The Charlbury panther

Tue 10 Mar 2009, 14:48

My husband and I have seen the panther quite a few times when we walked our dog in the quarry (before it was closed off) and I did take a photo on my mobile but you couldn't really tell what it was. On speaking to a local policeman about 2 years ago he said that there was more than one large cat in the area as the panther had a cub and he'd had over 60 reports of sightings.

Sun 15 Feb 2009, 22:56

Try a metal sculpture in the grounds of the priory

Fri 13 Feb 2009, 14:20

Yes Hamish, I wish I'd saved this story until April 1st but I couldn't wait that long!

Fri 13 Feb 2009, 14:04

Derek, I believe that bait has been taken. I too have observed the motionless big cat in the same location as you describe so very close to Charlbury station :-)
Though, I have also seen a very real and alive creature inbetween Combe and Long Hanborough stations moving very gracefully across a field early one morning last year. The beast is out there, somewhere, who knows where?!

Fri 13 Feb 2009, 11:19

We had something similar in our back garden once: archive.theoxfordtimes.net/2001/7/7/58448.html .

Fri 13 Feb 2009, 10:15

I will try to get you a photo next time I take the train to Oxford Jon. I fear the panther may have perished by then because it was looking awfully thin when I saw it last week. I hope the residents of Shilson Lane are putting out raw meat for it to eat - it's not only birds that need feeding when the weather is very cold!

Fri 13 Feb 2009, 08:42

The funny thing about the panther is that no one who sees it is ever carrying a camera. And even though you see it regularly, Derek, you don't get a photo of it either. I'm tempted to compare it to the flying saucer that hovered over my garden for an hour or so last summer: none of the neighbours seems to have noticed it, and I didn't think of photographing it...

But I believe you, because I do know two people who have seen the 'big cat', one crossing the Witney Road in Finstock around 10 years ago (obviously on a Panther crossing), the other a little more recently in the quarry in the forest. Which raises the question of how long such a beast will live in the wild, and whether there is just the one.

Is there anyone who has got a photo of it? Frank, are you reading this?

Thu 12 Feb 2009, 22:15

Has anyone else seen this magnificent beast? Someone told me that it escaped from the Cotswold Wildlife Park a few years ago and now lives in the fields around Charlbury. It seems to enjoy hunting near the railway line because several times recently I have seen it from the window of the train en route from Charlbury to Oxford (look down to your left shortly after the train leaves the station and you might catch a glimpse of it). It's a wonderfully elegant creature and so delightfully slim (that healthy Cotswold air must do wonders for its physique!). When I saw it one morning last week it was crouching motionless by the railway line and appeared to have been in that position for some considerable time as snow had even settled on its back! I suppose it was hoping that a rabbit would come out of its hole so that it could catch it for breakfast. How lucky we are in Charlbury to have beautiful, exotic creatures from another continent on our doorstep for us to observe!