Credit: Pen News/Morgan Taylor
JAW-dropping footage of a “lynx” stalking a Welsh village has been captured by a “petrified” driver.
So says Morgan Taylor, 22, who was making a delivery in Rassau, Blaenau Gwent, when he spotted the creature stalking.
He said: “I was driving back home and I'd seen something in the bushes that looked a bit irregular.
“So I slowed down in my car – my windows were down at this point – and as it approached out of the bushes, I put my windows straight up.
“At first, I thought it was a leopard. I can't lie. It was massive. I don't wanna say it was as big as a toddler – it was even bigger.
“The video doesn't do it justice. It was about a meter and a half, maybe two meters at a push – it was a very, very big cat.”
Morgan, from nearby Blaina, recorded the sighting on Wednesday using his phone.
In his footage, a large cat with spots like a jaguar or leopard is seen prowling along the roadside.
Mr Taylor said: “I was petrified; that's the only word I can tell you. I felt like I'd seen a ghost.
“At first glance I thought it was going to be coming for me because it was a big cat.
“It made no noises, it just looked like it was investigating something.”
After the footage was posted on Facebook, it sparked intense debate.
It particularly divided Britain’s big cat believers – a community which maintains that the UK has an elusive population of wild big cats.
Some said it was a lynx, perhaps a bobcat, or even a leopard.
One person called it: “Absolutely clear and probably the best, most definitive footage of a big cat I've seen.”
Others suggested it was a Savannah cat, a Bengal, or another large domestic cat – and said one was known to be living in a nearby village.
Morgan said: “My wife says a Savannah cat but I'm determined it was a lynx.”
“It looked like a leopard cub that was just growing up.”
The experience has made Mr Taylor believe that there are big cats living wild in Britain too.
“Now I've seen this, yes, 100% I believe there is,” he said.
If he’s right, it looks like there could be a Beast of Blaenau running free.
And he’s got a message for the doubters too.
“I'd say come down to Rassau and come have a look yourself, because trust me they'll be turning around and running away,” he said.
“I'm lucky because I was in my car because otherwise I'd have run for miles; I wouldn't have looked back either.”
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