Cat’s out the bag: Cambridge cops reveal ‘Fen Tiger’ sightings

Is there a tiger loose in Cambridge? HARRY SHUKMAN reports.

big cat big cat sighting black tiger Cambridge cambridgeshire cat out the bag cats Catz fen tiger harry shukman paul westwood sighting tiger

This’ll make you paws for thought…

Cambridge cops have just released new info about the ‘Fen Tiger’, who has been baffling residents and students for years.

The mysterious beast cropped up three times in 2013, according to official data.

The pull of home?

Tell-tail sightings include a report of a ‘panther’ in a Friday Bridge back garden and a ‘big cat’ spotted trotting across the road in Comberton.

The ‘Fen Tiger­’ also left its infamous calling card in Melbourn: a ‘heavily mauled deer carcass’.

Big cat activity in the county was up 200% from 2012’s one attack on a sheep, perpetrated by an ‘unknown animal, possibly a cat’.

2011 also saw just one report of a ‘puma type animal’ running across a garden in Upwood.

The ‘Fen Tiger’s’ paw prints have been padding around Cambridgeshire for over a decade. Between 1998 and 2013 there were 68 calls to the cops with sightings of the animal.

Still running wild? This big cat was spotted near Girton in 1998

Speaking to The Tab, local big cat expert Paul Westwood said, ‘It’s probably one tiger, if it is a big cat, or possibly a puma. They get brought in illegally and let loose after a while.

 ‘But it may just be a domestic cat that people have reported as a big cat.’

Paul advises everyone, ‘Don’t run away but back away slowly. Go inside and report it to the police or to somebody like myself.’

In a similar vein to Paul, The Tab would like to tell those scoffing at the rumours ‘not to be a Cat Slater.’

 If you’re out in Cambridgeshire and spot a tiger tiger burning bright, contact the Cambridgeshire Police on 101 or check out more info on Paul’s website here.