A couple have captured video footage of what they believe to be a black panther prowling the Welsh countryside. David Davis and his wife, Natalie, were enjoying a kayaking trip on the Llangollen canal in Denbighshire last week (16 October) when they spotted the creature.
On their return journey around 5pm, David, 48, was startled by what he thought could be a black panther. “I spotted a cat in front of a gate in a field through the trees to my left,” David, from Willenhall, West Midlands, told Need To Know.
He initially found it puzzling how he’d seen a cat from such a distance. The animal was about 400 metres away at the top of the field.
As he reached a gap in the trees, he had to steady his boat for a better look. He was astounded, convinced he was observing a black panther.
The creature stood halfway up the farm gate and stretched about half across, roughly the size of a large Alsatian dog. It was side-on, providing him with a clear profile view.
He alerted his wife who immediately exclaimed, “Holy s**t it’s a big cat”. Encouraged by Natalie, David attempted to film the creature, but couldn’t get a clear shot.
The video, taken from afar and zoomed in, depicts a large black animal with a long tail moving across a field. The pair observed the creature for “two or three minutes” as it “zig-zagged down and then back up the field”.
After the sighting, David reported that the creature disappeared into the forest. Rick Minter, who hosts the Big Cat Conversations podcast, commented on the video: “I can understand why the witnesses checked and filmed this cat.
“I have a domestic black cat and watch it in our neighbouring fields – this Llangollen cat seems bigger than mine. However, I don’t feel it’s the scale of a black leopard, which are the main cats described across Britain, and are also called panthers.
“It’s tricky to gauge the scale in the Llangollen footage because of the distance and the short video clip. Personally, I feel the scale is more towards a domestic cat, albeit a larger one, than an adult black leopard.
“I don’t believe it could take down a deer when I look at its apparent scale and its form. However, the region certainly yields credible sightings – I had several incidents of cats matching black leopards described to me at a visit to the Denbigh and Flint Show in 2023, when we produced a podcast episode from there.
“In some cases, people’s dogs react as well, mainly nervously, during an encounter. So dogs as well as people see can sense these cats. Black leopards are stealthy and elusive, and people rarely see them in their native lands.”