straight away I found an article from a day ago where people reported seeing a cat fitting the description of the one I had seen, which confirmed for me that I had actually seen a big cat and that they are in the area.
“Surprisingly close to a residential area and very close to fields with sheep.”
Less than a week after this sighting, a family at Penrhos Nature Reserve near Holyhead encountered a “large, silver-black cat” on a path through the woods. Their 5-year-old son said the animal was so big its head would have been level with his neck.
Earlier that same month, just a few miles away, multiple walkers spotted a suspected puma hanging from trees at The Dingle in Llangefni.
There have been previous sightings of big cats on the island of Anglesey. Around a year ago, a suspected puma was spotted near Cemlyn by a fisherman.
Another resident has reported a big cat has been turning their Rottweiler “into a big baby” for years while walking on the island.
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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.
