(Original headline: ON CALL TO SNAP UP EVIDENCE OF MYSTERY BIG CAT ON THE PROWL )
Their existence may divide opinion, but one West woman believes her mobile phone has captured more evidence of a big cat on the prowl in the region. Katharine Midgley, 27, from Hartpury, has taken images of a paw print in the soft earth of a remote area of Gloucestershire near Pauntley. She came across them while out walking her dog Brecon.
"Something spooked him and he was barking at something, " she explained. "I think he may have actually seen something, but it was too dark for me to see anything. He ran back to the car.
"I could smell the big cat smell you can smell in a zoo, a bit like ammonia."
So Miss Midgley, who looks after horses at Hartpury College, returned to the scene the next day.
She said: "When I went back the next day I found these footprints and decided to photograph them on my mobile phone."
While some experts believe some of the prints might be a large dog, Gloucester big cat hunter Frank Tunbridge is more hopeful. He said the latest evidence is the best he has seen.
"The print is extremely close to that of a black panther, " said Mr Tunbridge, who has been gathering a dossier on big cats for the past 30 years.
"Just look at the size of it compared to Katharine's hand. It's a large animal that's responsible for that, not a domestic cat. It is one of the most conclusive prints of a big cat in the British Isles."
Along with other information Katharine has supplied, like the smell and her dog's reaction, Mr Tunbridge said he was convinced it was strong evidence of a big cat prowling the fields and woods in the area.
Big cats are elusive - difficult creatures to spot. They are nocturnal, fearful of human contact and have access to enough prey, in the form of rabbits, game birds, lambs and small mammals, to survive easily. There is growing evidence of big cats hunting in the West. Late last year, tests showed hair found at a big cat sighting in south Wales belonged to a puma-like creature.
The British Big Cat Society says big cats are breeding, travel 30 miles a night and are the descendants of cats released by unscrupulous owners during the crackdown on dangerous pets in the 1970s. Sightings have been reported near Mitcheldean, in the Forest of Dean, Coombe Hill nature reserve, near Gloucester, and at Kent's Green, near Newent.
But Natalie Beecham, deputy chief executive for the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, said: "There's no evidence whatsoever apart from people's sightings.
"That's not to say they don't exist. We've never been taken to a site where we've found proof like a carcass or faeces. It's still very much a myth or trick of the eye."
