A resident of Llandrindod Wells, Powys, has reported witnessing what appeared to be a leopard-sized animal jump from a garden tree and over a wall on the evening of Thursday, 16th April 2026.
David told Puma Watch: “Was in the middle of closing window blind last Thursday around 8:20pm and saw a leopard size silhouette jump down from garden tree to over the wall.”
David’s sighting comes following other big cat encounters in South Wales. Other recent sightings include a large black cat with yellow eyes confronting a dog walker in woodland in Carmarthenshire, and a black ‘panther’ reportedly stalking walkers and attacking a sheep at Trefil Quarry in Blaenau Gwent — reported on the same evening as David’s sighting.
Llandrindod Wells sits in the heart of Powys, Mid Wales, surrounded by rolling hills and the Cambrian Mountains — terrain considered highly suitable for large, wide-ranging predators. The area has a history of big cat reports in Mid Wales, with a sighting recorded as far back as 2003 with armed police staking out “puma-like creatures”, and more recently a trail camera in a Mid Wales forest capturing an unidentified four-legged creature that some speculated could be a big cat or lynx.
The Dangerous Wild Animals Act of 1976 made it illegal to keep big cats such as leopards and pumas without a licence. Prior to the Act coming into force, a number of exotic animals were kept as private pets across the UK, and it is widely believed that many were released into the wild rather than their owners paying for the required licences. It is these animals, and their descendants, that are thought to account for the big cat sightings reported across the British Isles to this day.
Have you seen a big cat in your area? Report your sighting at pumawatch.co.uk/report
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