Big Cat Conversations

Our First guest John Kirk is an experienced sheep and cattle farmer in the Cairngorms. His recent sighting of a black panther in the area prompted many more local reports on Facebook and to him direct. John also heard a description of a black panther fleeing the Cairngorms wildfires a week before this recording. John recounts his two other sightings of large cats in the area in the past. He explains his concerns on lynx reintroduction ideas, after attending a field trip on lynx issues in Swit...

Our first guest Robin Baker describes three big black cat sightings from the Forest of Dean and two pieces of his resulting artwork which include black leopards. Robin also explains his ‘Big Five’ creatures of the Dean which feature in his artwork. Robin also explains the scowles of the Forest of Dean, a landform which inspired Tolkein’s Lord of the Ring’s Middle-earth landscape. The scowles are gullies in the woods, produced by ancient iron ore mining and now used as eerie backdrops to Star ...

Our first guest Ellie watched two pumas in Wiltshire in April this year. Still fresh from the excitement she describes the incident, and the new sense of wildness it brings to the British landscape for her. She also explains how this experience influences her work as an artist. She has recently seen a darker shaded puma in a sanctuary in Georgia, USA, that matches the colour tone of the Wiltshire ones. Ellie has been invited to Wildside (ep 137 of our podcasts) to be an art...

We hear from several big cat witnesses at the Dean Heritage Centre, recorded at the Art & Science of British Big Cats event in April-May 2026. Key guests include Will, a 16-year-old investigator who has had three big cat encounters in the Forest of Dean area, and 10-year-old George, who travelled from Somerset with his mun Louise to take part. George looks for evidence in southwest England, and with his dad he recently observed a big cat skulk away at dusk as they were watching beav...

We hear from Paul, a retired woodsman from mid Suffolk. He has had three encounters with large cats, including one watching him through the bracken. He describes his own incidents and others he has heard. Paul explains his tree management work across the local countryside and considers how big cats would use woods and features of the landscape. Paul and Rick also discuss actions to get more evidence in Suffolk, including a ‘camera wall’ being set up across a nature ...