Big cat filmed near Barnard Castle (From The Northern Echo)

Big cat filmed near Barnard Castle

7:44am Thursday 13th August 2009 in

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INTRIGUING footage has emerged allegedly showing a big cat prowling the County Durham countryside.

The clip shows a black animal moving slowly across the corner of a field.

A DVD containing the footage was handed to The Northern Echo this week by a County Durham resident.

During the two-minute video, the cameraman can be heard speculating that the animal is hunting rabbits and discussing being attacked by it.

At one point the animal stops and turns towards the camera, causing the operator to say: “Keep still.”

The man, who does not want to be named, handed over the disc claiming it was taken by a dog walker in the Eighties near a copse behind the Glaxo plant, in Barnard Castle.

He said: “The man had been walking past the copse for two weeks previously and his dog wouldn’t go anywhere near it.

“On this morning, he saw the cat and ran back to his house to get the camera and his wife.”

Experts have speculated for more than a decade that remote areas of the North-East and North Yorkshire are home to pumas, panthers and lynx.

If the footage is genuine, it would be the first time a wild big cat has been caught on camera in the region.

However, opinion is divided on the type of animal seen on the film.

Although the source who handed over the footage is convinced it features a big cat, North-East ecologist Ian Bond is less sure.

Mr Bond, who has compiled evidence of big cat sightings across the region, said: “It had me going for a few seconds but then I saw it up against the grass, which will only be a couple of feet high.”

Mr Bond admitted the animal looked to have a stocky body, however he concluded: “I think it’s just a very large cat.”

He added that the animal could not be the legendary Durham Puma as pumas are brown not black.

“It would have to be a panther,” he said.

Danny Bamping, from the British Big Cats Society, has described the North-East as a “hotspot” for big cat sightings.