Big Cat Conversations

83:49

BCC EP:144 The farm and the wildwood – tales from a...

Big Cat Conversations ·

2026/09/27

Jamie is a sheep and cattle farmer in Derbyshire. He’s experienced several big cat incidents, starting with seeing a black panther swat butterflies as a youngster while walking with his Grandmother. Jamie describes finding a cat’s lay-up spot with prey remains, being growled at, watching eyes like car headlights through night vision, and firing a warning shot beside a cat to make it retreat. Jamie is keen to learn more and content to live with big cats if they stick to natural pre...

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85:45

BCC: EP143 Hidden in the hillsides – from...

Big Cat Conversations ·

2026/08/26

Our First guest John Kirk is an experienced sheep and cattle farmer in the Cairngorms. His recent sighting of a black panther in the area prompted many more local reports on Facebook and to him direct. John also heard a description of a black panther fleeing the Cairngorms wildfires a week before this recording. John recounts his two other sightings of large cats in the area in the past. He explains his concerns on lynx reintroduction ideas, after attending a field trip on lynx issues in Swit...

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78:18

BCC EP:142 The Dean big five & TV big cat review

Big Cat Conversations ·

2026/07/29

Our first guest Robin Baker describes three big black cat sightings from the Forest of Dean and two pieces of his resulting artwork which include black leopards. Robin also explains his ‘Big Five’ creatures of the Dean which feature in his artwork. Robin also explains the scowles of the Forest of Dean, a landform which inspired Tolkein’s Lord of the Ring’s Middle-earth landscape. The scowles are gullies in the woods, produced by ancient iron ore mining and now used as eerie backdrops to Star ...

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78:23

BCC EP:141 Mountain lions in the mix – Wiltshire &...

Big Cat Conversations ·

2026/06/30

Our first guest Ellie watched two pumas in Wiltshire in April this year. Still fresh from the excitement she describes the incident, and the new sense of wildness it brings to the British landscape for her. She also explains how this experience influences her work as an artist. She has recently seen a darker shaded puma in a sanctuary in Georgia, USA, that matches the colour tone of the Wiltshire ones. Ellie has been invited to Wildside (ep 137 of our podcasts) to be an art...

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80:53

BCC EP:140 Forest of Dean forum – the voice of...

Big Cat Conversations ·

2026/05/31

We hear from several big cat witnesses at the Dean Heritage Centre, recorded at the Art & Science of British Big Cats event in April-May 2026. Key guests include Will, a 16-year-old investigator who has had three big cat encounters in the Forest of Dean area, and 10-year-old George, who travelled from Somerset with his mun Louise to take part. George looks for evidence in southwest England, and with his dad he recently observed a big cat skulk away at dusk as they were watching beav...

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63:03

BCC EP:139 Suffolk born & bred – the people and the...

Big Cat Conversations ·

2026/04/28

We hear from Paul, a retired woodsman from mid Suffolk. He has had three encounters with large cats, including one watching him through the bracken. He describes his own incidents and others he has heard. Paul explains his tree management work across the local countryside and considers how big cats would use woods and features of the landscape. Paul and Rick also discuss actions to get more evidence in Suffolk, including a ‘camera wall’ being set up across a nature ...

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75:01

BCC EP:138 Predators in charge – Midlands leopards...

Big Cat Conversations ·

2026/03/31

Ian encountered two black leopards in a midlands wood at dusk, watching them rush through the dry reeds by a dyke. Ian discusses his close observation of the playful large cats, and mentions other snippets on similar big cats he has heard from the area. Our second guest Damian also keeps watch for big cat activity around Northamptonshire. He discusses a hoisted half-eaten roe deer carcass he found 8 foot up a tree. His interest in the topic began after driving around a road-kill black cat, th...

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71:49

BCC EP:137 Puma Central – puma witnesses meet at...

Big Cat Conversations ·

2026/02/28

We return to Wildside Exotic Rescue in Herefordshire, where owner Lindsay Mckenna now cares for 11 pumas, a lynx, a serval and many other animals which were exotic captives needing new and better homes. Our 4 guests describe their own sightings of pumas wild in Britain, and compare them to the pumas at Wildside... Jenny near Bath watched a puma exploring her garden at 6.30am in 2023 before it loped off into the adjacent wood. Tracey re-lives her close encounter with a...

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93:06

BCC EP:136 North West safari - Cheshire leopards &...

Big Cat Conversations ·

2026/02/05

Our first guest Darren describes his investigations on local marshes in Cheshire, where he’s seen a black leopard, chased by his dog. This happened after his previous encounters with similar looking cats nearby, including on a disused golf course. Some of Darren’s encounters have been close up, and most have involved dogs around as well. Darren explains how these events have motivated him to search for more evidence and do a Youtube channel. For our second guest we have an update...

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68:02

BCC EP:135 Gaze of the cats - return visits to Glos...

Big Cat Conversations ·

2026/01/11

Tracey had a prolonged and close view of a black panther outside her car at a forest edge in Gloucestershire in 2001. Two years later she was able to compare the cat with a black leopardess at Heythrop private zoo in the Cotswolds. Tracey recounts other big cat reports from family and friends, including from her sister who was a sceptic until seeing a black panther in the same general area, and from friends who were confronted by a puma on a cycleway near Stroud. Tracey has had two puma...

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77:33

BCC EP:134 The Panthers of Avalon

Big Cat Conversations ·

2025/12/11

Our first guest Sam describes his late brother Jake’s sighting of a black panther when he was fishing in south Devon. Then Sam explains his own view of a black leopard watching cattle and their calves on the Somerset levels near Glastonbury. Sam and Rick then discuss their inputs to a recent short film on big cat sightings in Somerset – see the podcast website for a link to the film, bigcatconversations.com/refs-links/ Our second guest Sonia follows-up the two big cat encounters f...

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97:57

BCC EP:133 Watching, stalking & hiding - big cats...

Big Cat Conversations ·

2025/11/11

Lee our first guest describes his close observation of a puma stalking fallow deer in Buckinghamshire. He watched the circling deer behaviour as they responded as a protective group to the advancing predator, and he describes the fear he felt at finding himself so close to the scene. John our second guest returns after episode 125, with more big cat stories from the Scottish Borders, including lynx in Kielder Forest and night-time encounters with staring and stalking animals that were p...

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67:59

BCC EP:132 Cats breaking out – tales from Hampshire...

Big Cat Conversations ·

2025/10/19

Dave our guest had two big cat encounters in East Hampshire in the 1990s. We also hear some panther and puma incidents reported to him through his fishing and his zookeeper networks. Dave also mentions rumours of canned hunting in the past as one of the origins of the large cats in Britain, and he describes some experiences overseas involving a captive lioness, a captive tiger, and escaped pumas. Words of the week: blending into nature 19 October 2025

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74:30

BCC EP:131 Surrey hills & heathlands – perennial...

Big Cat Conversations ·

2025/09/24

Our first guest Miriam had a close-up sighting of a puma back in 1968 in Surrey, while on an archaeological dig. She explains how she and her mother watched in silence before in slunk off. The local police followed up and found footprints from which they took casts. Miriam was recruited as a podcast guest at the recent event, Depicting Britain’s Beasts, when she visited the Nature in Art specialist wildlife gallery. Poems from podcast listeners were published in a document for that event, and...

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76:59

BCC EP:130 The Lactating Leopard - bonding with a...

Big Cat Conversations ·

2025/08/31

Charlie our guest recounts 6 months of his life at the age of 9 back in 1973-74. Around his house in Ayrshire his family lived alongside a female big black cat, seen active in fields and woods and at one stage she was lactating. Charlie regularly encountered the cat during spells when he escaped the ongoing stress at home. He describes its consistent behaviours, including its calls and its hunting. It took rabbits from his snares and he observed it resting in sun traps. This episo...

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75:52

BCC EP:129 Hidden in Herefordshire - the leaping...

Big Cat Conversations ·

2025/08/09

Our first guest Malcolm was an arch sceptic on big cats being wild in Britain. Then one night driving home in 2011 he encountered a big black panther on the lane outside his property in Herefordshire. It rushed off, doing a long leap through a high gap in the hedge. Malcolm then asked around and found that other people in the area had also seen a panther around the same time. Malcolm is coincidentally about 3 miles away from Craig, a podcast guest from episodes 72 and 116. Craig joins us agai...

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75:59

BCC EP:128 Secrets of the hoax – real & imagined...

Big Cat Conversations ·

2025/07/16

Secrets of the hoax – real & imagined beasts Our first guest Simon Lea had two close encounters with a large black panther at his farmholding in Oxfordshire. He later created the life-size metal panther that was positioned in Charlbury in a large garden close to the station. The ‘panther’ was spotted by train passengers and sometimes got reported as a real big cat, as previously discussed on ep 93 of the podcast. We hear the full story behind the Charlbury Panther from Simon. Simon has ju...

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85:30

BCC EP:127 Lurking at the margins – big cats of...

Big Cat Conversations ·

2025/06/21

Our first guest Hugh Williams recounts his close encounter with a big cat on a Worcestershire hillside. He also runs the Mysteries of Mercia website which explores quirks of history and folklore in the midlands and Mercia. As well as discussing his panther incident, Hugh mentions other big cat sightings he’s heard of and even a dogman description he’s received. He also considers the treatment of big cats in folklore, he touches on the black dog phenomenon, and he and Rick consider the b...

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78:12

BCC EP:126 Kent Cat Fight, Surrey double take

Big Cat Conversations ·

2025/06/01

Cat Fight is the new novel from author Kit Conway which centres around big cat encounters in Kent, published in the UK in May and the US in June 2025. We speak to Kit about how Big Cat Conversations helped shape her ideas for the big cat aspects of the plot. The book has already been optioned as a future TV screenplay, and Kit discusses how she weaved big cat sightings into a novel about the developing frictions across a close community in south-east England. It is a rollercoaster of a story ...

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66:31

BCC EP:125 Scottish borderlands – unspoken leopards...

Big Cat Conversations ·

2025/05/09

John explores the wild forests and farmland of his local Scottish borders area. It’s a sparsely populated region where black panthers and lynx are quietly discussed by some of the locals. John takes us through various lynx encounters, including two of his own, and describes his three experiences with large black cats – one seen nearby from a slow moving train, and one unnervingly close at night. John starts the episode by explaining how his military background helps his ob...

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