Our first guest Darren describes his investigations on local marshes in Cheshire, where he’s seen a black leopard, chased by his dog. This happened after his previous encounters with similar looking cats nearby, including on a disused golf course. Some of Darren’s encounters have been close up, and most have involved dogs around as well. Darren explains how these events have motivated him to search for more evidence and do a Youtube channel.

For our second guest we have an update from Liz in Cumbria, where a mother and cub, presumed black leopards, have been visiting the area. Liz has six more big cat events to describe around her farmhouse from the past year. She discusses what appears to be a young male big black cat loitering around the property. It shows far less predictable behaviour than the mother’s calm vibes.

Words of the week: Panthera pardus Britannica

5 February, 2026

Tracey had a prolonged and close view of a black panther outside her car at a forest edge in Gloucestershire in 2001. Two years later she was able to compare the cat with a black leopardess at Heythrop private zoo in the Cotswolds.

Tracey recounts other big cat reports from family and friends, including from her sister who was a sceptic until seeing a black panther in the same general area, and from friends who were confronted by a puma on a cycleway near Stroud.

Tracey has had two puma encounters herself. The first on a mountain path when trekking in Patagonia, and then in October 2025, when driving on the edge of Cirencester. Rick recalls past big cat sightings in precisely the same area of Cirencester, unknown to Tracey.

In a final segment we play voice messages from Craig in Herefordshire as he follows up ep129 when he reported a puma on one of his trail cams. In December Craig was charged by a puma just meters from that camera and he’s twice seen watching eye shine at close range. We then hear from Mark Graves, from ep 95, as he responds to Craig’s comments and queries about these recent events.

Word of the week: zoophobia

11 January 2026

Our first guest Sam describes his late brother Jake’s sighting of a black panther when he was fishing in south Devon. Then Sam explains his own view of a black leopard watching cattle and their calves on the Somerset levels near Glastonbury. Sam and Rick then discuss their inputs to a recent short film on big cat sightings in Somerset – see the podcast website for a link to the film,

bigcatconversations.com/refs-links/

Our second guest Sonia follows-up the two big cat encounters from Hampshire on episode 132. Sonia had never heard of any black panther reports in the same area and year as her close-up incident. But when she heard Dave’s account on that episode, it appeared to be the same big black cat at around the same time. Sonia mentions that a private travelling menagerie was based in Petersfield from the 1930s. Our link on the website, at the above link, includes a recording about the menagerie from Petersfield Shine Radio.

Thanks to Mark Jones in New South Wales for our closing music.

Word of the Week: vindicated

11 December 2025