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Big Cat Conversations
Rick Minter
127 episodes
1 week ago
Our first guest Hugh Williams recounts his close encounter with a big cat on a Worcestershire hillside. He also runs the Mysteries of Mercia website which explores quirks of history and folklore in the midlands and Mercia. As well as discussing his panther incident, Hugh mentions other big cat sightings he’s heard of and even a dogman description he’s received. He also considers the treatment of big cats in folklore, he touches on the black dog phenomenon, and he and Rick consider the b...
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Nature
Society & Culture,
Science,
Natural Sciences
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All content for Big Cat Conversations is the property of Rick Minter and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Our first guest Hugh Williams recounts his close encounter with a big cat on a Worcestershire hillside. He also runs the Mysteries of Mercia website which explores quirks of history and folklore in the midlands and Mercia. As well as discussing his panther incident, Hugh mentions other big cat sightings he’s heard of and even a dogman description he’s received. He also considers the treatment of big cats in folklore, he touches on the black dog phenomenon, and he and Rick consider the b...
Show more...
Nature
Society & Culture,
Science,
Natural Sciences
Episodes (20/127)
Big Cat Conversations
BCC EP:126 Kent Cat Fight, Surrey double take
Cat Fight is the new novel from author Kit Conway which centres around big cat encounters in Kent, published in the UK in May and the US in June 2025. We speak to Kit about how Big Cat Conversations helped shape her ideas for the big cat aspects of the plot. The book has already been optioned as a future TV screenplay, and Kit discusses how she weaved big cat sightings into a novel about the developing frictions across a close community in south-east England. It is a rollercoaster of a story ...
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2 weeks ago
1 hour 18 minutes

Big Cat Conversations
BCC EP:125 Scottish borderlands – unspoken leopards & lynx
John explores the wild forests and farmland of his local Scottish borders area. It’s a sparsely populated region where black panthers and lynx are quietly discussed by some of the locals. John takes us through various lynx encounters, including two of his own, and describes his three experiences with large black cats – one seen nearby from a slow moving train, and one unnervingly close at night. John starts the episode by explaining how his military background helps his ob...
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1 month ago
1 hour 6 minutes

Big Cat Conversations
BCC EP:124 Confronting a midlands panther - a five metre face-off
John met a “black panther” during his evening dog walks four times in 1996 in Staffordshire. On the first occasion he was confronted directly by the cat at close range. As the predator was poised, there seemed no easy way out. John explains his thoughts and the subliminal messages he received at that moment, as he reached in his pocket and unlatched his Swiss army knife… ‘Big Cat Mystery’ outro track courtesy of Lancashire band DRIVE. Words of the Week: beauty in the beast ...
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2 months ago
1 hour 6 minutes

Big Cat Conversations
BCC EP:123 A shot in the dark – green eyes through the snow
Bonus feature - British wolverines? Our first guest Darren was asked to despatch a troublesome fox in south Wales in 1998. In the snowy conditions he actually saw a puma though his gun sights – he re-lives the high emotions on the winter hillside as bright green eyeshine stared back. Rick and Darren also consider the prospects of a big cat being trapped, and they discuss an event in 2011, when the police and the Home Office verified a plaster cast as from a puma-like big cat. For...
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2 months ago
1 hour 17 minutes

Big Cat Conversations
BCC EP:122 The puma paradox – Australia’s roo slayers
Andrea is a podcast listener in Victoria, Australia. She didn’t expect to experience big cats on her land. But she explains how events and sightings have indicated she has visiting pumas, which seem to predate kangaroos, wallabies and rabbits. She looks after two pure dingoes, which have reacted to calls and movements of what appear to be a nearby big cat. Andrea discusses life with the dingoes, and her heightened awareness of new hidden predators in the local bushland. In the fin...
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3 months ago
1 hour 35 minutes

Big Cat Conversations
BCC EP:121 Cubs – from Cumbria to Devon…
We return to Cumbria for latest news of the mother and cub black leopards, being experienced by Liz on nearby land to her property. In autumn and winter sightings Liz has noticed longer fur develop on the mother, as well as alarm calls from magpies harassing the cats. Liz and Rick discuss the challenges of getting evidence from this ongoing case. UPDATE: Between recording and then releasing this interview with Liz, she reports that her husband has now had two evening encounters wi...
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4 months ago
1 hour 11 minutes

Big Cat Conversations
BCC EP:120 British lynx & leopards – more police memoirs
Two retired police officers report their big cat encounters and incidents, including black leopards & lynx. We conclude the episode with comments on the January 2025 lynx release & capture saga from Paul Macdonald of Scottish Big Cat Research.Andrew our first guest from County Durham recounts his encounter with what he believes was a black leopard, when walking his dog in 2003. Through his police activity he then learnt about similar big black cat reports nearby, and his interes...
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5 months ago
1 hour 28 minutes

Big Cat Conversations
BCC EP:119 Over the hedge – big cats of Hereford & Worcestershire
Our end-of-year extended episode features Mandy from Worcestershire and Jon from neighbouring Herefordshire.Mandy explains the events which led to her setting-up a big cats Facebook group in Worcestershire, as a hotline for reports and discussion. Her own sighting was a close-up view of a black leopard type of cat, and instantly drew her to the subject.Jon watched a puma slink through his garden one night in 2003, close to the house he was renovating. His initial shock and concern turned to r...
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6 months ago
1 hour 47 minutes

Big Cat Conversations
BCC EP:118 Mother & cub on the moors – son of the Exmoor Beast
Tommy had two sightings of black panthers in the north of Exmoor as a teenager in the 90s. His first viewing was of a mother guiding a small cub, which made a lasting impression on him. Tommy recounts a local vicar’s sighting of a big black cat at the time, and he explains how local teenagers related to the Exmoor Beast legend. Later in his army career, Tommy heard fellow soldiers admitting to seeing pumas on Ministry of Defence land in Northumberland. Word of the week:  ...
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7 months ago
59 minutes

Big Cat Conversations
BCC EP:117 The leopard, the cub & the farmyard strays – in the company of cats
Liz describes several encounters with a black leopard visiting the farmyard where she and her husband feed the farm cats. She has been watched and advanced on by the large cat and is now fully alert to its potential presence. On one occasion Liz noticed a small panther like cat dart out of cover to catch up with the big cat, and realised it was a cub rushing to its mother. Liz reports how the farm cats change behaviour due to the bigger cats’ presence, and she explains how s...
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7 months ago
1 hour 17 minutes

Big Cat Conversations
BCC EP:116 The clawed carcass - grappling with the evidence?
Craig our guest returns after episode 72 when he re-lived his Exmoor big cat encounters in the 1980s.Now based in Herefordshire, Craig explains the big cat reports and potential activity occurring in his own village, right where he walks his dogs. He has been followed by an animal with large piercing eyeshine which alarmed his dogs, and he has recently found two fresh deer carcasses, one freshly devoured, and the other was still warm, had a severed windpipe, and showed claw marks raked down t...
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8 months ago
1 hour

Big Cat Conversations
BCC EP:115 The leopard trail to Skye
Our first guest Graham recounts a close encounter with a large black cat on the Isle of Skye during one of his fishing trips. We discuss how a cat like a black leopard could have arrived on Skye and how well such a cat could go unnoticed in the island’s wild terrain. For our second guest we catch up with Scotland research coordinator Paul Macdonald. Amongst recent highlights he describes two clips of footage shown to him at a recent rural show stand, and a report of a roadside puma carc...
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9 months ago
1 hour 18 minutes

Big Cat Conversations
BCC EP:114 Wye Valley pumas – the rescued & the wild
In this Summer edition we discuss pumas encountered in the wild on the England & Wales border in the Wye Valley, but we also visit a special sanctuary for re-homed exotic pets, also in the Wye Valley area. Our first guest Grant, explains how he and friends were advanced on by a puma when they were out lamping foxes one night. Grant describes the intense eye shine and what happened as the cat got closer…Our second guest Lindsay has experience with large cats from South Africa. Now she...
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10 months ago
1 hour 26 minutes

Big Cat Conversations
BCC EP:113 Daybreak with the Cheshire leopards
Steve our guest trains his working gun dog, a springer spaniel every morning at dawn. We hear of four occasions when he’s encountered a large black cat in his local Cheshire countryside. For one of the sightings the animal had a pronounced limp. On the BCC website (Refs & Links, Ep 113) Steve compares his sighting to the footage of a limping large black cat filmed in Scotland last year.Steve and Rick also discuss the footage of an alleged large black cat filmed in Steve’s area...
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10 months ago
1 hour 13 minutes

Big Cat Conversations
BCC EP:112 The policeman, the prints & the calling leopard
Our first guest Richard recounts a sudden episode of big cat reports from his time as a local police officer in Wiltshire. One of the cases involved a threatened domestic cat.In the second part we catch up with tracker and wildlife guide Mark Graves who was first on ep 95. He explains why some photographed footprints and plaster casts are evidence for big cats in Scotland and in Dorset, and he discusses a call which matches a leopard vocalisation, recorded recently in a Devon woodland. ...
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11 months ago
1 hour 20 minutes

Big Cat Conversations
BCC EP:111 Cat at the campsite, panther at the portaloo
We hear from Andy and from Gail, the different witnesses mentioned by Nick on his farm in episode 109. Andy and Gail speak about their own various big cat incidents during their farm visits, and they have each had one close up account… Andy confronted a large black “panther-leopard” one evening at the barns. Gail was on her way to the campsite portaloo when she watched a big black cat sitting in the early morning sun.The cat-like footprint photographed by Nick for episode 109 (BCC websit...
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1 year ago
1 hour 6 minutes

Big Cat Conversations
BCC EP:110 Panthera Cumbria - DNA developments
In this Cumbria update we discuss new DNA evidence with Sharon Larkin-Snowden following her input to episode 101. In October 2023 Sharon found a freshly consumed sheep carcass. Without realising, she also disturbed a big black cat at the scene. Later she swabbed the carcass for any saliva present, for a lab test. She and Rick discuss the DNA result which came back from the University of Warwick Sharon and her husband Ian describe their further investigations, including their use of...
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1 year ago
1 hour 28 minutes

Big Cat Conversations
BCC EP:109 The changing farm - new woods & new predators
Nick runs a farm in the English midlands which is now transforming to wildlife friendly woods and meadows. Amongst the farm’s wildlife are sightings and signs of big cats. Nick recounts people’s big cat encounters in the area and he describes the suspicious prints and the potential big cat lay-up spot found on his farm. He runs the farm in the knowledge that big cats have become part of the local wildlife, using the network of woods and the new wildlife habitats he helps to es...
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1 year ago
1 hour 14 minutes

Big Cat Conversations
BCC EP:108 Dusk in the park – kids & the curious panther
Eliza and two of her Cubs group friends came close to a black panther “with ears like a teddy bear” in their local Country Park in Spring 2023. The location is a big greenspace, busy in the daytime with families and visitors on the edge of town, adding to the shock and surprise felt by Eliza and friends. Eliza and her mum Sarah join us to discuss the difficulties of young people being believed when they report a big cat. Sarah and Rick consider the challenge of awareness raising o...
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1 year ago
1 hour 2 minutes

Big Cat Conversations
BCC EP:107 Fishing fright – the lakeside leopard warning
Wayne is an angler in Essex. He describes 3 close encounters with big cats at fishing lakes. On one occasion he met with a leopard warning him off just meters away on a lakeside path. The nearby muntjac deer might owe its life to Wayne’s presence, as he stumbled upon the scene between the cat and the deer. He got close enough to see the big cat’s markings… Words of the week: leopard popcorn smell 5 March 2024
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1 year ago
58 minutes

Big Cat Conversations
Our first guest Hugh Williams recounts his close encounter with a big cat on a Worcestershire hillside. He also runs the Mysteries of Mercia website which explores quirks of history and folklore in the midlands and Mercia. As well as discussing his panther incident, Hugh mentions other big cat sightings he’s heard of and even a dogman description he’s received. He also considers the treatment of big cats in folklore, he touches on the black dog phenomenon, and he and Rick consider the b...