Британские большие кошки. Великобритания

Another "Big Cat" sighting in the UK has shocked people who have watched the video footage on Reddit.

The eight-second clip appears to show a panther strolling across Penallta park in the Welsh town of Caerphilly.

Liam Cooper shot the footage after he saw the animal whilst at work and quickly grabbed his phone and pressed record after a colleague suggested it could be a big cat.

The "cat" is pictured walking slowly before disappearing from view behind some trees.

Plenty of viewers of the video were convinced that the sighting was genuine with one person who posted a comment declaring: "Pumas have been spotted in the UK for ages. This is real. We just have cameras on us at all times now."

Another was a little more sceptical, reasoning: "Looks legit enough, but could just be perspective."

A third, meanwhile, amusingly joked: "If I saw this I would puma pants."

As recently as this weekend, BBC naturalist Iolo Williams suggested that big cats could be roaming around and breeding in remote wooded areas of Wales – but if they are, he has not spotted one in all his travels.

He told the Tivyside Advertiser: "Just because I’ve never actually clapped eyes on one living in the wild doesn’t mean to say that they are definitely not around. Big cats are by nature incredibly shy and elusive and will go out of their way to remain concealed from sight.

"Having said that, over the years I must have tramped tens of thousands of miles across all parts of Wales and in all that time I’ve never come across any evidence that these things are actually out there.

"If there was indeed a population of big cats living and breeding in our countryside you’d have thought we’d find far more sheep carcases lying about – and obvious prey such as pheasants would be massacred in their hundreds."

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AN ALLEGED panther sighting has been caught on camera after a “rather large” cat was spotted stalking a Caerphilly park.

One reader was left “in disbelief” after spotting a “wild cat” walking across the mountainside in Penallta.

The footage was taken around a month ago by Liam Cooper, who said he spotted the beast while in work.

After a colleague suggested the animal could be a big cat – even a panther – he grabbed his phone to record the footage before the animal disappeared behind some trees.

Just this week, BBC naturalist Iolo Williams refused to rule out the possibility that big cats could be living and breeding in the more remote wooded areas of Wales.

“But just because I’ve never actually clapped eyes on one living in the wild doesn’t mean to say that they are definitely not around,” he told our sister title the Tivyside Advertiser.

“Big cats are by nature incredibly shy and elusive and will go out of their way to remain concealed from sight.

“Having said that, over the years I must have tramped tens of thousands of miles across all parts of Wales and in all that time I’ve never come across any evidence that these things are actually out there.

“If there was indeed a population of big cats living and breeding in our countryside you’d have thought we’d find far more sheep carcases lying about – and obvious prey such as pheasants would be massacred in their hundreds.”