A member of the public has spotted a “jet black, huge, cat-like animal” with small ears and a long tail lurking in the bushes near Prestatyn train station on 1st May.
After spotting the creature at the side of the railway, Cathy Fox alerted North Wales Police, who told her they would request train station staff to monitor CCTV for the animal.
Cathy told Puma Watch: “I was in Prestatyn on Saturday afternoon and saw a jet black huge cat-like animal, small ears long tail, in the growth at the side of the train tracks.
“It was at Prestatyn train station. I was a passenger in the car, as we drove over the bridge over the tracks I saw it in the undergrowth.
“I’ve reported it to the police.”
North Wales Police have not yet responded to Puma Watch’s requests for comment.
Earlier this year, footprints of a suspected big cat were found in nearby Dyserth and also in hills above Meliden. There have also been multiple sightings a few miles along the coast in the Talacre area.
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.
Photo © El Pollock (cc-by-sa/2.0)