(Original Headline: Panther returns for two visits )
TWO more sightings of a black panther in Harpenden have come to light in the past month.
On both occasions the big cat was seen by the same person, Mark Dalton, of Ayres End Lane, but the second time he was with his fiancee Rebecca Purssey.
The sightings occurred shortly after dog walker Sarah Adams and her daughter saw what she was convinced was a black panther in a field off Bowers Heath Lane, Harpenden, last month. It was crouched on a hill ahead of them and they got close enough to it to see that it had yellow eyes.
The first time Mark saw the panther, he was walking his dog and it was at the back of Harpenden Common golf course near his home. He said: "The dog and I stopped quite abruptly. It was the size of a Doberman and I thought it was a dog at first but it moved like a cat, slinking through the undergrowth."
The second time Mark and Rebecca saw the big cat, it was on the golf course itself. Each sighting occurred at about 6.30pm and although it was dusk, it had not got dark.
Mark added: "On both occasions I stood completely still and it went off into the distance."
Phil Worth of the Welwyn-based Cat Survival Trust said at the time Sarah saw the black cat that if she thought it was a panther, it probably was. He advised anyone seeing one to stand completely still and not stare into its eyes but he added: "I don't know anyone who has been attacked by one yet.
