Beast of Bont

A helicopter chase by police over thick woods on the outskirts of Swansea has reawakened the debate over whether or not Wales’s forests are populated by big cats. For the past 30 years Welsh police forces have been filing reports about sightings of cat-like creatures resembling pumas, panthers, ocelots, leopards and lynxes.

The main evidence for the existence of these sharp-clawed but mystery-cloaked stalkers has been the death toll among vulnerable herds of sheep. Many farmers living around Pontrhydfendigaid in Ceredigion are convinced the so-called Beast of Bont is behind a catalogue of grisly sheep and lamb killings and in Margam Forest in South Wales an ocelot-like creature has forced farmers to mount shotgun guards on their land.

This week, a woodland walk near Pontarddulais, Swansea, for three young boys exercising an alsatian dog ended with a full police alert after the youngsters aged 10 and 11 said they were terrorised by a big cat. South Wales Police used a helicopter to search the woods after taking seriously the boys’ claim that they had seen what could have been a large leopard or puma.

The children, Stewart Palmer, Jamie Harris and Matthew Brown, all pupils at Pontarddulais Comprehensive School, said they saw the creature on land near Garnswllt. The boys said when they saw the cat on Monday the creature stood and stared at them and that Matthew’s alsatian Tess scared the cat off by barking at it. Matthew’s mother, Catherine Brown, said, “If it hadn’t been for the dog I dread to think what might have happened.”

Officers based at Cockett, Swansea combed the woods after the boys’ parents warned them of what their children had seen and a plaster cast of a paw print in soft mud was taken. A helicopter was used in an attempt to make a sighting of the creature but nothing was spotted.

Yesterday, veterinary experts at St James’s veterinary practice in Walter Road, Swansea, examined the plaster cast but decided to pass the problem on to big cat experts at London Zoo. David Roberts, of the veterinary centre, said yesterday his view was that the print was made by a large dog, possibly a hunting dog. He said, “We have passed photocopies on to London Zoo for expert analysis.” An identification is expected from experts at the zoo today.

Many sheep killings put down to big cats have been blamed on stray dogs but farmer Aza Pinney claims to have seen the Beast of Bont seven times in the past two years. He said, “I was out with my nephew when we saw a pair of green eyes in the darkness.”

The Ceredigion beast, said by some to be a black puma or leopard, has been blamed for killing sheep and lambs in and around Pontrhydfendigaid. Although a Ministry of Agriculture investigation in 1996 after reports of a big cat on Bodmin Moor found it “unlikely” that families of big cats were living in British forests, Doug Richardson, the assistant curator of animals at London Zoo, said the Ministry investigators had failed to win the trust of the farming community in Bodmin.

Mr Richardson has said it was “perfectly possible” that Wales’s huge tracts of forestry land could be home to a small number of wild cats. Three years ago he helped to confirm that a plaster cast of a paw print taken from forestry land near Port Talbot was that of a South American jungle cat.

The paw print impression was made by John Jones of Baglan, Port Talbot who had regularly spotted a cat-like creature at the bottom of his garden next to woodland. Mr Richardson said big cats were as tough as nails and were very adaptable to differing climates and diets. “Big cats specialise in creeping up on prey like hares, rodents and squirrels which themselves have sophisticated sight and hearing abilities so it is hardly likely people are going to see them very often,” he said. “But in winter when food is scarcer people do tend to make sightings.”

Police said last night that their investigation into the boys’ sighting at Garnswllt has revealed that the animal was probably a large dog or large cat. A South Wales Police statement said, “Photographs and plaster casts were taken of paw prints found in the area which were examined by a veterinary surgeon. “He has confirmed to police that the animal could not be a tiger, lion or similar type of big cat but it more likely to be a large dog or cat. “South Wales Police will continue to monitor the situation.”

Books by naturalists on the possibility of big cats living in British forests have included chapters on the so-called Beast of Margam. In the past, farmers at Margam have mounted 24-hour gun guards after a spate of sheep killings put down to big cats, and sightings around Tonmawr, Neath and near Pontrhydfyfen, Port Talbot.