{"id":791280,"date":"2026-10-04T02:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T02:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/791280\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T02:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T02:34:12","slug":"meet-the-big-cat-chaser-from-cornwall-who-will-prove-they-are-living-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/791280\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the big cat chaser from Cornwall who will prove they ARE living here"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Cornwall tracker and animal expert is set to prove that big cats are living wild in the UK – and says she\u2019s seen evidence that guarantees they\u2019re here. Rhoda Watkins, 48, runs a business teaching tracking and an adventure holiday company taking guests to Namibia to search for leopards. She’s an expert in her field and can identify signs of big cats with ease – whether that\u2019s fur snagged and left behind, a footprint, or the animal’s kills. And Rhoda, from Redruth<\/a>, says she’s seen those signs many times, not just in Namibia, but also right here in Cornwall.<\/p>\n

Rhoda, whose business is called Track Craft<\/a>, said: “There’s been evidence that is indisputable. DNA evidence found in the form of saliva on a carcass and another hair on a fence. One of them came back as Panthera, that was in Cumbria, the hair on a fence came back as Panthera Pardus, that’s a leopard.<\/p>\n

“That’s proof they are here. They were both tested in laboratories, the University of Warwick, I think – it came back as big cat.<\/p>\n

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Signs of big cats that Rhoda Watkins, from Redruth, and her partner, Jason Opie have seen in Namibia (Image: Track Craft)<\/p>\n

“I’ve seen a sheep that was definitely killed by a big cat in Cornwall<\/a>. It had a bite mark to the neck; we measured the space between the teeth, and it was the size of a puma-type cat. I saw that myself; that’s what started my interest in it. “A dog makes a real mess when it kills a sheep; this was a clean and precise kill – then the carcass was left for some reason. “My partner has seen a big cat in Cornwall, up on one of the clay tips between Grampound Road and St Austell<\/a>. In the white clay pit, there was a big black cat working its way down the hill. It was sort of Labrador-sized but with a long tail, with the movement of a cat. “He knows the difference between a cat and a dog.”<\/p>\n

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Rhoda’s partner Jason Opie checking out signs of big cats in Namibia(Image: Track Craft)<\/p>\n

Leopards are native to wide regions of sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia, including India, China, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. In the wild, they live in desert and semi-desert regions, arid areas, grasslands, mountains, rainforests and sometimes urban areas. Rhoda continued: “We have great habitat in Cornwall that could be great for cats to live in. There’s lots of scrubland around the clay mining areas, a lot of it is left to go wild and that’s perfect for big cats. “We’ve just come back from Namibia, the habitat is comparable to what we have here with low gorse. It’s a natural habitat for a big leopard. “One could be hiding there easily. They’re so elusive, we’ve camped out in Namibia for a month and they’ve been all round our camp, but we’ve never seen one.<\/p>\n

Make sure Google introduces you to more amazing Cornwall people – click here<\/a> to add CornwallLive as your preferred Google source.<\/p>\n

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Rhoda Watkins, from Redruth, alongside signs of big cats they’ve seen in Namibia(Image: Track Craft)<\/p>\n

Just ten months ago a suspected big cat was spotted on the prowl in Cornwall on New Year’s Eve – and was captured on camera by a nine-year-old out walking with her parents.<\/p>\n

David Bowen, 46-year-old dad of Jessica, said they had all gone for a walk with their two pet dogs on the afternoon of December 31, walking behind Nansledan at Newquay<\/a>, when she spotted a creature in a field<\/a>, roughly 150 metres from the footpath they were on. Speaking at the time, he said: “It looked like a panther. The strange thing with this cat was for a moment we thought it was just a small cat, but as we continued to watch, we realised it was much bigger. It had this sleek kind of manner.\u201d Read that full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Nine-year-old<\/p>\n

Jessica spotted what appears to be a big cat in Newquay and snapped these pictures on New Year’s Eve using her new camera she got for Christmas.(Image: Jessica Bowen)<\/p>\n

Then, in February, another big cat sighting was made over the border in Devon – when hotel guests saw what they thought was a panther.<\/p>\n

They were just 200 metres away from the beast at the hotel near Dartmouth, Devon. It was just 50 miles from Bodmin<\/a> Moor. Witness Karen Carter filmed the sighting, and expert Rick Minter reviewed the footage.<\/p>\n

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Big Cat poo (Image: Track Craft)<\/p>\n

Rich, host of the Big Cat Conversations podcast, said: “In looking at the footage, we need to consider the form, the movement, the behaviour and the scale. “The long body, the apparent bulk, the thick tail and the thick legs do suggest a large cat which people might describe as a \u2018panther’. “The cautious movement and the gait does fit the bill for a large cat. Large predators are mostly stealthy and cautious even in roaming mode.” Rhoda and her partner, Jason Opie, 51, a tracker and ecologist, are now making a documentary in which they investigate big cat sightings in the UK.<\/p>\n

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Rhoda Watkins, from Redruth, is a professional tracker and ecologist set on a mission to prove that big cats live in the UK (Image: Track Craft)<\/p>\n

Rhoda continued: “There hasn’t been anything in Cornwall recently but countrywide sightings are picking up again. People are out and about so there has been an uptick. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was something soon in Cornwall. “We’re trying to see if we can find anything, proving whether it’s a load of nonsense or scientific fact. “We’ll be filming the documentary in Cornwall, we’ll be hunting for evidence in Cornwall. We’ll be looking for people who have had sightings recently and areas where there have been frequent sightings so we can go investigate. “We’re trying to do it as scientifically as possible, we’ll look on a map at where sightings have been, if there’s been something recent that’s a good place to start. “We got out as trackers and look for wildlife in that area as well as signs of big cats, looking for prey species, we’ll put out trail cameras and will be speaking to people.<\/p>\n

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Signs of big cats (Image: Track Craft)<\/p>\n

“We’ll be tracking in the areas that will hold sign well – hair on fences, droppings, any scratch marks, territorial marking points. We can look on a map and see where we think will hold those areas of sign well, then we spread out from there. “Finding any sign that we know is definitely from a big cat – a hair, a footprint – that’s an absolutely successful day. Ideally, something that could be sent away to a lab for testing. Or camera footage; that’s the ultimate – something that is undisputedly a big cat. “I’m open-minded about it. There are some really credible sightings and witnesses and some very compelling evidence nationally. We have some credible sightings in Cornwall, maybe it is just a matter of time if they’re still here.<\/p>\n

“They can have territories of hundreds of kilometres – are they just passing through or do they live here? That’s what we’d like to know.”<\/p>\n

Want the latest Cornwall breaking news and top stories first?<\/p>\n

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