Could this be conclusive evidence that proves there are big cats roaming the British countryside? <\/p>
The DNA of a big cat in the\u00a0Panthera<\/em>\u00a0genus\u00a0\u2013\u00a0probably a leopard\u00a0\u2013\u00a0has been identified from a swab taken from a dead sheep in the Lake District.<\/strong><\/p> This is the first time that big cat DNA has been found on a carcass in the UK. The analysis was carried out at a\u00a0laboratory<\/a>\u00a0at the University of Warwick run by Prof Robin Allaby.\u00a0<\/p> Allaby told BBC Wildlife that it was very hard to lift DNA from swabs taken from carcasses but there was no doubt in this case.\u00a0\u201cIt makes me a convert [to the existence of non-native big cats in the UK],\u201d\u00a0Allaby said.\u00a0\u201cUntil now, I have remained open-minded, I think that\u2019s my job as a scientist.\u201d<\/p> Allaby has previously identified a bit of a claw that was sent to him from someone who wished to remain anonymous from the north of England as also belong to a cat in the Panthera genus.<\/p> Allaby started up the testing service 12 years ago when a\u00a0roe deer<\/a> carcass<\/a>\u00a0that had been scavenged was discovered in a small valley near Stroud in Gloucestershire.\u00a0\u201cAll we found on that one was fox<\/a> [DNA], which are a really underestimated predator,\u201d\u00a0Allaby said.<\/p> In the most recent case, the sheep<\/a> carcass was discovered by Cumbrian resident Sharon Larkin-Snowden in an undisclosed upland location. Larkin-Snowden told Rick Minter\u2019s\u00a0Big Cat Conversations<\/a>\u00a0podcast that she chanced across the dead sheep one morning in October last year.\u00a0<\/p> Larkin-Snowden said the carcass was fresh and that she had disturbed whatever had been feeding on, which she then saw running towards a stone wall before disappearing over it.<\/p> \u201cI assumed at first it was a sheepdog<\/a>, but then I did a double take and realised it was a black cat,\u201d\u00a0she said.\u00a0\u201cIt was big\u00a0\u2013\u00a0the size of a German shepherd dog.\u201d<\/p> Rick Minter, who has received more than 1,000 reports of people\u2019s encounters with big cats<\/a>, said the animal was most likely to have been a leopard.<\/a><\/p> Of the five species in the\u00a0Panthera<\/em>\u00a0genus\u00a0\u2013\u00a0lion<\/a>, leopard, tiger<\/a>, jaguar <\/a>and snow leopard<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0the only other cat that has a similar melanistic form is the jaguar, and they don\u2019t appear to be in the British countryside, he added.<\/p>