BCC EP:134 The Panthers of Avalon

Our first guest Sam describes his late brother Jake’s sighting of a black panther when he was fishing in south Devon. Then Sam explains his own view of a black leopard watching cattle and their calves on the Somerset levels near Glastonbury.  Sam and Rick then discuss their inputs to a recent short film on big cat sightings in Somerset – see the podcast website for a link to the film, bigcatconversations.com/refs-links/Our second guest Sonia follows-up the two big cat encounters from Hampshire on episode 132. Sonia had never heard of any black panther reports in the same area and year as her close-up incident. But when she heard Dave’s account on that episode, it appeared to be the same big black cat at around the same time. Sonia mentions that a private travelling menagerie was based in Petersfield from the 1930s. Our link on the website, at the above link, includes a recording about the menagerie from Petersfield Shine Radio. Thanks to Mark Jones in New South Wales for our closing music.Word of the Week:   vindicated11 December 2025