Up to 100 big cats are on the loose and prowling through the British countryside, a boffin has revealed.
Professor, Robin Allaby, has himself found proof of their DNA in the wild in the UK.
The expert, from Warwick University, analysed a sample taken from a sheep’s carcass in the Lake District.
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He discovered ‘Panthera genus’ DNA – meaning it had to have come from a lion, leopard, tiger, jaguar or snow leopard.
The remains of the sheep were discovered by Sharon Larkin-Snowden in Cumbria last October.
She disturbed whatever had been feeding on the carcass and the animal ran towards a stone wall before disappearing.
Sharon took a swab of the carcass and sent it to big cat expert Rick Minter who passed it on to Prof Allaby, Professor of Life Sciences.
He analysed the sample at his laboratory and discovered both fox and Panthera DNA.
He said the findings suggested the sheep had been eaten by both a fox and a big cat such as a leopard.
Now he says it definitely wasn’t faked and up to 100 big cats could be prowling Britain.
He told Need To Know: “With the evidence we have now, I’m 99% sure.
“I always leave one per cent room for the possibility you may turn out to be wrong no matter how convincing the evidence is.
“I don’t think this is an easily faked piece of evidence from what I’ve seen.
“We know the evidence we’ve seen so far is hard to fake,” he said.
“It seems very likely on the balance of probabilities that, on the basis of this, there are panthers in the UK at the moment.
“Population viability analysis tells us that in general, a minimum viable population needs to be probably something over 50-100 individuals.
Prof Allaby added: “This summer was really quite exciting.
“In the news, there were reports of DNA of the Panthera genus recovered from the swab of a sheep carcass in the southern Lake District.
“Is it real?
“Could it be a hoax?
“Ours was the lab that detected it and we think it is real.
“Firstly there is absolutely no doubt that the DNA sequence was that of the Panthera genus.
“So could it have been planted?
“Well, that doesn’t seem likely either for a number of reasons.
“Firstly obtaining panther DNA is not going to be as easy as it sounds.
“Get some from a zoo?
“Fine, go ahead, try it.
“Enclosures are large and the edges that the paying population will be able to get to are not going to be laced with panther DNA.
“Even if we imagine a Victorian cage zoo with bars that our panther is licking, you could swab those bars, but it’s not going to be enough DNA with which to lace a carcass.
“What you need is fluids for which you will need the cooperation of a professional.
“It’s not likely that professionals are going to risk their jobs to provide such samples.
“Secondly if the sample had been laced, then we would expect plenty of DNA for us to be sure we would find it.
“That was certainly not the case and takes some understanding of DNA taphonomy.
“DNA breaks down by hydrolysis both in our bodies and after death.
“This process can change the bases of the DNA code.
“If there are very few DNA molecules to detect then these base changes begin to show through which is what we observed with the swab sample in this case making it one base different to the panther.
“The phylogenetic identity of the sequence is still completely solid but this is a hard thing to fake.
“However, to be truly convincing we need to find more samples.
“If samples show related individuals that are not related to captive zoo populations then we believe the evidence will be compelling enough to convince most people.”
He added: “So if there is a viable population there have to be a lot of individuals out there although this kind of mammal may be quite well spread out at very low densities.
“If and when we find more samples we will look to retrieve genomes.”
“To be utterly convincing we need multiple samples, genome level information and a demonstration through that evidence that these are part of a coherent population.”
Rick Minter, of the Big Cat Conversations podcast, added: “The Cumbrian DNA result showed the value of testing saliva from a carcass which had really fresh saliva.
“Sharon Larkin-Snowden actually watched what she described as a black leopard slink away, close to the scene, so she assumes she disturbed it when checking the field.
“She swabbed the carcass later in the day when she returned with a swab kit.
“But even in that time, the swabs yielded both fox and Panthera results indicating how soon the fox scavenging began.
“In recent years I have helped other testing of swabs from similar looking predated and clinically gorged deer carcasses and sheep carcasses.
“Perhaps the Cumbria result, partly tainted with fox scavenging, indicates how often we missed the original culprit when swabbing for saliva in these other cases.
“We will keep trying this and other testing methods, both to clarify the species identity of reported big cats and to see if there is a relationship across the leopard results.
“Mating black leopards produce black litters exclusively.
“So has a strain of black leopards emerged in Britain by accident, now culling deer in our woods, from the irresponsible past release of trophy pets?
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