A driver says he is 100% sure he saw a big cat running across a West Country field. Jason Scriven was so shocked when he spotted a 'huge black object' running along hedgerows in the Forest of Dean on Thursday morning (June 1) that he called the police.
The 30-year-old from Tetbury said he has no doubt it was a big cat that he saw as he drove from Whitecroft towards Lydney at around 10.50am. He said the creature had a "very distinctive long tail", reports Gloucestershire Live.
Jason, who works as a vehicle breakdown and accident recovery driver, said: "I even pulled over in the road to try and get some pics but it was gone so within seconds. I phoned the police because I didn’t know if it’s something that would need reporting."
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He said he had seen big cats before in Minchinhampton when he was around 12 or 13. He added: "100% I do believe big cats are out there, and today just confirmed it even more so I’ve never seen it so clearly, and it’s near where they’ve been spotted before"
"Without a shadow of a doubt it was the big cat! The black one."
"I usually carry my drone with me but today I didn’t! Could’ve got some good myth-busting footage."
Speaking of the encounter when he was a child, Jason added: "We both attempted to scare it and run towards it but it turned towards us so we pegged it home."
Recent DNA from a black hair sample, snagged on a fence at a Gloucestershire farm, was found to have 99 per cent chance it was a black leopard. It is back panthers which make up the majority of accounts of big cat sightings.
Farmers, dog walkers and train conductors have all retold their accounts of the moment they claim to have spotted a big cat roaming the West Country.
Some have seen the strange creature on more than one occasion, others have described the blood-curdling moment they were stalked by what they believe was a panther or puma.
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