A member of the public has provided us with a detailed account of three big cat sightings in the Pwllheli and Abersoch area. Jacob and a friend first spotted an animal with a “black panther shape” near Porth Ceiriad around 25 years ago, potentially in July 2000.
Two years later, another of Jacob’s friends told him they had seen an animal matching the description in the same area. Then, in 2024, Jacob visited the Rabbit Farm at Llanstumdwy, where he was told of another encounter with a “large black feline” with “red eyes”.
Previous sightings reported to Puma Watch include three friends night fishing in Pwllheli who came face to face with a “very large cat” and a father and son who were forced to abandon their barbecue on Pwllheli’s beach when they encountered an animal matching the same description a few weeks later.
Jacob’s full account of the three historical sightings is as follows:
“Approx 25 years ago in midsummer. I had been snorkelling with a friend. We entered the water on Porth Ceiriad and swam around the headland facing St Tudwal’s Islands and left the water to walk back to the area above Porth Ceiriad where we were staying. We decided to cross the open grazing land of Cim Farm. This is a large open grazing area with fencing all round. There is dense shrubbery with ferns, heather and broom etc all round. We were slowly strolling diagonally across this field to a spot where we knew we could get over the fence.
“My friend said “what is that?” I looked and saw approx. 100m away a large black feline. It did not look like a domestic cat. It was too big and had the classic “black panther” shape. Small head, long body drooping in the middle and a long droopy tail. Only saw it for a few seconds and it jumped over the boundary fence into the dense shrubbery. It did not jump like a domestic cat but seemed to effortlessly spring upwards.
“Over the next few days I made enquiries with two local farmers who would be out and about in that area regularly. They told me they had never seen anything. This sort of deflated me but I knew what I had seen. There was no reason for me to imagine it. I was not obsessed with seeing a black panther any more than anybody else. I did submit a report to a big cat sighting site at the time but cannot remember the name of it.
“Two years later I was walking up a remote stony path in the same area with a friend. I don’t think I had told him previously about my ‘sighting; and proceeded to tell him my story. He then told me that he had seen what he believes was a large black feline walking up this same path ahead of him. He said it was much bigger than a domestic cat and jumped off the path into the surrounding shrubbery. He knew it was feline and not a large dog because he had studied the feline shape as part of his art studies.
“Anyway those sightings became a distant memory until two years ago. This takes place at Llanstumdwy( Lloyd George village) which is between Pwllheli and Criccieth. I visited the ‘“’Rabbit Farm’ zoo with my grandchildren regularly and got to know the owner quite well. He was a keen hunter. He told me that he had been out with a friend in the evening walking along the edge of a woods. The dog that was with them became very agitated and they saw a large black feline ahead of them moving into the shrubbery. They carried on walking up a lane and looked over a bank that sloped away at the side. When they looked over the bank they saw a pair of eyes ( red I think he said but not sure”) and the large black feline. Not sure what they did then…I’ll see if he will submit his own report.
“Common sense tells me that there aren’t any black panthers in the UK but I cannot explain what I saw. I would be very interested in knowing what you think. Please note that the date I have given is very much an approximation.”
Cim Farm sits on the open headland above Porth Ceiriad, a sheltered bay on the southern coast of the Llŷn Peninsula facing out towards St Tudwal’s Islands. The surrounding terrain, characterised by dense heather, ferns, bracken and broom, provides ideal cover for a large, solitary predator.
Under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976, it became illegal to keep big cats such as pumas, leopards and lynx as pets without a licence. Before the Act came into force, owners across the UK, rather than face the cost of rehoming, are believed to have released their animals into the countryside. Wales, with its remote terrain and abundant prey, is thought to have received a significant number of these releases, and small but established populations are believed to have been breeding in the wild ever since.
Have you seen a big cat? Report your sighting using our online form.