A fourth sighting of a big cat along a short stretch of the A5 road has been reported. Last week, we shared reports of a big cat caught on camera at Cefn Mawr, before being spotted again at Chirk McDonald’s just over an hour later, and then at the A5’s disused Oswestry level crossing the next day.
Claire Evans was driving along the A5 with her sister at around 3:20am one morning around three weeks ago – the same week the previous sightings above occurred.
As they approached the Whittington Road roundabout, which is the next junction along from the level crossing sighting, they both spotted a stockily-built cat with orange eyes sat beneath a large green road sign and: “turned to look at each other in total shock”.
The animal, described as a bobcat, lynx or puma, was sat on its hind legs, just under the cover of the hedges, and “seemed relaxed”. Claire said: “I just get the feeling he was completely comfortable with the surroundings and definitely wasn’t new to the area”.
Claire told Puma Watch: “I’ve literally just been reading about the sightings of a large cat in the Oswestry and Chirk areas. My sister and I were late-night driving, around 3 weeks ago, it was around 3.20 am and as we were approaching the Oswestry/Whittington roundabout on the A5 Road.
“We both happened to look to the left (just under the huge green road signs) & albeit briefly for just a few seconds we BOTH seen the exact same thing as each other!
“[We] turned to look at each other in total shock as if to say “did you just see that” and thank bloody god she did.
“There’s quite thick hedgerow along that road and whatever it was, [it] was literally sat down, watching us watching him.
“[It] definitely wasn’t a domestic cat nor a dog, way too big for it to be either. The eyes were an orange colour, and under the brief lighting that we had, I just knew it was a light sandy colour. I almost want to say ‘like a tabby effect’ but not too obvious.
“The head was large and stubby with quite pointed ears (almost like a little extra hair on the tips of them maybe). It wasn’t overly huge but definitely built stockier than any domestic animal.
“Now if I’d have seen it when I was alone I’d probably of convinced myself it was anything but a wild cat, but for my sister to see the exact same description as me, at the exact same time? I simply cannot argue with that.
“First thing that came to my head when I seen it was ‘bobcat’ but I don’t think we have those in the UK but I want to stick with bobcat/lynx or puma as the closest I can get to describing what we saw, as in build, colour and features such as pointing ears etc.”
“I just want to mention that it was sat on its hind legs, just under cover of the hedges, not way back into them, it seemed relaxed so to speak?
“Just from how it was sat, watching the world go by, and that distinct tired cat slow blink. I just get the feeling he was completely comfortable with the surroundings & definitely wasn’t new to the area.”
The previously reported sightings along the A5 described a black animal, though some were uncertain due to the lighting. To the South of these sightings, a tawny-coloured animal was spotted in the Shropshire Hills last month.
Big cats have also been spotted just a few miles away from Cefn Mawr and Chirk along the Dee Valley. Upstream towards Llangollen, we’ve shared reports of a big cat spotted from a canal boat, at Valle Crucis Abbey and on the Horseshoe Pass towards Llandegla. A “black animal” with a “long tail and orange eyes” was spotted in Wrexham just last month. Big cats have also been spotted in Wrexham County’s village of Penley.
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.
