IT has long been suspected that big cats, whether it be the panther, puma or lynx, are at large in the UK, but what sightings have there been in Devon and Cornwall? Let’s find out.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted to Devon and Cornwall Police revealed that, since January 1, 2021, there has been 13 reports of big cat sightings.

In January 2021, a caller reported seeing what they believed to be a black panther in Torrington.

The animal, described to be around 3ft in length and of slender body, jumped over a 7ft high hedge.

In South Molton, a person phoned the police claiming to have seen a lion.

Officers checked with Exmoor Zoo, who reported lions on the loose.

And all of Coombe Martin Wildlife and Dinosaur Park’s big cats were accounted for.

In August 2022, a caller walking along a single track road in rural Kingsbridge claimed to have seen a puma.

And in the very same month, an Exminster caller was ‘adamant’ that they saw a ‘tiger sized black cat’, which they thought to be a panther.

In Plymouth, again in August 2022, a report of a black wildcat the size of a puma was made to police.

The remaining sightings were reported in Cornwall, with sightings in Tregony, Redruth, Helston and elsewhere.

There is no native population of big cats living in the UK, but there have been rare isolated incidents of recovered individual animals, often medium-sized species such as the Eurasian lynx.

In 1980 there was a case where a puma was captured alive in Scotland.

Often it is the case that these animals were once kept as exotic pets and either escaped or were purposefully released.