Big cat reported 'limping' down residential street in Heswall

The witness said he was alerted by the sound of cats fighting in the early hours of the morning in Kestrel Road.

When he looked, he saw a 'large' creature in the street.

He added that it was limping as if it had been injured in a scrap.

He reported the sighting, which he says took place at about 2am on Sunday, August 15, to Puma Watch North Wales, a group set up to investigate and document such encounters.

The witness told Puma Watch: “I heard a cry like cats fighting.

“I saw a large cat about the size of a German Shepherd dog walking down the road.

“It was limping on the rear left leg.”

The latest sighting of a big cat has been added to the Puma Watch map. Image: Puma Watch

The sighting has been added to Puma Watch's interactive map.

Although originally set up in the wake of sightings in Flintshire and Denbighshire, the group has been getting an increasing number of reports from Chester, Ellesmere Port, Frodsham, and the Wirral.

Previous sightings of big cats on the Wirral include Willaston, Prenton, Bidston Hill and Burton Woods.

The most recent was on the Wirral Way cyclepath on the morning of June 21.

That witness described an all-black cat, the size of a German Shepherd, run down the embankment near the Damhead Lane bridge.

He said: “Out on morning cycle from Willaston to Neston direction.

“Approached Damhead Lane bridge when a very large cat ran down the bank, at which point I veered off to the right and the cat shot back up the bank and away.

“The cat was about the same size as a German shepherd dog, all black and without doubt, it was a cat.

“Extremely frightened and couldn’t believe it. A little scared to go back out in the morning.”

Founder of Puma Watch, Tony Jones said there were several hotspots for big cat sightings in the region.

He said: "Big cats have also been spotted in Ellesmere Port’s Whitby Park and behind the nearby Costco store this year. A few miles away, Chester has become a big cat hotspot in its own right. This includes one occasion where an animal was caught on camera on Chester Meadows by a delivery driver.

"Big cats such as pumas are solitary with a hunting range of dozens of miles. They’re mostly spotted in Snowdonia and the Clwydian hills but reports of sightings in urban locations some distance from these areas are becoming more frequent.

"As seen with Llandundo’s now-famous goats, who have taken to roaming the town’s deserted streets during the coronavirus lockdowns, it’s likely that the reduced levels of human activity over the last year is encouraging big cats to roam further from the hills into more populated areas."