Oxfordshire Big Cats - March 2005

The Beast of Burford returns...

The third week of March 2005 saw a number of 'big cat' reports and items in the Oxfordshire papers; specifically this time the 'Beast of Burford'... sightings of such cats have been sporadic for at least 15 years in West Oxfordshire.

Several reports from the Burford (West Oxfordshire) area of a large black cat (as usual mis-named a 'black leopard') heightened fears that the Cotswold Wildlife at Burford had in fact lost one of their animals (as a volunteer at a wildlife centre, I struggle to think how anyone can conceive that a wildlife park wouldn't notice such a loss!)

The speculation lead to the Cotswold Wildlife Park offering a £5000 'bounty' for the successful capture by Easter of a genuine large cat (not exactly a job for the amateur!) and not a large feral mancoon cat.  This form of bounty caused an understandable concern amongst local residents and animal lovers, with the thoughts of gangs of gun-toting hunters in off-road vehicles roaming the area firing at anything that moves - anyone who doubts the dangers of these gun-toting idiots in rural areas hasn't been out at night!

As we report this on 2 April, no cat was reported to have been seen or captured...

Another Encounter at Wittenham Clumps?

In 2004 we received a report not of a sighting, but a 'hearing' of what sounded like a large cat in the woods below Wittenham Clumps nature reserve - not as unlikely an area as might be thought, with sheep regularly grazed on the nature reserve.

The night of 2 April may have given us more evidence.  Our witness (well-known to APRA researchers and now something of a serial Big Cat spotter) had been on a lone-skywatch on Castle Hill (one of the two hills that make up Wittenham).  It was a wonderful still and clear night, but with the sounds of nature easily heard.  Just after 1.00am, fairly loud growling/roaring emanated from the woods down towards the river - this did not sound like any 'natural' sound of native British wildlife, and sounded like big cats at a zoo. 

As our witness was listening, a second growling was then heard some way to his right, i.e. towards the Southeast of the initial sound; and two distinctly separate sources of the growling were heard.  Big Cats tend not to be social, certainly pumas and leopards are solitary, so its seems unlikely that two were present, unless the growling etc was part of a territorial 'dispute'?

The witness decided that maybe being alone on the hillside at that time may not have been a great idea; he made his way back to his car and started to drive home.  He hadn't gone more than 400m, where the road narrows into a cutting, and bends sharply, only for a large dark cat-like animal to bound down the slope on his left, across the road, and up the other bank and out of sight...  The witness is certain this was a puma.