Yet again, a black big cat has been caught on video in Pontybodkin, following multiple previous sightings in the area – including another caught on video back in November.
Two more sightings were reported in the Pontybodkin and Pontblyddyn areas in December. Many other sightings, such as the animal caught on video nearly 20 miles away in Trelogan this month, have been linked to the same animal by the national press, calling it the ‘Puma of Pontybodkin‘.
After Conservative MS Darren Millar called for an urgent investigation in the Welsh Parliament, we were able to eliminate the two Trelogan sightings by identifying the animal as ‘Sheldon’, a domestic cat taller who is than a child when stood on his back legs. But this latest video, filmed just yesterday, confirms the so-called ‘Puma of Pontybodkin’ is still roaming the North Wales countryside.
However, eyewitness Stephen told us they believe the animal they spotted yesterday was in fact a panther, rather than a puma.
After the encounter, which took place around 12:15pm on St. David’s Day, Stephen said: “I spotted a large black cat in the field opposite where I was walking my dog”.
In the video, Stephen can be heard saying: “That’s massive! That’s a big cat that.”
Last month, a “black, athletic-looking puma” was spotted just a few fields away as a van driver passed through the Hartshead Estate early one morning. A few days before that, another local resident, Andy, got in touch via our Facebook and told us: “I seen a big cat the other night riding home from a friend’s near Pontybodkin. It was huge and it was fast.
“Definitely was a puma or panther. Big black thing with a massive tail.”
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. A sighting was reported in Nercwys Forest earlier this month, a possible link between the Clwydian hills and the Pontybodkin / Treuddyn area.
The area has a history of sightings. Back in 2013, a resident of nearby Treuddyn spotted an all-black big cat moving through a paddock at 2:35am, while in 2006, Tiger King star Carole Baskin wrote on Big Cat Rescue’s website: “Earlier this year there were confirmed reports and prints of a puma near Treuddyn and Leeswood near Mold.”
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.
Earlier this month, Bellingcat exposed an international exotic pet trafficking operation, in which Instagram celebrities posted videos with animals including monkeys, sloths and a range of big cats, including baby tigers, cheetahs, lions and pumas. The animals were sold to buyers around the world from a base in Dubai.
Also this month, a London man was fined after neighbours spotted he was keeping an African wildcat at his home. He purchased the animal from an unlicensed Russian company. The man had previously been reported to authorities but had told them he didn’t own the animal before eventually being caught red-handed.
It’s likely that many illegal owners in similar situations would release such animals into the British countryside. This prevalent underground trade, now fuelled by Instagram and social media, could be big a big part of explaining why so many big cat sightings are now being reported.
