WALKERS were 'surprised' to spot what they believe was a big, black cat while out on an amble in the Lake District.

Liz and Stuart Wild were heading up towards Little Langdale with friends when they saw Cumbria's elusive beast.

"There were some sheep in the field and one of my friends said: 'Look at that dog'," Mrs Wild, 54, said. "But it was very feline and very, very big. You know how a cat stalks? It was a bit like that.

"At first we thought it was a sheepdog but it moved a bit more like a feline than that."

Mr Wild added that the animal was 'jet black' and was walking 'fairly slowly'.

"It had a big, black long tail," he said. "It looked exactly like the pictures of black panthers I found when I searched online."

Unfortunately, the couple, from Worcester, did not have time to get their binoculars or camera out to get a better look at the creature, which Mrs Wild said was around 75 yards away from them.

"It's the first time anything like that has happened," said Mrs Wild, who has holidayed in the Lake District on several occasions. "We were all quite surprised to see it.

"We had a big, dry stone wall in front of us, but I would have tried to get a closer look given the chance."

Meanwhile James Flint, a zookeeper who spent a year feeding big cats at a zoo in Norfolk, is convinced that a large, non-native cat could be roaming fields close to Grange-over-Sands.

He spotted a roe deer carcass near his home in Kent's Bank when out walking and believes that it could well have been the work of a big cat.

"I just thought how strange it was that there was a single puncture hole in the throat," said the 58-year-old. "I thought about what could have killed it and eaten it.

"I'm tempted to think it could have been a leopard.

"I've read a lot of these articles about non-native big cats in Britain and they fascinate me. It seems to me that they are out there."

Readers of The Westmorland Gazette have been reporting sightings of mysterious big, black cats over many years.

Last year the newspaper received a number of potential spots, including near Elterwater, Grasmere and Ingleton.