‘There's more than one big cat in Derbyshire' says expert - as new thermal footage shows 'confident cat' hunting in the Peak District

Recently Derbyshire has seen several reports of big cat sightings including a YouTuber recording a growling sound, teenage campers getting footage of a ‘big cat eating its prey’ and a former railway worker speaking about his encounter with a black panther which followed him for a mile.

The sightings created controversy, but Rick Minter, who runs BIG CAT CONVERSATIONS podcast and is author of a book BIG CATS Facing Britain’s Wild Predators believes the animals have been in Derbyshire for a long time.

He said: “Large cats like black panthers and tan coloured pumas have been reported by people in Derbyshire for several decades, not just in recent months. Across Britain, many witnesses describe the cat as confident, sleek and fit, which suggests they are breeding and conditions suit them. In fact the range of footage taken to date suggests there may be more than one cat in this area.

“Many people have reported sightings and feel that others won't believe them so they keep it to themselves. People fear and ridicule. That's one of the challenges of the subject. I think recently more people have got confident about reporting them because reports spilled on reports - somebody might not feel they are the odd one out and speak about it.

“But media reports are just a tip of the iceberg. My view is that there have been these cats out there since war time when people would have had to release them because they didn’t have meat to feed them. There was a time when they were trophy pets and collectible animals and I believe there were several episodes of releases of them, which broadens the gene base of cats we have now.”

Rick believes that recent thermal footage taken in Derbyshire confirms how confident big cats feel in the area. During the latest episode of his podcast Rick has spoken to a man named Don who recorded a thermal video showing a ‘confident’ big cat, in the area where teenagers claimed to have had a recent sighting. Videos and photos can be seen on the podcast website.

Rick said: “Some people said the boys had miss-sighted a black cow. But there was a dead ram with a black head where the boys' footage was recorded. And Don went to the area and there were no cows, no cow pats. I think what they saw was likely a large black cat and most likely a black leopard.”

Don soon recorded his thermal footage of a big cat which appears to be very confident, which Rick believes shows the cat knows exactly what it's doing.

"It knows how to seek prey with minimal energy and minimal effort, which means it knows that environment,” he said.

“The cat is keeping to its own environment and away from people. In one of the clips we see that even when the camera mount was bumped, the cat hears the sound from quite a distance, looks up surprised, and swiftly bounds away to keep to itself.

“This footage confirms that big cats forage for very small prey, as well as act as a stealthy ambush predator pursuing large prey like deer. By patrolling through pasture the cat can snaffle rodents with minimal effort. When seeking large prey it could spend much time positioning itself to rush at a deer but it might often fail to bring one down. The foraging that we see in this footage is guaranteed some rewards.”

Rick believes that the majority of big cats keep to themselves, like the one on the video, and are very not likely to attack humans, but he advised against going out and looking for them.

He said: “I think there is a very low number of them and chances of encountering one are really remote. We've had these cats around for decades, and they seem to be behaving themselves. It is better to leave them to themselves and allow people like Don to record their footage and find out more about their behaviour.

“If you see a big cat don't act like prey. When a cat is observing a deer or other animal which is potentially a prey, it is looking for the one that's going to provide the least risk of injury. So if it thinks it's going to get injured in a confrontation, it won't strike. This is why you shouldn’t act submissive, weak and scared but confident and authoritative, without aggravating the cat and slowly back off.”

Looking at the reports over the years, Rick believes that there are three species of big cats which live across England, including Derbyshire - black leopard, which is about three quarters of the sightings, the tan coloured Puma, also called Cougar Mountain Lion, which is makes up most of the other sightings,and about five per cent of reports are lynx type cats.

Rick said: “Almost all of the reports are of cats which are fit and that all suggests that they have adapted here, they are breeding, they know their environment, they're not fresh out of captivity. Britain doesn’t have any extreme temperatures and there’s plenty of deer, rabbits, pigeons, and small prey.”

He added: “If people who happen to see a big cat report to local media it does help the bigger picture. If we get these reports and the sightings we find out about the colour, condition and behaviour of the cats. Having these observations is very useful and important.”