University investigates big cat mystery

Scientists at Warwick are investigating whether a mysterious ‘big cat’ is responsible for two savage deer killings in the Gloucestershire countryside.

The first deer, found earlier this month on the National Trust Woodchester Park estate, Stroud, was torn apart and stripped, missing its hair, internal organs, and snout. A second deer was discovered a few days later, just ten miles away from the first, in a similar condition.

Due to the state of the carcasses, experts suspect that the deer had fallen victim to a large and powerful predator, such as a puma, panther or jaguar. These big cats kill their prey by clamping their jaws over their mouths and suffocating them, before plucking the hair from their body and tearing into flesh. This may explain why the deer were missing their snouts and hair.

Big cats, being carnivores, would discard grass-filled organs such as stomachs and intestines, which also may clarify why these internal organs were missing.

Dr Robin Allaby, Professor of Life Science at the University, and his laboratory team are running DNA tests on the remains of the deer to genetically determine if such a predator was involved. Dr Allaby is an evolutionary geneticist and was contacted by the National Trust to head the enquiry due to his success within ecological forensics, in which he genetically identifies bat species for ecological surveyors.

The scientists took DNA samples from the cheek cells of the deer carcasses, in order to test the saliva from the predator’s bite and identify whether a big cat was involved. They then amplified the DNA using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) systems specific to cats, canids and deer, allowing effective analysis of a previously small trace of DNA.

The team are now identifying whether sequences of DNA from the sample match DNA sequences of a big cat. Dr Allaby spoke of the possibility of big cats living in the British countryside, and said, “I would be personally be interested to learn how they would fit into our ecosystem: how well integrated and adapted they are.” Allaby was not, however, concerned with any safety issues arising.