Apparently they were not the only ones to record the bizarre sighting
Kim Horton Senior Reporter
10:49, 19 Aug 2025Updated 17:21, 19 Aug 2025
A generic image of M5 traffic and a puma, which is the animal Jodie believes she saw(Image: M5: Paul Gillis / Bristol Live Puma: Pixabay )
M5 motorists are convinced they saw a dead big cat along the motorway near Gloucester services. A couple travelling from West Midlands Safari Park to Wales both came to the same conclusion after spotting the creature lying motionless on the central reservation, with a third person reportedly recording the same sighting on Facebook.
Jodie Jenkins, from Barry Island, described the animal as having thick hind legs and “a long, thick, rope like tail”, likening it to a puma.
The 38-year-old said she and her partner spotted the animal at around 7pm on Tuesday, August 5, reports Gloucestershire Live. Jodie said: “As we got closer we could see the rear end of the animal.
“It had two thick hind legs with a long, thick, rope like tail which was long enough to be sprawled out away from its back legs but curled back on its self, so the tip of the tail was under the animal.
“The animal was on its side, legs facing the central reservation, with its back to the road and rear end facing oncoming traffic. From the size of the legs and body there was no way it was a deer.”
She said the frame of the animal was “long and muscular” and it had sandy-coloured fur, which she suggested would have been the “perfect camouflage” for the nearby fields. Jodie said she was in “utter disbelief” and that her partner had also spotted the animal, having described herself as “sceptical” previously about the presence of big cats in the UK.
Jodie added: “We discussed what we had seen and both agreed, making me believe I hadn’t mistaken what I saw…I searched for large wild animals in that region on Google, and discovered there have been reported sightings of pumas.
“I 100 per cent believe that is what I saw.” Jodie shared her sighting on a big cat Facebook group and said another member corroborated her report, also claiming to have seen an animal they believed to be a big cat in the same location at the same time.
Gloucestershire’s well-known big cat expert Frank Tunbridge confirmed that Jodie had been in touch about the sighting, and said her description “certainly matched a puma, or puma hybrid”. He added: “Gloucestershire has always been a hot spot for British big cat sightings, and where this deceased one was located is in an area often frequented by big cats, being part of their territory or home range.
“A conduit route, which would involve crossing the motorway at some point, probably in the early hours of the morning, when traffic was at a minimum.” He said he has received “a number of cases” over the years of black and fawn big cats becoming roadkill, and it is his suspicion that authorities swiftly remove their bodies from public view.
Frank added: “Like it or not, big cats, similar to black leopards, or pumas, and also lynx, are here to stay, but even with overwhelming evidence, their existence is still denied. Which is good in one respect, as any large out of place predator would soon be targeted by hunters, and the authorities combined.”
Gloucestershire Police and National Highways have stated that they have not received any reports of a big cat on the M5 near Gloucester.