The Leicester Mercury has revealed what it called the “best proof yet” of a wild big cat on the loose.

It reproduced stills on its front page from a 15-minute home video shot by reader Graham Pearce which appeared to show a black leopard-like cat with a long curled tail prowling through fields behind the man’s house near the A42 at Measham.

Neil Dorman, a curator and big cat keeper at Twycross Zoo, was taken to the fields where the cat was filmed, and after looking at the video and the location he estimated that the animal was about three-and-a-half feet long.

Mr Dorman said: “It is the best video I have seen so far and its is definitely a big cat of some kind.”

In its comment column, the Mercury said: “Today we publich what is believed to be the first hard evidence that there might just be a big cat living in the wild in Leicestershire.”

After examining the eye witness accounts of Mr Pearce and the thoughts of expert Neil Dorman, it concluded: “This video footage is the clearest yet. We still cannot say for certain that there is a black leopard living in the wild in Leicestershire, but the film is the closest yet to proving it.”

But in a later edition, Drayton Manor Zoo manager Robin Roberts cast doubt on the film, saying he believed it was just a domestic cat, but he added: “I’ve seen big cats in Rutland and Tamworth and I spotted one off the A42 near Ashby a few years ago. I have no doubt they are out there.”

Recorded sightings of big cats in Leicestershire and Rutland are on the increase. There have been 110 so far this year.

As the debate rumbles on, the Mercury also ran a first person piece from David Spencer, co-ordinator of Leicestershire and Rutland Panther Watch who says he came face to face with a big cat in 1995. He is convinced that up to 10 such beasts live in the two counties.

For more, visit the Big Cats Website

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