{"id":61873,"date":"2025-08-11T16:42:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T16:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/61873\/"},"modified":"2025-08-11T16:42:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T16:42:16","slug":"the-builder-who-logs-big-cat-sightings-in-surrey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/61873\/","title":{"rendered":"The builder who logs big cat sightings in Surrey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Stuart Maisner &amp; Simon Furber<\/p>\n<p>BBC News, South East<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753965012_369_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dkIvM hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/4f0d3d00-7216-11f0-8dbd-f3d32ebd3327.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Simon Furber\/BBC Close up image of Gary Ridley wearing a cap looking to camera with a hedge and grass behind him\" class=\"sc-d1200759-0 dvfjxj\"\/>Simon Furber\/BBC<\/p>\n<p>Gary Ridley has compiled dossiers recording hundreds of sightings in Surrey<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">A Surrey man who has dedicated the last 15 years to researching big cat sightings says he is convinced five of the creatures are in the wild within a 10-mile (16km) radius of Guildford. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Amateur big cat investigator Gary Ridley has compiled dossiers recording hundreds of sightings, many gained through Freedom of Information requests, across the county. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Mr Ridley, a builder by trade, said: &#8220;I&#8217;m absolutely convinced they are here in Surrey from evidence that I&#8217;ve seen.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">However despite the volume of sightings, no conclusive photographic or physical evidence has ever confirmed the existence of a big cat in the wild in the county.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Mr Ridley said he has never spotted a big cat himself.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">He set up a website, Surrey Panther Watch, for people to log sightings, saying his goal is to &#8220;conclusively prove that big cats are living wild in Surrey&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">He said: &#8220;Since the 1960s, Surrey residents have described encounters with large, cat-like beasts, some black, some tan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;Many sightings report a labrador-sized black cat, similar in appearance to a panther or puma, as well as sandy-coloured pumas and lynx.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Waterers Park in Knaphill has been the location of a number of recent sightings.<\/p>\n<p>Gary Ridley set up the website Surrey Panther Watch<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Mr Ridley said: &#8220;A lady stepped out into her back garden to see a big black cat running down the path.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;She said it had a long black tail, short ears and was as big as a dog, and she was quite convinced it was a panther.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">He added: &#8220;A week later a nearby gamekeeper told me one of his shooters had seen a big black panther. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;Two reports in the same area in a short space of time suggest there is a big cat here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">Mr Ridley said, after 15 years, he had no plans to wind down his investigations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 hxuGS\">&#8220;I&#8217;d like to see a national study,&#8221; he added. &#8220;I feel there are questions to answer.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stuart Maisner &amp; Simon Furber BBC News, South East Simon Furber\/BBC Gary Ridley has compiled dossiers recording hundreds&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-61873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}