Welsh Government Traffic Officers were sent to look for a mountain lion that had been spotted on a bridge crossing a major road.
Information was not released to the public at the time of the sighting, which took place about 10 years ago, but has now been disclosed to Puma Watch under the Freedom of Information Act.
The reported big cat was presumably spotted by someone travelling on the motorway, but this hasn’t been confirmed. We do know that the sighting was passed to Traffic Wales, the public-facing brand of the Welsh Government’s Strategic Road Network Division, by South Wales Police at 14:12 on Tuesday 21st April 2016 and that Traffic Officers arrived on scene within 15 minutes at 14:26.
The mountain lion was seen on the Llantrisant Road overbridge between junctions 32 and 33 of the M4, a short distance from Moto Cardiff West motorway services. Traffic Officers completed a search of both directions of motorway between the junctions, which was called off at 14:50 after they failed to find the reported animal.
The Welsh Government’s readiness to send officers to the M4 in 2016 reflects a long-standing, if rarely publicised, official awareness of potential big cats in Wales. The previous administration told us: “the Welsh Labour Government has a long-standing, evidence-based approach to alleged sightings of big cats in Wales, which it keeps under review” and that “it is important that any alleged sightings are reported promptly to the Government’s Wildlife Team, as well as Natural Resources Wales, so that they can be properly investigated.”
In the build up to the 2026 Senedd election, Welsh Labour committed to introducing a devolved, legislative update to the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976. This previous legislation is widely said to have contributed to the presence of big cats in Wales today, when owners unable to comply with the requirements of the act chose to release their pets in the Welsh countryside.
This sighting has been added to our interactive map.
*Due to a technical issue, sightings between January 2023 and June 2026 are not displayed on the map. Going forward, all sightings will be recorded on this map system and we are working to import the missing sightings.
The M4 between Junctions 32 (Tongwynlais/Coryton) and 33 (Capel Llanilltern, Cardiff West) passes through the northern fringes of Cardiff, skirting the Taff Valley and the wooded hillsides of Tongwynlais, terrain well-suited to a large predator seeking cover. This stretch of road is surrounded by fields and small villages on either side and does not run through Cardiff’s urban sprawl.
The Taff Valley corridor connects to the upland areas of the South Wales valleys, which could provide a natural route for a wide-ranging animal moving between rural and semi-urban landscapes.
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.
This is our first published sighting in the Cardiff area, with our map featuring sightings further west in Pembrokeshire and across the Severn Estuary near Bristol. However, multiple big cat sightings closer to Cardiff have been reported in the media.
Any further sightings can be reported to us via our online form.
