CARL WRITES: 8/4/19 - Pentre Halkyn, Flintshire

This is an easy one!

The “huge cat-like beast” recorded back in 2016 by a drones onboard camera in the idyllic Welsh mountains is unfortunately nothing of the sort! There have been many reports (some good, some not so) of dark, panther-like animals, roaming across North Wales in recent years , however this footage doesn’t do big cats research or cryptozoology in general much favours.

The video producers from RoughCuts, who flew their drone over the quarry in Pentre Halkyn, Flintshire; after re-viewing the footage, honestly came to the conclusion that the animal they recorded looked cat-like. And indeed it does at a quick glance, however, if one takes the time to blow-up the footage and pause the video at thirty one seconds, and again between thirty six and thirty eight seconds, it can be adequately observed that this animal was actually wearing a pale coloured collar.

So it’s either a stray dog or the owner is out of view. Maybe the owner of the white dog mentioned in the article also had a black dog (maybe a black Labrador) which wasn’t on a lead at the time when the drone recorded overhead.

Nonetheless, this is a good example of how the media creates hype; in this case by only publicising still frames that don’t clearly show the collar, therefore misleading the public. The still published in the article is at thirty three second in the video, whereas previously at thirty one seconds, it is observable – in my opinion this deception must have been intentional.

Then we get roughly two seconds of video where we get a few different views of the collar – implying that’s what it was as opposed to a light patch on the fur. (thirty six seconds through to thirty eight seconds).

There clearly are, or at least have been, non native felids loose in North Wales, however, unfortunately this is nothing but a black dog (or a media induced red herring).