Forteana

A photograph of an animal at the edge of a field in Bausley Hill, near Crew Green, sparked speculation that a “panther” or “big cat” was prowling around the countryside.

The animal was spotted by resident Bethany Jones, who said she was “shocked” to see the animal in the private field and was only able to take a photo before the animal disappeared again.

She said: “I walked into our living room and saw whatever it was running along the bottom of the field.

“At first I thought it was a dog because of its size, which was worrying on its own because we knew that field had a lot of sheep in it at the time, but as I got a closer look it seemed to move more like a cat.

“But I could also see that it was obviously large as cats go, so much that I couldn’t believe it was a domestic cat as I was looking at it from across the field.

“I only managed to catch a hurried photo of it before it jumped over the fence and disappeared, but I remember being completely shocked at how large it was.

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“We went out afterwards and found a footprint, which was first spotted by my daughter, so we took a photo of that as well.

"I showed it to a nearby farmer who is a friend of ours, and they said it looked too big to have been made by an average house cat.”