{"id":435937,"date":"2026-02-20T10:31:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T10:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/435937\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T10:31:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T10:31:16","slug":"police-confirm-report-was-filed-of-large-animal-like-jaguar-seen-in-cospicua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/435937\/","title":{"rendered":"Police confirm report was filed of \u2018large animal, like jaguar\u2019 seen in Cospicua"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated 4.50pm<\/p>\n

The police have confirmed a report was filed on Tuesday of a large animal \u201cthat might look like a jaguar or a panther\u201d seen roaming the streets of Cospicua.<\/p>\n

A police spokesperson told Times of Malta the person who filed the report said they saw the black animal in a residence in Triq Dom Mintoff. The animal jumped down.<\/p>\n

The person who saw the animal told the police they “thought it might be a jaguar or a panther\u201d.<\/p>\n

The police spokesperson said that “Animal Welfare have been informed of the sighting”.<\/p>\n

Initially the police said that no reports of sightings had been filed but further investigations revealed that one report had been filed on February 17.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is not clear whether the animal has been seen again since.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The animal welfare commissioner said on Thursday that its office has not been able to confirm that there is a wild cat on the loose in the Cottonera area.<\/p>\n

The Office of the Commissioner for Animal Welfare issued a statement following a series of posts on social media expressing concern about a panther or a jaguar on the loose in Cospicua.<\/p>\n

\"Muscat'sMuscat’s post on Facebook.<\/p>\n

Some pointed to a post by Terry Muscat, who told her Facebook followers that she had spoken to a person who lives in Cospicua who had spotted a wild black cat on their roof.<\/p>\n

She said that when the wildcat saw the person, it jumped down three storeys, off the roof and that people who work at a cafe on the same street also spotted the wildcat. According to Muscat, the person who saw the cat filed a report at the Cospicua police station.<\/p>\n

But the animal welfare commissioner said that “following checks with available sources, including individuals who brought this matter to attention, there was information indicating that no wild cat was on the loose”.<\/p>\n

The information has also been referred to the competent authorities, including the Directorate of Animal Welfare, for any necessary follow-up in line with their enforcement role, the commissioner added.<\/p>\n

According to figures released in June, there are 38 big cats<\/a> in Malta. They include 13 tigers, 10 lions, five pumas, five leopards, two bengal tigers, two serval cats and one panther.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated 4.50pm The police have confirmed a report was filed on Tuesday of a large animal \u201cthat might…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-435937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}