During the last three years, a lot has been going on around the County. There have been so many reports of all three large cats, including Lynx, Puma and Leopard, but along with the dozens of reports of these animals, many are of hybrid or giant moggy cats. this an odd phenomenon and it is nation wide at least . It adds a dodgey edge to what is already a difficult subject for most to digest! It has been proven that there are hybrid cats living wild in the ~Uk as we have had at least to DNA confirmations on that. The hybrids include domestic cat ,puma, lynx and serval, and leopard cat and jungle cat. This is the weird mix concocted by the cat designer breeds that have tainted the hybrids of possible lynx and puma. Most of the large cats reported still conform to the classic puma or leopard or Eurasian lynx. The few dozen local reports are not just from country areas but from the BCP conurbation. There are at least three leopards living within the area and one at least has been photographed in Poole center, as it hunted in a tree. This small leopard regularly leaves typical field evidence around the roads, pavements, woodland areas and parks.

These three leopards keep to themselves and eat rats, foxes, woodpigeons, squirrels and human rubbish. There have been no reports of any of them being aggressive towards people, and there are no reports of dogs being taken from gardens. There have been many lost domestic cat reports and I am sure that some of these can be attributed to one or two of the leopards. The leopards clearly do much more good than harm living in such close proximity to us, although they should be monitored ! but by whom? if most people do not even believe that they are there, how on earth can we get the right people on board?

Within the country areas, there is a lot happening at this time of year and people are out and about, especially holiday makers, more than usual for obvious reasons. The people are most likely to encounter a large cat as they camp out, or are out at dusk or driving late at night. Recent leopard sightings come from Wimborne, Wareham, Blandford areas and a few from Purbeck. Sightings of leopard like cat in Purbeck have doubled in recent years, as more people camp out and site see.

The dwindling herds of sika deer are still a worry as many cats have not got their usual supply of food and so may turn to livestock taking or dog taking, as this happened two years ago after a huge cull.