Original headline:
Big Cat On The Prowl Again
A big cat resembling a puma has been spotted prowling along the edge of a field in Princes Risborough.
Staff at furniture manufacturers Ercol have told how they watched the jet black animal for more than 15 minutes as it skulked by a hedge near the factory last month.
First to spot it was Steve Lomas, 39, Ercol's project co-ordinator, who said: "It was around 8.30 on a clear frosty morning. From the top of our portable office we saw a big black cat crouching very low along the furrows about 30 or 40ft away. It was looking back at us and then it disappeared into the hedge."
Brian Wratten, 55, Ercol's fleet manager, added: "It was jet black much bigger than a cat. I would put money on it being some kind of puma."
Efforts to capture the animal on film were unsuccessful when the batteries in one worker's camera failed as he tried to take a picture.
Mr Lomas investigated the field after the creature disappeared, and found animal tracks. "I measured the distance between the front and back legs and it was the length of my golf club," he said.
Many zoologists are convinced Britain has had a healthy, growing population of lynxes, leopards, pumas, ocelots, and jungle cats for decades but that their numbers increased significantly in the late 1970s when the Dangerous Wild Animals Act forced many people to get rid of exotic pets.
Sightings of big cats in Buckinghamshire have been frequent over the years, leading to the legend of the Beast of Bucks.
In May 2001, members of the Wycombe Heights Golf Club reported seeing a large cat. Experts confirmed that tracks found matched those of a young puma.
Two weeks later a half-eaten deer, thought to have been killed by a big cat, was found in Gomm Road, High Wycombe.
In 1994, two women were walking their dogs on Hughenden playing field when they were confronted by an animal described as being 5ft long with a cat-like face and a long tail.
The Hughenden Puma as it became known has been spotted on numerous occasions in an area stretching from Upper Dean to the northern outskirts of High Wycombe.
Last year was the busiest for big cat sightings and close encounters with exotic wild animals in Britain. More than 1,000 were reported to the British Big Cat Society, based in Dartmoor.
