A Mostyn resident has reported spotting a big cat outside their home at around 1:15 AM this morning, Thursday 23rd September.
The householder checked his cameras after hearing noises from outside.
Lewis told Puma Watch: “I heard noises coming from outside, I decided to check the cameras and I spotted that.
“I thought nothing of it at first but decided to snap a picture via the camera app anyway.
“I checked it again about half an hour later and it was gone.”
It’s not the first time big cats have been spotted in the area. We previously shared a terrifying tale of a big cat mauling a large dog near Mostyn Docks, along with multiple sightings at nearby Whitford and Abakhan Fabrics.
And a few miles away in Holywell, a big cat was caught on CCTV by staff at a supported living accommodation several times within a few days back in July. In June, a black panther was spotted along the coast in Rhyl.
A suspected puma was also spotted few miles away at Rhuallt Hill back in January. Footprints were also found in Meliden over winter, with many other nearby sightings featured on our interactive map.
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.
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