Shocked McDonald’s driver spots mystery ‘big cat’ on prowl after ‘puma’ sightings
A SHOCKED McDonald's driver spotted a mystery 'big cat' after sightings of a 'puma'.
Richard Evans, 24, was riding his bike when he spotted the "enormous" creature stalking its way through a meadow in Chester.
The stunned fast-food delivery driver has reported the sighting to a "puma watch" group after hearing of other sightings in the area.
He provided a picture of the mystery creature which appears to show a large, black cat-like animal.
Other sightings have been reported since November, leading to the beast being dubbed the “Puma of Pontybodkin”.
Richard said: “I was out on my bike coming back into town after delivering someone’s McDonald’s when I spotted an enormous big cat across the river on the meadows.
'PROWLING'
"I pulled over to take a picture and tried to shout to a dog walker nearby but they couldn’t hear me.
"It was prowling along the edge of the long grass then disappeared into the undergrowth.
"It was absolutely massive though, like nothing I’ve ever seen.”
On New Year's Eve, a mystery big cat was spotted in the Welsh hills — with many convinced it is a puma.
The black beast, said to be the size of a Labrador, was seen skulking along an A-road.
One sighting was reported by terrified Toby Matthews who said he was confronted walking in deserted woods.
He said: “Maybe 50 or 60 feet away was an enormous black cat looking right at me.
"I took a photo then turned around and quickly walked back. I wanted to start running but was worried it’d give chase.
“I’m convinced that it was a puma. It was about two or three times the size of my little Labrador.
It follows recent sightings of a black “dog-sized” cat 20 miles away in Pontybodkin.
It comes after another large feline was spotted several times last year at Snowdonia, including one report where ten sheep were killed.
Richard spotted the puma-like creature on December 13 in Chester - around 10 miles from other reported sightings of an animal.
Tony Jones, founder of Puma Watch North Wales, said it was a "surprise" to get a sighting reported so close to a busy city centre.
The animal looked to be "two or three metres long", he said,
He added: "Since getting this report, we've learnt that in September 2011 someone called 999 to report a tiger in the exact same location.
"They were walking along the River Dee in Chester when they said a tiger had walked through a late and looked at them before disappearing off into the bushes.
"This wasn't made public until 2014.
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"It's really hard to get a sense of scale from the photo, probably because of the distance combined with some motion blur on time animal.
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"Potentially a 'low-light' mode has kicked in on the phones camera and the animal moving quickly while the photo was being taken has exaggerated the size it appears."
A male adult puma can grow to about 2.4 metres.
