(Original Headline: Is there a panther on the prowl? )
A terrified dog walker took to her heels when she saw what she is convinced was a panther in a field near her home.
Sarah Adams and her daughter were walking her Jack Russell terriers in a field off Bowers Heath Lane, Harpenden, earlier this month when she saw the big black cat crouched on a hill ahead of them.
They got close enough to it for her daughter Ellie to see that it had yellow eyes before scooping up the dogs and running home.
Sarah has spoken out about the sighting because of concern that children might play unsuspectingly in the field where she saw the animal.
She said this week: "We always take our dogs up the fields and have been doing it for the past 20 years but I have never seen anything like that before."
Crouched
It was a bright and sunny day and they were walking up the hill when she saw the black animal in the distance. At first she thought it was a log but when she got to about 50 yards away, she pointed it out to her daughter.
"She looked and her mouth dropped open," Sarah went on. "She said what the hell is that. It was watching us as we came up the hill but we carried on because I was thinking I hope it isn't a dog injured."
When her daughter suggested it might be a wolf, they picked up the dogs and turned to run back. Said Sarah: "I find it difficult to run very far and as I was looking around, it was still crouched down and moving as though it was prowling.
"It had pointed ears and a very round face and it was much bigger than a large Rottweiler. I didn't see if it had a tail but it was black with a very long body and was crawling along the ground."
Sarah reported the sighting to Harpenden Police when she got home and they told her there had been another report in the same area a week earlier.
She added: "My concern is that children do go up there and I have never seen anything like this in my life. I am very confident that what I saw was a large black cat.
Phil Worth of the Welwyn-based Cat Survival Trust said that if Sarah was convinced she had seen a panther she probably had. "There is one out there and we have seen it on our property here."
Panthers can travel up to 30mph a night, he went on, and it could easily have been in Harpenden. "We think it is one which came from the Chorleywood or Rickmansworth area.
"She might not see it again but she may see it tomorrow or in eight weeks time. They will cross main roads and hedgerows but they don't want to tangle with human beings. The best thing to do is stand still and don't stare it in the eyes which is a threat to them but I don't know of anyone who has been attacked by one yet."
The British Big Cats Society has also asked anyone who has had any sightings or evidence of big cats to contact them via the website
www.britishbigcats.org
