\n The scientific\u00a0case for ‘panthers’ on the prowl in Worcestershire continues to gather momentum as DNA evidence confirms\u00a0big cats, specifically leopards, are\u00a0on the loose in Britain.\n<\/p>\n
\n Strands of hair belonging to a leopard species\u00a0Panthera Pardus have already been found on a barbed wire fence at a farm in neighbouring\u00a0Gloucestershire following an attack on a sheep in 2022.\n<\/p>\n
\n Meanwhile,\u00a0more genetic traces of the muscular predators have been found in Cumbria, confirmed in tests by a university professor.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n The shocking sightings of\u00a0large leopard-like cats have been reported as recently as this year in Harvington, near Evesham and others date back 20 years.\n<\/p>\n
\n Many of these encounters are\u00a0in Worcestershire’s wildest tracts of country. However, not all are in remote areas\u00a0with one dog walker describing how she fled a Worcester nature reserve with her two powerful dogs, one of which was bred to fight wolves.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Data on the sightings is sourced from\u00a0the Evesham and Villages Big Cat Group and the information has been used to compile this interactive map.\n<\/p>\n
\n What is surprising is how widespread the sightings are, many in the county’s wild hinterland but there have also been close encounters with a ‘growling’ creature in a nature reserve close to homes in Worcester – the Gorse Hill and Elbury Mount Local Nature Reserve – close to both Warndon and Tolladine.\n<\/p>\n
\n There have been yet more sightings on the Worcestershire Gloucestershire border of both a ‘panther’ and a ‘lynx’-like creature but as these are at an undisclosed location they are not displayed\u00a0on the map.\n<\/p>\n
\n WILD: The nature reserve at Gorse Hill in Worcester is wild and overgrown with plenty of hiding places for all manner of creatures (Image: James Connell\/Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n
\n Possible sightings have now been noted in Harvington (this year), Gorse Hill reserve, Aldington (between Offenham and Badsey), near Kidderminster, near The Walshes in Stourport, Upton Snodsbury, Powick, Madresfield, the Lenchford Inn at Shrawley, Bewdley, Bentley (near Bromsgrove) and Stoke Prior.\n<\/p>\n
\n Other evidence includes the carcasses of\u00a0mauled sheep, possibly preyed upon by a large predator.\n<\/p>\n
\n Most compelling of all is DNA evidence which indicates, despite the naysaying of sceptics, that leopards are living wild in parts of Britain.\n<\/p>\n
\n In October last year, Cumbrian resident Sharon Larkin-Snowden took swabs from a sheep carcass and the sample was sent for tests at the University of Warwick,\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Professor Robin Allanby of the University of Warwick said:\u00a0\u201cWe spent those 13 years continually disappointing Rick Minter \u2014 who has long been involved in tracking\u00a0sightings of big cats<\/a>\u00a0and trying to assemble evidence of their existence in the UK \u2014 with identifications of fox or dog. Until, that is, this sample from the\u00a0Lake District<\/a>\u00a0in October last year.\n<\/p>\n \n “In this case, the DNA sequence is 100 per cent unequivocally of the Panthera genus,\u201d Dr Allaby told The Telegraph.\n<\/p>\n \n RECOMMENDED READING:\u00a0Big cats in Worcester: ‘mystery beast prowls on Gorse Hill’<\/a>\n<\/p>\n \n RECOMMENDED READING:\u00a0Big cats in Worcestershire more sightings revealed<\/a>\n<\/p>\n