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 by email research@dorsetbigcats.org or via my addresses at the top of this page.

1907 Sturminster Newton. The earliest record of a big cat in Dorset comes from a 1907 manuscript entitled Reminiscences of Sturminster Newton, by Robin Young, (quoted in Dark Dorset by R.J. Newland and M.J. North). He was a Sturminster man looking back to his schooldays in the 1820s. He remarked that teachers should ‘not allow absurd stories to be told before timid and sensitive children'. For example 'a story was often told them of a wild and savage Cat which haunted the remains of the old castle and was often seen on Newton hill. Such horrid tales were told of this monster cat, with eyes as big as tea saucer that many children were afraid to pass that way, and not only children but grown-up people would be so afraid that they would walk on the main road below the hill to avoid the creature. I am pleased to know that foolish tale is quite forgotten’. 

According to Jeremy Harte (Cuckoo Pounds and Singing Barrows, 1986) 'In a more recent source, the legend is of a ‘terrifying creature which ran along a track parallel to the main road at a place called The Hollow, pictured below, near the old castle at Newton. A local clergyman knew someone who spoke of it as a dog in 1965’ 

1980s 'The Chairman of the Bournemouth Natural History Society's zoology section Jonathan McGowan, saw a puma stalking a badger near Blandford in the 1980s. 'I thought "This cannot be true, they don't exist here". But I watched it for about half an hour.' He also saw a female big cat in season walking around in circles calling for a mate like a domestic cat. Later the same year he was watching a buzzard nest near Shillingstone when he noticed a big hole in a chalk quarry. There were deer leg bones outside. He said it didn't look like a fox earth, but couldn't see anything. However on a subsequent visit he said he spotted two little heads. 'They looked very cat-like,' he said. His suspicion was confirmed when he saw a puma he presumed was the mother walking around the bottom of the quarry. 'I realised then it was obviously the lair of the cats and the two heads I saw were cubs.' Three years later he claimed he saw a puma drinking from the River Stour by Longham Bridge and he says he has seen scratches on trees and smelt smells not consistent with local wildlife.' Dorset Echo  Monday 04 March 2002

1998 A milk tanker driver claimed he saw a big black panther-type cat near the tiny hamlet of New Town between Blandford and Sixpenny Handley. Dorset Echo  Monday 04 March 2002

1994 Motcombe, near Shaftesbury. August . This summer saw several appearances of the 'Motcombe Beast' as the newspapers dubbed it. Loud yowling noises were also heard over several months, and three inch feline paw prints were discovered near the home of Mr and Mrs Talbot.

1996 Plush.  A black, panther-like creature was spotted roaming farmland north of Dorchester. Pauline Perks saw it go by her kitchen window, and a similar animal was later spotted by her husband, Jeffrey. Mrs. Perks said: 'It was right outside my kitchen window. It just shot straight past and I saw it as plain as can be. It was absolutely black and as big as an Alsatian dog. It had its ears sticking back, flat on its head. I've got two Labrador dogs, one golden and one black, but it definitely wasn't a dog. It was a big cat - like the black panthers you see in the zoo. I told my husband and he said I was going mad, but then a few days later he was up at the barn behind the house and he, too, came face to face with it'. Dorset Echo 

2001 Bryanston School area. June . Several witnesses reported a large, black cat-like animal in the vicinity.

2001. East Stour/Marnhull, only a few metres from the East Stour to Sturminster Newton road.
'On a Saturday afternoon sometime in the springtime of 2001 we were travelling from Marnhull in a Landrover Defender and so had good visibility over hedges into nearby fields. Just past the Todber bend towards East Stour, no more than half a mile further on, I saw a large cat moving in typical cat mode around the edge of a field to the east of the road (our rhs). It fairly quickly registered that it was much larger than a domestic cat - sleeker, scoop-backed with a large scooped tail held out horizontally behind. I was the only one to spot it unfortunately, but our vehicle was no more than twenty metres from the beast and it was therefore very easy to get an idea of the size (about two or three times as big as a large domestic cat). It was sleek, jet black; really shiny black as if the coat had a conditioner! I'm a biologist by training and I recognised it to be a puma-type of big cat. No doubt in my mind. I reported it to the police and then to a friend, a local farmer with livestock, who then told us there had been a number of sightings. Shortly after, the local paper (Western Gazette) carried a letter from a local retired farmer who had also seen a similar beast nearer to Gillingham.' Witness's account - From: Jim Talbot BSc MSc CBiol MIBiol    Click here for a map.

2001. Yetminster
From The Western Gazette (Yeovil) Thursday 5 July, 2001

A Dorset farmer claims that big cats breeding in the wild are killing his sheep. There have been an increasing number of sightings and sheep farmer, John Burbidge of Yetminster, has lost several lambs and a ewe. A few days ago, his mother spotted a large, cat-like animal in a field.

He said " I had just lost a ewe two days before. It was about 8.00 am , my mother was looking out of the window and this big creature went bounding thruogh the sheep. They ignored it - she could not believe it.

"It is very evident that they are breeding. There seem to be a lot of them around. I have seen them twice before, but different in colour from this one. I have heard them as well - they sound like a normal cat, but you hear them from about three fields away."

In February, Mr Burbidge, aged 52, found 4" animal footprints and saw a big cat at 5.00 am on the road betewen Holnest and Yetminster, while he was driving to another farm. He said "the animal was standing by the side of the road, just looking at me. It did not move. I could not believe the size of tis head. It looked much bigger than a puma. It was quite a frightening sight."

Mr Burbidge has lost 5 lambs at 3 day intervals last summer and believes a big cat was to blame. Some farmers have reported attacks on well-grown lambs. Some have disappeared but others have had their legs bitten off. 

It is feared the aniamls are breeding because the cat sighted recently was a lighter colour than the dark pumalike animals seen around Yetminster last year. 

Last November an animal broke a sheep's neck and devoured most of the caracass. This was followed by sightings of a big cat in the Yetminster and Sturminster areas. Colin King of Petties Farm, Yetminster, and Kevin Trevett of Thornford found a strong shearling ewe savaged at Mr King's farm.

Mr King said "This was no dog kill. It was something very powerful that took her by surprise where she lay at dawn. I check the sheep at least twice a day and they were all fit and well the evening before."

There have also been big cat sightings at Blandford, Charmouth and Winterbourne Whitchurch.'  
The Western Gazette (Yeovil) Thursday 5 July, 2001

2002 Bulbarrow. Very decomposed deer carcass observed lodged 15ft up an oak tree. 
Further to this report, on 10th November 2004 Dan Nathanson emailed me the following: 'It looks to me as though this may be a reference to the same deer carcass that was reported locally at the time in the press as being in a roadside tree in Delcombe Wood. The article speculated that the carcass could only have got there by a big cat hauling it up into the tree. 
I took an interest in the story because I own the wood and had noticed the carcass some weeks before, and had wondered how it got there. Incidentally, it was about 8 foot above the ground (not 15 ft) in the fork of an ancient beech tree (not oak). Deer jump high, but not into trees, and certainly not 8 feet high. 
In order to keep the deer numbers down we let the stalking to marksmen who are experts on all aspects of deer and their behaviour, i.e. they are not just amateurs letting loose with a gun. On meeting one of the deer stalkers some time later, I mentioned this story to him. He told me, to my surprise, that it was possible that a stalker had put the carcass in the tree to keep it out of reach of predators until he could return and collect it. In this case it was certainly not collected and rotted in the tree. In any case, judging by the height of the tree fork and the weight of the roe deer carcass, it would have needed a ladder and considerable energy to get it up there. I have my doubts that it was put there by a stalker, but I pass on to you the stalker's explanation so that you have the other side of the story.' 

2002 Shaftesbury. August . A four foot long, black cat was apparently disturbed by farm machinery at the back of the witness's house. He described it as 'black and brown, with stuck-up ears', and a long tail.

2002 Sixpenny Handley. September. A woman out walking her dog encountered 'an Alsatian-sized, black, panther-like cat'. It watched her from only twenty yards away before making off.

Stour Provost. Date? Large, black panther-like cat seen in a field

2003. Edmondsham According to the Dorset Echo there have been numerous sightings in before this incident, which occurred in October:
'Police Officers Jon Kuspert and Richard Lill were out in Edmondsham patrolling for poachers when they spotted an unusual creature in their headlights. Jon said: "It took us both by surprise, it jumped out a bush straight in front of us. We slowed down and followed it - at first I thought it was a badger but it moved like a cat. It had a long tail and a black stripe down its back - it was grey in colour and had coloured markings. I didn't know we had anything like that in Dorset - I used to work in Poole and never saw anything like that there. It was too big for a domestic cat. We came straight back and looked it up on the internet and the nearest thing to it is a European Wildcat. My colleagues are still taking the mickey out of me but both of us saw it and we're certain of what we saw. I've been back to look for it since but couldn't find anything. We've had no reported problems of animals being attacked from farms."' Dorset Echo Friday 17 October 2003.

Chris and Derek Ormesher were walking the Stour Valley path at about 11.30am on that sunny morning, and were a few miles south of -  and walking towards - Marnhull. Chris writes: 'We both saw a large, ginger animal walking away from the pond that we were passing, about fifty yards away. The animal had a long tail which was noticeably ringed with darker fur at the end, and had large pointed ears and markings on its legs. 

'The tail behaved more like a lion's tail rather than a domestic cat tail, ie. it pointed downwards and then along the floor and swished as the animal walked. At first we were scared stiff because we initially thought it was bigger than it actually was. When we saw the tail, its shape and how it was moving, we thought it was a lion (which obviously it wasn't). It seemed to be about the size of a springer spaniel. It was walking slowy away from the pond, in broad daylight. It didn't seem worried when it spotted us. It turned its head to have a good look at us and then disappeared into a hedge. From looking at pictures on the internet it was definitely a Jungle Cat.' Witness's account

2004. 29th July. Milton Abbas - Bryanston - Nether Compton areas.

The Dorset Echo - report by Jenna Weekes

A BIG cat has been reported roaming the north Dorset countryside near two schools.The creature has been described as being similar to a leopard in appearance and size and was seen late at night and in the early hours of the morning in three locations around the county this month. Dorset Police have received three reports of the big cat in just over a week. It was first sighted close to Milton Abbas Primary School at around 11pm on July 7, then Bryanston School at 3am on July 8 before being spotted in the back garden of a house in Nether Compton at around 4.20am on July 15. 
PC John Snellin, wildlife officer for Dorset Police, said: "A big cat of similar appearance has been spotted a couple of times around the Verwood area. It is described as looking like a leopard and is quite distinctive. Compared with the number of sightings we usually get this has been quite an increase. Until now it has been a very quiet few months.It could be that the good weather is drawing them to the area but there doesn't seem to be any particular reason for its presence apart from that.Maybe people were more inclined to report the sightings to police because of the close proximity to schools.But I would assure people it's no great cause for concern - big cats tend to stay out of people's way."  
The Dorset Echo

2004. Shepton Mallet.
My name is Alex Cotterell, I'm 14 and live outside Cranmore near Shepton Mallet.My best friend (Orlando Partner), my little brother (Oliver Cotterell), his friend (Olly Aplin) and me, were sleeping out in a tent in my paddock. It was midnight when I turned off the light, and when we did so we saw the shadow of an animal moving by the edge of the tent. I thought it was a badger at first, but it was too big, and it moved very quietly. It was too big and too stealthy to be a dog. It was walking round the tent - we knew it was doing this because occasionally we would hear a rustle as it stood on a leaf or something. It then touched its nose against the tent. I know that it hurts dogs and a few other animals a lot to be hit on the nose, so I kicked it and it seemed to run away. We were pretty scared as you can imagine so we called my dad to come and get us anyway. I wondered if it was the cat-like animal seen in Dorset, particularly when I remembered an incident which happened last Christmas. We were outside making a bonfire when we saw something pretty big and reddy-white on the ground, so we went and had a look. When we got there we found that it was the carcass of a calf. It had one leg torn off and we couldn't find the leg anywhere. The stomach of it had been cut open and all the insides had been eaten or something - all that was left inside was a small puddle of bile. I wonder if that animal could have been responsible?  
Source: witness's written account