A MYSTERY beast described as a “very large black cat” left a dog walker feeling ‘scared’ and ‘shocked’ near Denbigh Moors.

The sighting occurred on a country lane just outside the village of Llansannan, a small village in a particularly isolated area of Conwy County and at the foot of the Denbigh Moors.

The female dogwalker said she suspected the animal could have been a puma.

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She reported the sighting to Puma Watch North Wales, the group set up to document and raise awareness of such encounters.

About the sighting made at about 7.15pm on Wednesday, Febrary 17, the witness said: “I was out for my usual evening run approximately 3/4 of a mile out of the village of Llansannan on a rural back lane through a wooded area near a gorge and in the dark my headtorch picked up a pair of green eyes.

“As I got closer, I shone my headtorch (900 lumens) on the animal and realised that it was a very large black cat, around the size of a labrador.

“The animal was lying down underneath some trees and half sat up as I approached as though I had frightened it.

“I felt scared and it shocked me. I have domestic pet cats myself and know that this animal was feline and much larger than my cats.

“I have since returned to the same location and there are no other livestock in the vicinity and the nearest houses are around half a mile away.”

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Denbigh Moors is an area of land between Snowdonia and the Clwydian Range. It includes Clocaenog Forest, which is home to one of Wales's last populations of red squirrels.

Puma Watch North Wales founder Tony Jones said there is evidence that a small population of big cats is living in North Wales.

He said: "Big cats such as pumas are solitary with a hunting range of dozens of miles. They’re mostly spotted in Snowdonia and the Clwydian hills but reports of sightings in urban locations some distance from these areas are becoming more frequent."

He added: "As seen with Llandundo’s now-famous goats, who have taken to roaming the town’s deserted streets during the coronavirus lockdowns, it’s likely that the reduced levels of human activity over the last year is encouraging big cats to roam further from the hills into more populated areas.

When big cats were banned as pets in the 1970s, it was legal to release them into the countryside to avoid expensive rehoming costs. Owners from across the UK travelled to areas like Wales to release their cats in the remote environment, where small but significant populations have thrived ever since.