Did anyone else see a huge black cat near the Shropshire hills last week?

Shropshire keeps coming up doesn't it. Third or fourth report from that area in the last two years if I'm counting right. Back in the 90s there were similar sightings around the Peak District and everyone called those lot nutters too, turned out multiple witnesses all described the same animal within a few miles of each other.

Black cats in the UK aren't as far fetched as people think. After the Dangerous Wild Animals Act in 76 a load of exotic pets got released rather than licensed, pumas, leopards, the lot. That's nearly 50 years of potential breeding populations and we've barely done a proper survey.

Anyone got photos or was it just a visual? Always the same story - thing's gone before anyone gets their mobile out. Would love to see plaster casts of tracks if anybody went back to check. That's the evidence that actually holds up.

@Marko38 yeah the Peak District ones in the 90s are well documented, I've looked into a fair few of them. What's interesting is how the sightings tend to cluster in similar terrain - steep escarpments, lots of cover, good prey populations. Shropshire and the Peak District aren't that different ecologically when you think about it. I'm based in Derbyshire and there's still the occasional report coming out of the darker moorland areas even now, nothing that makes the papers but people talk. If these animals are real and breeding (which I think is plausible at this point) then range expansion into adjacent suitable habitat makes complete sense.