Published Date: 09 March 2010
SIGHTINGS of big cats roaming the countryside have long been a source of interest for ramblers and dog walkers.
North of Hartlepool is a hotspot area, say the experts.
Ecologist Ian Bond has been recording sightings in the region for the past 10 years.
Reporter RICHARD MENNEAR caught up with him to find out more.
IAN Bond is busy building up the big picture.
He’s gathering as much information he can on the creatures which hold so much intrigue.
“What fascinates me most,” says the Hartlepool Borough Council ecologist, “is that there is so much that we don’t know about big cats.”
The 50-year-old, who has been in the job for the past six years, is secretary of the Northumbria Mammal Group.
His role involves recording sightings and writing a column for their quarterly newsletter in a bid to keep other enthusiasts up to speed.
Over the past 10 years there have been 150 sightings of big cats in the North-East in an area ranging from Guisborough to Berwick.
They are thought to stem back to the release of such animals into the wild in the 1970s after they were outlawed as pets.
The married dad-of-two, who lives in Darlington, said: “I write a column called Big Cat Diaries in the quarterly newsletter, which basically reports all of the sightings in the North East over that period.
“We get between three and six reports every few months so there is plenty to write about.
“There are three areas in particular where we have the most sightings; Hexham, the North Yorkshire Moors and north of Hartlepool including the Trimdon area and the Hart to Haswell walkway.”
Ian is careful not to be to specific about the exact location of sightings in case people go on to private land in a bid to track them down.
Over the past 18 months panthers have been reported on the Hart to Haswell walkway and in a farmer’s field to the north of the town.
Ian said: “Last January, I received a report from a couple of men working on a JCB in a farmer’s field. They had spotted what appeared to be a large black panther, the size of a Great Dane, walking across the field the way a cat does.
“Last summer, somebody was out jogging with their dog on the Hart to Haswell walkway when they spotted a large cat that had run off ahead of them.
“I also had another sighting of a large black cat eating a sheep, on land west of the A19, last summer.”
The vast majority of sightings in this part of the country are believed to be panthers and Ian says it is very rare that he gets a report of a puma.
He said: “The majority are panthers and in the past 10 years I have probably had around 10 reports of something resembling a puma and around five or six reports of a lynx.”
Panthers are the same height as a Labrador, black with a long muscular body, while pumas are the same size and shape but are a sandy brown colour.
A lynx is much smaller, the size of a Boxer dog, but has long legs and they are grey with spots.
The Northumbria Mammal Group has 70 members across the region and they focus on everything from big cats to bats, rabbits and hares.
Ian’s passion though is big cats and he doesn’t have to go out of his way to look for them.
He said: “I am aware of around 150 sightings but I don’t go out of my way to look for them, it is more people making me aware of what they have seen and me collecting newspaper clippings.
“The question is not whether or not they are out there, that question was answered for me several years ago.
“My main aim is to try to work out where they are and how many of them there are.
“What fascinates me about all mammals is what we don’t know about them and big cats are still a big mystery.”
Panthers only live for around 10 years and Ian says they have to be breeding or somebody keeps letting them loose for there to have been so many reports.
“I don’t really know what is behind all of this, whether it is just the odd cat or if there is something more to it.
“Some of the reports have been too good, too detailed, for people to have just made them up. Plus a number of the sightings have been reported by professional ecologists.
“Panthers do travel a long way but I am convinced that there is more than one out there.”
They eat deer, pheasants and rabbits and they are very adaptable creatures and Ian says they would have no problems surviving in this area.
One of the major problems in accurately keeping a check on how many big cats there are is photographic evidence.
People are often too shocked to take a picture, either on their camera if they have one to hand or on a mobile telephone.
Ian, who used to work as a countryside warden at the Castle Eden walkway, added: “It is always difficult and it would be great to get some sort of evidence but taking a picture isn’t always the first thing people think of.”
For more information or to report a sighting log on to www.bigcatsinbritain.org
