Big Cat Conversations

Leopard specialist Sanjay Gubbi describes his work tracking, monitoring and camera-trapping leopards in India, and helping people live alongside these stealthy predators. 

Sanjay gives us highlights f…

Our first guest Rich explains his thermal camera view of a big cat during his military training on Dartmoor. Our second guests Gareth and Ray discuss a black panther sighting during their family brea…

Jane and Ade are based at a chicken farm in Nottinghamshire – a black panther arrived on the scene in December 2021, witnessed several times so far, patrolling local fields and lanes. 

We hear from Ja…

In part one David McEwan briefs us on key sightings from south Scotland in 2021, in part two Frank Tunbridge offers highlights from the 2021 big cat reports he received. 

Both guests also reflect on J…

Our guests Annie Brazier and Shelly Coles discuss recent big cat encounters in Norfolk and in Ireland, as well as a shot cat from 2019 in Herefordshire. Annie and Shelly are both centrally involved i…

Frazier watched a big black cat hunt for geese in marshland at the Suffolk coast in November 2021 – he describes the spectacle of the autumn arrival of geese on the marsh, complete with the lurking p…

In the first of two episodes featuring big cat reports of France, Michael describes watching a black panther creeping through summer pasture at the edge of his village in the Pas de Calais in 2020. W…

Frances explains what happened when she noticed a puma following 3 schoolboys in southern Lanarkshire, Scotland. She then cautiously asked around her village and learnt that big cat reports were noth…

Black panthers, assumed to be black leopards, have been reported in the Wirral in Cheshire for over 20 years – our 2 guests describe some of these past sightings and explain their own encounters. 

Ben…

Paul MacDonald describes the discovery and lab testing of an apparently large cat’s carcass found near Bannockburn in 2020, and then discusses how the mapping of witness reports in south Scotland has…

Author Nick Albert wrote about sensing and then seeing a black panther near his family’s West of Ireland home in his series of books Fresh Eggs and Dog Beds – we delve into those incidents with Nick …

Tom re-lives his close encounter with a black leopard like cat near Stroud town centre in 2015, and his sighting of a similar looking cat which stopped the traffic when he was driving up a Cotswold h…

On 1st August near Wexford, Ireland, Lar filmed a large black animal wandering past his house in the neighbouring field – still raw with emotion speaking on the podcast, he explains how he quickly se…

Mark a Suffolk taxi driver explains his close up sighting of a black panther one evening, and how he now gets reports from customers about the topic, while Jo, a town councillor from Dolgellau, recou…

James guides us through the forest environment at night in deepest Shropshire, keeping watch for the eye shine, movement and vibes of a big cat…

Word of the week:   habitat  

17 July 2021

Zoologist Darren Naish explores the traits of larger cats in Britain and Europe from the Pleistocene times, and considers lessons for rewilding and the adaptations of any large cats in Britain now, w…

Our three guests have each witnessed big cats north of London in and around Hertfordshire and Essex – Matt encountered a black leopard on land where he is a deerstalker, while Andrew was awoken from …

British wildlife photographer Will Burrard-Lucas explains his techniques for filming wild animals up close, including his specially designed Beetlecam, and he re-lives the process of photographing a …

Our guest Anne ran a stud farm on Anglesey where a black panther frequented her land for over a decade - she had detailed sightings of the cat stalking, experienced close encounters at night, and had…