If anybody can add any details to the reports below I should be glad to hear from them. Please fill in the report form on the home page, or contact me via my addresses at the top of this page.

'...On the Island of Purbeck the old road used to pass through a toll gate just outside Ulwell, and a cottage beside the road was home to the witch, Jinny Gould. She used to sit out on the gate at nights in the form of a cat, getting a lot of fun out of terrifying travellers, until one drunken carter picked up enough daring to land her a blow across the back with his whip. Suddenly the cat vanished, and back in the cottage Jinny lay dead (Luckham 1906). Today both the tollgate and the cottage are gone, although haunted gates survive elsewhere in the county. Normally it is ghosts which sit on these liminal markers, not witches, although a cat-witch is reported from a farm gate in Cheshire (Briggs 1970: B2.628). A Dorset witch is much more likely to take the form of a hare. One of these animals used to linger around the hills near Ulwell, teasing hunters by running in and out of range, but never getting hurt. Nobody had the cunning to load their gun with a silver sixpence, which is what men ought to carry when they suspect they are dealing with a quarry which is not right...'
Jeremy Harte

Early 1990s. Wareham
There were apparently multiple sightings on Forestry Commission land around Wareham, but unfortunately details are not available. If anyone can throw light on this period I would like to hear from them. 

1994 Bournemouth area. 
In the August of  that year creatures resembling a jaguar and a lynx were reported in the area. No further details available yet.

1999 Merley 
In April, a taxi driver contacted police after he spotted a large, lean-looking beast roaming woodland near Merley, fuelling speculation that an animal previously spotted in the area may have returned.  

1999 Brockenhurst  
A fair-coloured big cat was seen by a couple as they walked near Brockenhurst in July 1999. Since then the mystery creature has been spotted in Verwood and Alderholt.

2001 Belchalwell
October.  A big cat was observed by a shocked witness . It was described as creamy beige, with tiny pointed ears. 

2001 Christchurch
August. Sighting of big cat - but no further details available.

Beer Hackett. 
Large cat-like animal apparently seen by five witnesses in a wood - unfortunately there are no further details available.

2001 Sandford. 
It was a bright morning In May/June and Mrs Welsh was driving with her 12yr old daughter on a single track road near Kingston. She says: 'We came round a slight bend to see a big, jet-black cat emerge from the left hand side hedge, and stop in the middle of the lane. It didn't move so I had to stop the car. The cat was standing there only about two feet from the bonnet. It is a Nissan Serena - a biggish car, fits 7 or 8 people - and it was at least the whole width of the car. It had huge paws, a long tail looped up at the end, a panther-like domed head, and amber eyes. It stayed completely still in front of the car looking at us for about 30 seconds I should think, though it seemed like an eternity, and then sauntered off to the right with distinctively feline body movement. It was completely bizarre. My daughter and I looked at each other in stunned silence as it came out of the hedge; it was quite frightening, and I locked the car door. You just don't see something like that.' 

2001. Poole
Sid Shaw reported the following experience:
'My wife is a metal detectorist, so we often get up at dawn.

In 2001 we were driving at about 4.30am on the Sandbanks road parallel with the harbour. It was June and so was already light. We were near  the Blue Lagoon when we saw a big cat - bigger than an Alsatian, mastiff-sized - going into a garden. We were about fifteen yards from it, but saw only the back half of it as it disappeared around a gatepost. It looked like the back end of a puma, but black. What was most unusual was the long tail, drooping down level with the ground and with that peculiar turn at the end where the last nine inches or so loop upwards again.

We both looked at it, and each other. We didn't speak for a while, and then we said to each other 'What the hell was that?' We didn't stop because we thought 'Nah! - it couldn't be.''

'm 76 and I've seen cats in the wild. In fact I've been face to face with a tiger in Malaya while scouting in the jungle during the war. We both retreated from each other as fast as possible, but I wasn't too afraid as I had a gun.  

We're used to seeing foxes at that time in the morning, but this wasn't a normal animal. We didn't know what the devil it was. It made us think.

We didn't report it because people think you're nutty if you report a thing like that! But it does shake you up a bit doesn't it?  

2001. Ferndown. Alan Davis reports two sightings of a big cat at a caravan site near Ferndown. He writes: 
'The first sighting was in early May of that year just as the sun was going down. When I first saw it it was lying down and I thought it was a deer. I went over to some other people who was near to me and together we walked over to another caravan that was nearer to it. They said that they had seen it several times before. It got up and walked around the site keeping to the hedgerow towards the reception area. It was a large cat resembling a puma  I knew there was a lady who had a small dog in the area it was heading for, so I went the other way round to tell her to keep the dog inside. I then went over to reception to see if it had come out there but I had lost it. I had been at the site on a seasonal pitch since 1989 and this was the first year I had seen anything like this.

'In September the same year I was again staying on the caravan site when, at about 6pm , I saw for the second time. It just sat there and looked at me as if posing for me, and didn't seem agitated by me walking towards it. As it is a large caravan site it must have got used to humans being around. I walked towards it and got to within 50 yards of it. It then stood up walked towards the bushes turned around and looked at me one more time and strolled off into the bushes. Next door is a site where Portacabins were stored. I gave it a few minutes and then went over to see where it had gone. There was a large hole dug under the fence into the site next door.

'The cat was about 4 feet in length and stood about 2 feet to 2 feet 6 inches high. Its tail was quite long and which it curled up at the end when walking off. It was a sandy colour with almost white underside and its tail had dark rings around it.This time I took several photos of it. (Click HERE to look at the photos). At the time I took the photos the rabbits that had been running around had disappeared which was unusual as they used to stay out until it got dark.

'I was reading the account on this page of the chap that saw a big cat on the A31. The place where he saw it was just the other side of the storage site where the cat I saw disappeared into.' (NB scroll down for Alan Blair's sighting, in September 2004 - note, however that his sighting was of a black big cat, rather than what sounds like the typical puma colouration of this one.)

Source: email from witness in Sept 2004

2001. Crossways (Warmwell). 
July . A cat described as 'Completely black, and bigger than German shepherd dog' was seen heading towards the railway. The Dorset Echo of Wednesday 15 August 2001 carried a report:
'A woman walking her dog claimed to have spotted a large black cat run off into fields near the railway line at Crossways. The sighting came before 11 chickens and three ducks were killed by a predator in an overnight raid on a back garden in Dick O' the Banks Road. Now police are urging anyone with sightings of animals that may pose a risk to the public to report them. The woman whose chickens were killed said her birds were targeted on five different nights. She said: "The animal would have needed to have been pretty big to get over the fence and take the ducks. "Two chickens were left and they were torn across the chests and backs. "I think it was the black panther a woman saw near the railway line as a fox couldn't have managed it."  
Another woman's dog was left cowering after they disturbed a large black cat near railway lines.'
A similar animal was reported five months later, near a quarry. It was 'black, the size of a retriever, with short legs'.

2001 Bere Regis/Wool.  
In the summer of 2001 an unusual, fawn coloured, feline animal was seen at 11.45pm on the road between Bere Regis and Wool. The witness gave the following well-observed and interesting account:
'It was seen by two of us (both adults of a sceptical nature!)  We were driving on the main Bere Regis-Wool Road, in the direction of Wool, when something crossed the road in front of us. The car headlights illuminated a largish animal, which was crossing from our right-hand side to the left-hand side of the road.  The animal I saw was fawn-coloured, about Alsatian-sized or slightly smaller perhaps, though of a heavier build. It was definitely feline. I didn't see its eyes - it wasn't looking at us as it was sideways-on and intent on getting into the hedge - but I did notice the tail in particular which was long and upturned at the end.  The animal was typically feline in its gait and was neither running, nor creeping, but walking steadily.  When we saw it it was just in range of our headlights, so must have been anywhere between about 15-30 yards away. The headlights were badly adjusted at the time and you couldn't see very far ahead in pitch dark!  That is why I estimate it could have been as close as 15 yards.
'I said to my friend, "Er .... what was that?" and he said "Well I know what I think it was!".  We both agreed that it was a big cat of some kind - either a cougar or lioness perhaps. 
'I went back in daylight to look for evidence of the cat, but found nothing at all, no footprints, no fur, no excrement. However, it was very rough terrain with lots of undergrowth etc., so it was quite difficult to be certain.  It was also a very large area to examine in any detail. Just a little bit down from there was quite a bit of rubbish strewn over the road, as if recently ransacked by something.
Source: witness's written account

2002 Wool, and area. 
In  an army officer was alarmed to see a large black cat at Bovington Camp, only about 50 metres from housing. It was about 100 yards from him, opposite Monkey World, and he estimated that in height it would have come up to his thigh.
Around the same time another witness reported seeing a similar animal in Bovington Camp Wood. It was described as 'black, great dane-sized, and with chain around its neck'.

2002 Poole August. Post Office worker Bernard Seale, of Fortuneswell, Portland, was driving back home from work when he claims he saw the beast walk across the road in front of him, around ten to fifteen feet away from his car. Mr Seale said: 'I have never seen anything like it before. I think it must have been either a puma or a lynx. I work nights sorting post at the Post Office mail centre in Poole and I was driving home around 3.15am on Waterloo Road, near Canford Heath, just outside, when I saw the creature walk across in front of the car. It was brown and had a tail with a white tip and it also had massive paws and walked like a large cat. I thought it might have been a fox as I often see them when I drive home from work but as I put my full beams on I saw that there was no way it was a fox. When I saw its paws and its tail I knew that it was an animal I had never seen before'. Dorset Echo Tuesday 27 August  

2002 Wimbourne. 
October. A witness spotted what she described as a 'definitely puma-like' animal; however unlike a puma it was black. The following March, and very close to the previous sighting, two witnesses spotted what they first assumed was a deer, and which they then realised was a very large cat-like animal.

2003 Ferndown and area
February. A black, panther-like cat was seen twice in Ferndown, the two sightings were only half a mile from each other.

2003 Christchurch, near Burley Village.
On August 19th at 3am a woman was shocked to see a black, cat-like animal 'like a panther' cross the road only fifty yards in front of her car. 'It paused to look in my direction and then carried on walking. It wasn't too bothered by my presence.' The animal was approximately two feet high and three to four feet long. 'It had a long tail which hung down between the legs, shimmery, shiny, black fur and green eyes.'

2004, Crossways. January.

Richard Peacocke reports:

'Early this year, in January, I was walking my dog across fields near Crossways, just east of Dorchester. At one point there was a field laid to grass about three hundred metres wide leading to an ancient gateway without a gate into a further arable field. It was across this standard width (three metres wide) gap that a large, black cat passed into view. It was moving carefully - slinking - right to left towards rabbit warrens in the old ruined stables. 

'It was the typical shape of a big cat, with low head and long tail. It was about a metre long, excluding the tail, and half that to the shoulder. I could judge that by the size of the gateway which it filled to a third as it slinked past. It was black - dead black - with small ears and a big muzzle. It had heavy legs, a solidly built body and a long, heavy tail drooping in a crescent to its tip.

Source: written account from Richard Peacocke BSc hons MSc RMN,  www.peacocke.co.uk

Mrs. Joan Hatch and her daughter Anne, and son Robert, were driving very slowly along the road from Wareham to Arne, hoping to glimpse and photograph deer, as they often do, when a large cat-like creature slid down from a bank to the right of the road and crossed no more than about three metres in front of them.

Mrs. Hatch recalled: 'It was a glossy black, and about the size of a labrador but longer. It looked rounded and well-fed. The way it ran was peculiar - racing across at high speed in a crouching position, as if on its stomach. I can't say I saw a tail but we were so taken by surprise.'

Robert was in the back seat with the camera, looking the other way, but alerted by Joan and Anne he saw it as it reached the left hand side of the road, and ran up and along a parallel ridge for a few seconds, before disappearing into woods.

All three agreed that 'there is no way at all that this could have been a domestic moggy: it was a completely different size and shape'. The Hatches are experienced spotters of wildlife 'but this was quite new'.  Mrs. Hatch added that they had vaguely heard about sightings of big cats but 'until you see it for yourself you never quite take it in'. 

Source: Witnesses' verbatim account

2004. Purbeck.

'Astounded walkers see big pair of big cats.' 
From the Bournemouth Echo, 15th April

'Three friends out walking together on Hartland Moor, Purbeck, believe they witnessed two big cats resembling pumas tumbling out of a tree. The incident happened in broad daylight and one of the party snapped a photo of a three-inch paw print on her mobile phone. 

'Chris Austin and his wife Sandy from Merley could hardly believe their eyes. He said: “You hear about big cats and read about them but you don’t expect to see one yourself, and certainly not two of them together. We really didn’t expect to see things like that in the countryside. It was broad daylight and before falling out of the tree there was a screeching noise, it was an eerie noise, not something you get from a domestic pet.”

'Fellow walker Mrs Hayes, from Poole, said: “We heard a very loud cat screech which made us look up. It must have moved because it saw us coming and moved too quickly as the branch broke and two cats tumbled out of the tree in a panic. The tree was about 40 yards away and I was rooted to the spot — I just didn’t believe it. I turned to my friends and asked ‘did you see that?’ and they had. One cat was very black and the other was slightly brownie black — they were both about the size of a young Labrador with very long tails. We weren’t frightened as it was just so amazing you don’t get time to think about it.” 

Reported by Paula Tegerdine, Bournemouth Daily Echo, 15th April 2004

5th October 2004, Wareham.
At 10.30am Mr Batchelor was walking his lurcher in Wareham Forest. He had deliberately chosen a quiet part of the forest as his dog was in season. It was a quiet, clear and bright day. Suddenly he saw that his dog had seen something as she was looking fixedly ahead and her hackles had risen and she was making quiet barks.

Mr Batchelor said: 'She spots deer before I do, so I looked to see what it was. About 200 yards ahead, crossing the track, was a black, Labrador-sized, cat-like animal'.

He said 'What catches your eye is the gait of the animal - it was just strolling. I don't think it was aware we were there. It had the typical, very long, curved tail - the classic thing - and its style of walking was definitive. 

I might have thought it was my imagination if it hadn't been for the dog seeing it first. It certainly stirred her up - and dogs haven't got any axe to grind have they?' 

He was not afraid and hurried to the spot where the big cat had been but there was no further sign of it. He looked for paw prints but the ground was too dry.
Source: Witness's verbatim account

Mrs. A of Weymouth writes: 'On 26th October 2004 my daughter and I were driving through wooded country near Wareham, along a track which has undergrowth and trees on either side. Suddenly a huge black animal came out of the undergrowth a few yards in front of the car and leapt right from one side of the track to the other.

We had a clear, close view of it. It was completely black and had large paws and a head like that of a domestic cat. It was bigger than a labrador (we used to have one) - about five and a half foot long - and was quite slender.

I think it saw and heard the car and that is why it leapt to the other side instead of walking. It obviously had its route clear in its mind and it wanted to enter the woods which were on the other side of the road.

My daughter and I were completely shocked and looked at each other in amazement. I then stopped the car because I was hoping to get a better look . We both got out and looked into the ferns on our right.Unfortunately we did not see the creature again and as we travelled back to Weymouth we agreed that getting out of the car had not been a wise thing to do considering the size of the creature. 

We were shocked because the animal was not what you expect to see in the British countryside - it was a bit alarming.' 
By email.

In November Richard Peacocke emailed me to say he had seen a black big cat while walking his dog near Crossways in January 2004 (see East Dorset sightings) and on 11th November 2004 at 21:27 hours he spotted it again, crossing a road.

He writes: 'It was a large, black cat, and in comparison with road lines/kerb distance must have been some three metres long including the tail. Tail signature low, like a puma, with a 'hunkered' neck and shoulders in proportion to length. It was crossing the entry of Hybris Business Park, Crossways, near Dorchester. The cat moved silently, stealthy and confident, from left to right (towards Moigne Combe, the site of the previous sighting) and slipped into the woods. My dog followed the scent trail into woods but returned when he came to the fence on the other side at the edge of a field.' By email

On Friday 10 December 2004 the Dorset Echo reported:

'A pensioner was left terrified after she encountered a huge black cat while out walking her dog. 
Julia Gibson and her mongrel Eden were going across heathland near their home in Winfrith when the incident happened yesterday afternoon. They were walking round a small hill when Eden suddenly chased after what looked like a large black cat. It immediately fled away, climbed a tree and lay along a high branch. 
Julia got to the dog, saw the animal in the tree and called Eden away to safety. She phoned her husband Dennis for help, but as soon as the dog left the tree the animal ran off across fields in the direction of Owermoigne. 
Julia said: "It certainly shook me up a bit. I just tried to get Eden away because I thought it might kill the dog. I didn't think of myself at the time and I didn't start shaking until I phoned Dennis. I'm taking a strong cup of tea to steady my nerves." 
She added that the creature she saw had pure black fur. 
Julia said: "It was long and sleek, and very quick, very fast." 
Dennis said: "Eden weighs about 20 pounds and is nearly three feet long. Julia said the creature was bigger than that. "Apparently as soon as Julia called the dog off the big cat jumped down. It then ran off across fields towards Owermoigne." 
Dennis said it was not the first time that a black panther-like beast had been seen in the area. He added: "One was spotted last year on the Tadnoll road."' Dorset Echo, Friday 10 December 2004, 'Walker's big cat sighting terror' by Harry Walton.

Mrs Gibson's sighting prompted Mr K to contact the Dorset Big Cats Register with an incident which happened to him this time last year:
'I was driving on the East Holme to Wool road near Wareham in December 2003 at about 6.30 in the evening when I saw what I thought was a deer in the hedge ahead in the headlights and slowed right down because they often run across at the last minute. I was going about 10 miles per hour when I passed the spot. And it was a deer. A dead deer with something about the same size and jet black crouched upon it. I was sure it was a big cat. We have cats and the way it was crouching, it was just like an animal with its prey. I was quite shaken - my hairs stood up at the back of my neck etc. I drove home and told everybody, but I didn't know there had been any other sightings so I convinced myself (and was convinced by others!) that I must have imagined it.' By email