The Leicester Mercury’s in-depth coverage of big cat sightings in its county has led a team of specialist investigators to the area.

The Bristol-based Exotic Animal Register (EAR) decided to stake out fields in Leicestershire and Rutland after an increase in sightings of ‘panther-like creatures’ over recent weeks.

Its experts will now monitor the area using state-of-the-art technology to try to obtain conclusive evidence of the creature’s existence.

This year so far, 121 sightings have been reported in Leicestershire and Rutland.

Meanwhile, in Birmingham, the Sunday Mercury has put together a double page spread on big cat sightings across the Midlands with a map recording sightings throughout the region and down to Gloucestershire.

On September 16, the Leicester Mercury devoted its front page to stills from amateur video footage of a panther-like creature prowling through fields. The images were described by the Mercury as ‘the best evidence yet of a big cat living wild in Leicester.’

Since then, the paper has been inundated with phone calls about big cat sightings – mostly fielded by Mercury reporter Nic Ridley.

He said: “Since we published those stills I’ve received about 30 calls from people saying they’d seen big cats – and in colours other than black as well.”

Nic, a former Burton Mail reporter, doesn’t think these callers are cranks or attention-seekers.

He said: “The vast majority of callers seemed pretty genuine. In fact for most of them, their first words were ‘Look, I’m not mad but I think I may have seen something’, and that was from people in the city as well as in the countryside.”

Nic thinks the arrival of EAR should shed some interesting light on the situation.

He said: “The group has been established for 20 years and is made up of biologists and zoologists. They’re very dedicated so if anyone is going to unearth some evidence of big cats, it’ll be them.”

Nic and his colleague, Sian Brewis, will closely follow the progress of EAR.

Nic said: “I started off a little bit sceptical but now I believe there must be something in it. Whether they exist in the quantities that people have suggested is another matter but I am definitely open-minded.”

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