Proof the Beast of Cumbria exists?: Scientists find big cat DNA on savaged sheep in the Lake District

There have long been rumors that big cats roam the British countryside.

Blurry photos, large unexplained trails and dramatic eyewitness accounts routinely add to the mystery of their existence.

But now scientists say they have found definitive evidence that a leopard is prowling the Lake District – after linking the DNA of a dead sheep to a non-native big cat.

Professor Robin Allaby analyzed a sample from the sheep’s carcass and discovered DNA from the ‘Panthera genus’ – meaning it must have come from a lion, leopard, tiger, jaguar or snow leopard.

He said a leopard is most likely on British soil and the exciting finding was the first scientific evidence that large, non-native cats roam Britain.

Scientists say they have found definitive evidence that a leopard is prowling the Lake District – after comparing the DNA of a dead sheep with a non-native big cat (stock image)

Biologist Prof Allaby, who said he had always been ‘open-minded’ about the existence of big cats in Britain, told BBC Wildlife magazine that the results of his test had left him in no doubt that someone was walking around the Cumbrian countryside.

“It makes me a convert,” he said. “Based on the odds, I think this is a real hit.”

The sheep’s remains were discovered in October by Cumbrian resident Sharon Larkin-Snowden at a secret location in the highlands.

She disturbed what had been feeding on the carcass and the animal ran towards a stone wall before disappearing.

“I saw something black running, and at first I thought it was a sheepdog,” she said. “Then I did a double take and realized it was a black cat. He ran towards a stone wall, stopped and then jumped over the wall. He was big, the size of a German shepherd dog.”

Ms Larkin-Snowden took a swab of the carcass and sent it to Rick Minter, the host of the Big Cat Conversations podcast, who passed it on to Prof. Allaby.

He analyzed the sample in his laboratory at the University of Warwick and discovered both fox and Panthera DNA. He said the findings indicated the sheep had been eaten by both a fox and a big cat, such as a leopard.

A blurry photo, posted by a Facebook group called Big Cats in Cumbria, which matches other alleged sightings in the countryside around Bowness-on-Windermere in the southern Lake District

Professor Allaby said he was relatively confident that the sample, which contained only a small amount of big cat DNA, was not adulterated, adding: ‘If this was fake I would expect there would be sufficient DNA present , so that we definitely find.

‘It would be very difficult to plant just a few molecules with any finesse. I don’t think I could do that, let alone a layman.’

However, Professor Allaby said there was not enough DNA to determine exactly which type of big cat it came from.

He also said more samples were needed before he could publish a paper on his findings or definitively say there was a big cat roaming Cumbria.

But Dr Egil Droge, a researcher into predator-prey relationships at the University of Oxford, said he was sceptical.

He told the BBC: ‘There are no good pictures of big cats from the area, no reports of sheep being killed. I would like to see more and repeated convincing evidence.

‘If there was a big cat roaming around England you would expect flocks of sheep to be killed. A big cat in a confined space, such as a field, with sheep would very quickly result in many of those sheep dying. That wouldn’t go unnoticed.’

The sheep’s remains were discovered in October by Cumbrian resident Sharon Larkin-Snowden at a secret location in the highlands (stock image)

Claims of big cats in Britain are not a new phenomenon. The so-called Beast of Bodmin is said to have been stalking the Cornish moors since the 1970s and a DNA test on animal hair found in barbed wire in Gloucestershire in 2022 indicated the presence of a big cat.

And there have been many possible sightings in Cumbria since the turn of the century.

In 2015, 26-year-old hotel worker Nich Boden spoke to his local newspaper about fears he had been struck and knocked unconscious by a big cat while walking in Tarn Hows Wood, between Coniston and Hawkshead.

He claimed that he woke up after half an hour with no memory of the attack, but that he had bruises, a deep six-inch gash on his left shoulder and what appeared to be four claw marks on his forearm.

“I know it’s all a bit far-fetched, but it seems very mysterious and not outside the realm of possibility,” Mr Boden told the Westmorland Gazette.