Puma in a Devon Wood - 2025
This large and powerful-looking animal was captured on my camera in a wood in South Devon on the first of February 2025 at 11:30 in the morning. Interestingly, it was in the same wood where I heard a leopard growling on September the 23rd in 2024 ! In this same wood I saw a leopard on the 12th of August 2021 and I saw it running past on my night-vision viewer in June that same year very close by too! I have also recorded it growling in a neighbouring wood! It is also near to where I saw a puma in May 2020 and near also to another wood where one of my cameras photographed and filmed a suspected puma in 2024. It is also close to the wood where one of my cameras photographed and filmed a puma in 2022. Leopards and pumas share the same territories. It was on its own.
The animal is backlit and does not have much sunlight shining on its fur. This side of the wood does not get direct sunlight because of the terrain. I think it's lighter than it looks overall in the photo. The dark patches are areas in shadow. The tail is thick and is flicking out away from the animal and bent and would in reality be somewhat longer than it looks in the photograph. It shows no sign of narrowing at the base like a fox tail and does not look like a fox's brush tail anyway. The haunch is thick and and the fur shows muscle definition in the form of striations/indentations showing that it can only be a muscular short-furred animal. The short fur is also evident on its back even with its winter coat and the animal is going at quite a pace, as shown by the motion blur which affects the look of the fur lower down. See how high it is when compared to the man with his dogs in the accompanying photo! Look at the height of the Staffordshire Bull Terrier behind the man compared to it! Both animals are pretty much in the same position on the very narrow track. They are both the same distance from the camera, as shown by the fact that they are both the other side of the hart's tongue fern. The animal is simply too tall to be a fox and in my opinion all the other factors I have mentioned show it is not one, nor is it a dog. The tail has the thickness of a puma's tail. What do I think it is? I think it's a puma. It's certainly another very interesting photo!
The animal is backlit and does not have much sunlight shining on its fur. This side of the wood does not get direct sunlight because of the terrain. I think it's lighter than it looks overall in the photo. The dark patches are areas in shadow. The tail is thick and is flicking out away from the animal and bent and would in reality be somewhat longer than it looks in the photograph. It shows no sign of narrowing at the base like a fox tail and does not look like a fox's brush tail anyway. The haunch is thick and and the fur shows muscle definition in the form of striations/indentations showing that it can only be a muscular short-furred animal. The short fur is also evident on its back even with its winter coat and the animal is going at quite a pace, as shown by the motion blur which affects the look of the fur lower down. See how high it is when compared to the man with his dogs in the accompanying photo! Look at the height of the Staffordshire Bull Terrier behind the man compared to it! Both animals are pretty much in the same position on the very narrow track. They are both the same distance from the camera, as shown by the fact that they are both the other side of the hart's tongue fern. The animal is simply too tall to be a fox and in my opinion all the other factors I have mentioned show it is not one, nor is it a dog. The tail has the thickness of a puma's tail. What do I think it is? I think it's a puma. It's certainly another very interesting photo!
Red Fox - Photo by Zdeněk Macháček on Unsplash
Fresh puma footprint in the wood found on the 1st of March 2025. The fourth lower toe print is on the right. Photo copyright Alex Bowler 2025.
