A Frodsham resident has captured a black big cat that is sprinting across a field under video surveillance.
The incident happened on March 18th and Chris, a Frodsham resident, told North Wales Puma Watch: “We found a dead chicken late in the morning and then around 6:20 am we saw a mysterious black animal in our paddock.
The chicken body was found along the way this animal is taking and some footprints have been left as well. It’s black and too big to be a house cat. “
The animal appears about 18 seconds later in the top right of the video. A close-up then shows the animal again about 50 seconds later.
The animal appears way too big and too fast to be a pet. Sightings follow at nearby Ellesmere Port, Ince Marshes and Whitby Park.
Several sightings have also been made in Chester in recent months, including when a similar animal was caught on camera in Chester Meadows and an animal was spotted behind Asda twice that same night.
Cheshire police said they are investigating whether “a larger predator” is responsible for a number of sheep murders and said “a large black cat-type animal” had been discovered nearby.
A large cat was spotted on video surveillance in Frodsham
(Image: North Wales Puma PM)
Big cats like pumas are solitary animals with a hunting range of tens of kilometers. They are mainly sighted in Snowdonia and the Clwydian Hills, but reports of sightings in urban areas some distance from these areas are becoming more common.
As seen with Llandundo’s now famous goats roaming the city’s deserted streets during the coronavirus lockdowns, the decreased human activity over the past year is likely to encourage big cats to continue to roam the hills to more populous areas.
When big cats were banned as pets in the 1970s, it was legal to release them into the countryside to avoid expensive rehabilitation costs. Owners from across the UK have traveled to areas like Wales to release their cats in the remote environment, which has since thrived in small but significant populations.
Also earlier this month, a man from London was fined after neighbors discovered he was keeping an African wildcat in his home. He bought the animal from an unlicensed Russian company. The man had previously been reported to authorities but had told them he did not own the animal before he was eventually caught in the act.
It is likely that many illegal owners would release such animals into the UK countryside in similar situations. This predominant underground trade, now fueled by Instagram and social media, could go a long way towards explaining why so many big cat sightings are now reported.
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