Big cat sightings
Freedom of Information Act Request No: 22/3169
Version Date: 09/02/2022
- In relation to the 2021 calendar year, on how many occasions were the police informed that there had been a sighting of a ‘big cat’, i.e. a wild cat, which was significantly larger than a domestic cat and was thought could have been a puma, leopard, lynx or other large member of the cat species?
Could you please state how many of the sightings were confirmed to be
(a) false,
(b) true or
(c) unable to be confirmed one way or the other.
- In relation to the last three sightings that you logged in 2021, please provide me with a summary of the sighting. This should include
(i) what was alleged to have been seen,
(ii) the location of the sighting and
(iii) what if any police response there was to the sighting.
The Performance & Analysis Department have provided the following information:
Data Source:
- Data taken from the STORM incident recording system
Data Processing:
- Filtered by date: January 1st 2021 to December 31st 2021
- A free text search of the Brief Incident details and the Incident Report on STORM was then undertaken for the key words/phrases listed below.
- Keywords search for are "Big Cat", "Puma", "Panther", "Tiger", "Beast", "Black Cat", "Large Cat", “lynx”, "Wild Cat" or "Cheetah".
Data Limitations/
Free text searches rely on the words/phrases searched for being included in the brief incident details or the incident report and being spelt correctly. A free text search doesn’t include the context in which the word/ phrase is used therefore it may not be being used in the context requested.
The incidents have to be manually read to identify the context and remove the main uses of the key words/phrases that are out of the context required:
- Ford Puma (the make and model of car)
- Puma the clothing brand (i.e. hoodies, trainers etc)
- Black Cat Junction/Area (a location in Devon)
- Tiger Taxis, Tiger Bills (a pub) etc.
- Tattoos of Tiger, Panther, Puma etc.
|
Incident Date |
Location |
Area |
Summary |
Attended |
|
Jan 2021 |
Torrington |
Devon |
Seen 20 mins ago. Caller believes it was a black panther. Animal approx. 3ft long. Long slender body. Jumped 6-7ft high hedge |
Yes |
|
Jun 2021 |
Helston |
Cornwall |
Caller saw a loose American bobcat/lynx yesterday at approx. 09:00. Caller was walking down a pathway when she saw the cat sitting bolt up in front of her, she turned and walked away and the cat vanished. No further sightings. |
No |
|
Aug 2021 |
Starcross |
Devon |
Caller reporting a sighting of a very, very large black cat which crossed the road in front of their car and jumped over a massive hedge. The cat was bigger than a Labrador dog. It jumped over a hedge that was at last 7ft tall. |
No |
|
Nov 2021 |
South Molton |
Devon |
Caller believes he saw a lion around 20 - 30 minutes ago. Spoke to Exmoor zoo and it’s not from there. All big cats at Coombe Martin wildlife and Dinosaur Park are accounted for. Caller updated and details appended |
Yes |
|
Dec 2021 |
Redruth |
Cornwall |
Caller saw a very large big black cat. This big black cat was huge and did not look like a domestic cat, it looked more like a panther and walked like one too |
No |