Drone films ‘big cat’ prowling around British field in third sighting in one month

Men claim animal was 'three feet long' and bigger than any cat they had ever seen

A man who claims to have captured footage of a “big cat” prowling the British countryside using a drone has said he was confused by the animal’s unusually large appearance.

Ashley May filmed the creature using a micro-drone on the playing fields of a college in Launceston, Cornwall.

While the animal resembled a domestic cat, Mr May said it was much bigger than any cat he had ever seen.

“I don’t know what it was but it had a long tail and it was the size that stood out. It didn’t look small,” he said. “I go to the fields most days but I’ve never seen it there before.”

He added: “There have been carcasses of rabbits around and, at this time of year, I don’t think those would have been caused by a fox.”

Stuart Wilton, who was with Mr May at the time, said he managed to walk up behind the animal.

“I said to Ashley: ‘That cat is massive’. I wandered into the field until I was just five feet away from it. It was about three feet long,” he said. “It wasn’t a panther or anything like that.”

Mr May said he was sharing the footage online in the hope that someone might be able to identify the animal.

Although the two men could not say what type of cat it was, Mr Wilton thought its size resembled a large cat that was caught on camera in west Cornwall last month.

Another big cat sighting was also reported in Gloucestershire recently, which was filmed in the Forest of Dean in April.

The existence of big cats in the UK has long been debated.

While many alleged sightings have been debunked as hoaxes or misidentifications, there are some which remain mysteries.

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) told the Observer in April: “Neither Natural England nor Defra have received any credible reports of wild living or breeding big cats in Britain in recent years.

“Defra is not currently engaged in any work related to the management of wild big cats in Britain and has no plans to do so.”

SWNS