A motorcyclist exploring the mountain roads above Colwyn Bay was stopped in his tracks after witnessing a large black animal moving at extraordinary speed up a hillside. The sighting took place on an unspecified mountain road above Colwyn Bay at around 8:30 PM on Sunday, 15th June 2023.
Josh told Puma Watch: “I know it’s 3 years later but I didn’t know this was a thing. I was riding my motorbike around Colwyn Bay and I took a random road that brought me through the mountains when I was riding I seen this large black (thing) sprinting up the mountain sideways. I stopped the bike and it just disappeared but I thought to myself there’s only one animal that can run like that. It was low to the ground and moving so fast.”
Colwyn Bay sits at the foot of a range of hills which have long been considered prime territory for big cat activity in North Wales. The Bryn Cadno and Colwyn Heights areas, which rise steeply above the town, have produced multiple sightings over the years — including two separate reports on the same day in May 2022, and a driver who captured video footage of a large dark shape moving up a hillside in the Colwyn Bay area in 2023. The mountain terrain above the town, with its remote ridgelines and wooded gullies, would provide ample cover and hunting range for a large solitary predator.
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.
When big cats were banned as pets under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act of 1976, 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 are believed to have thrived ever since.
Any further sightings can be reported to us via our online form.