Is there a big cat prowling the grounds?(Image: Popperfoto via Getty Images)A big cat is stalking the country pile of King Charles and Queen Camilla. The large panther was spotted hunting a fox near Highgrove House in Tetbury – with an eye-witness claiming her three dogs spooked the beast and scared it away.
It comes after another report of a black panther being seen by the M5 in May. The sightings are being probed by big cat expert Rick Minter, whose podcast features details of close encounters including the sighting near the royal estate.
He said: “A dog walker near Tetbury watched a black panther cornering a fox at dusk.
“Her three big dogs were on leads but they rumbled the cat, which rushed away and the fox emerged from its trapped situation and left the area keeping close to the walker and her dogs, seemingly wanting their company for safe escort.”
The sightings are being probed by big cat expert Rick Minter(Image: Getty Images)Rick was told of a similar sighting of a black panther stalking deer north of Stroud.
He said the witness “noticed an orange hue to the animals’ otherwise dark fur, suggesting it was a leopard in its black form, which most of the credible ‘panther’ sightings would seem to be”.
He has also been investigating the M5 sighting and says a nearby farmer reported that livestock had been affected.
Charles may be keeping an eye out(Image: UK Press via Getty Images)Rick said: “In May a driver claimed to have seen a black panther lurking in the scrub by the M5 motorway verge in south Gloucestershire.
“In following it up I found that the neighbouring farm at that spot reported that its cattle had been on edge and were behaving nervously for a few days around the time of the slighting.”
Rick has curated an exhibition – Depicting Britain’s Beasts: the art of British big cats – at the Nature in Art gallery in Gloucester which runs until Friday.
There has been several reports across the UK(Image: Getty Images)He added: “No doubt they mainly originate from discarded trophy pets but they now seem to be playing their part as predators in the ecosystem.
“Among other things the exhibition showcases the big cats’ feeding habits on natural prey like deer with tooth marks on bones as evidence.”
Earlier this year, we reported how a big cat is feared to be on the prowl near Ed Sheeran’s country estate.
Tomorrow’s front page on the matterThe Perfect hitmaker lives at the remote property with his wife Cherry Seaborn and their two daughters. But a black panther-like feline was spotted in the countryside less than five miles away.
A resident spotted it and took the snaps on their mobile phone. It was spotted in the town of Eye, north of Ipswich, Suffolk. Matt Salusbury, who runs the Big Cats of Suffolk website said: “The witness told me they’d seen a large black animal walking up and down along the tree line at the end of a field behind their garden.
“The distance from where they were to the animal when they photographed it was a good few minutes walk.
“They observed it for more than five minutes before it sat down with its head up.”
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