CRYSTAL PALACE: Another 'Palace Puma' big cat sighting (From News Shopper)
Get involved: Send pictures, video, news and views - text NEWS SHOPPER to 80360 or email us
CRYSTAL PALACE: Another 'Palace Puma' big cat sighting
10:12am Monday 7th September 2009 in Bromley By Matt Watts
Artist's impression of the big cat dubbed the Crystal Palace puma
A MYSTERIOUS animal dubbed the Palace Puma has been spotted again.
Two 14-year-olds claim to have seen the big cat - first spotted in Woodland by Fox Hill last month - outside Crystal Palace Park two weeks ago.
Kaz Johnson-Salami said he was walking along Thicket Road at 7am when he saw a cat “the size of a Great Dane”.
The Streatham teenager, who was staying with his sister in Crystal Palace, said: “We saw it on the other side of the road. It was a huge black cat with bright eyes.”
The boarding school pupil said it was at a distance of 10m, and they walked away slowly to avoid “agitating” it.
Kaz said it was only while researching the sighting on the internet he realised there had been other sightings.
Bromley police said they investigated the first sighting in Fox Hill - that was reported to them - but they have received no reports since.
Big cat expert Neil Arnold has said the animal seen by Crystal Palace residents is a black leopard or panther.
He claims it is the offspring of “pet” big cats released in to the wild by their owners in 1976, when a law was created that deemed it necessary to buy expensive licences to keep them.
