Puma Sighting in South Devon
On the evening of the 30th of April 2020 I was walking with my dog up a road on the edge of woodland in South Devon. Suddenly my dog started pulling on the lead as we got to a gate leading to the woods. I knew immediately that he was onto something, then I heard what he must have heard! What was it? It was the high-pitched scream of a puma, echoing from the woods nearby in the still night air! In all, I must have heard up to 30 such noises and the sound was crystal clear! After this, it fell silent. I walked with my dog through the gate and stood on the grass beyond and moments later I saw something! In the fading light I could see that it was a powerfully-built tan-coloured animal and it was heading with purpose down a track in front of us about 70 feet away! My dog's view of it was obscured by a mound, so he did not react. At that point I decided to head quickly back to the gate with my dog, as I did not have a torch or a strong stick with me!
We stood there for a few minutes and all was quiet. After a short while we headed back and stood motionless for several more minutes but whatever I had seen had gone, probably down a side path into the undergrowth to follow other scents! What had I seen? It was the very puma that we had just heard!
We stood there for a few minutes and all was quiet. After a short while we headed back and stood motionless for several more minutes but whatever I had seen had gone, probably down a side path into the undergrowth to follow other scents! What had I seen? It was the very puma that we had just heard!
Puma scat in a South Devon wood. Copyright Alex Bowler 2020
Puma scat in a South Devon wood. Copyright Alex Bowler 2020.
Two fresh puma scats I photographed very nearby in 2020. Big cat scats have a distinctive and rather subtle musk smell, and contain prey hairs , especially deer hairs and can also contain the cat's own grooming hairs. (I have many more similar photos.)
Male Puma standing in the wood
Not long after sighting the puma coming down the track I set up a trail camera in a thicket overlooking the track further into the wood and photographed what I believe to be a male puma standing on the edge of the track in broad daylight just about twenty feet away from where I found the fresh puma scats seen above. You can see it's belly shape and thick rounded haunch and the back slopes up in typical puma fashion. The tail is tucked underneath and out of sight. Unfortunately the camera was not a very good quality one and the colours are not totally accurate and the photos are overexposed but, nevertheless, it caught the animal! In June 2020 I set up another camera a few yards away and caught twice what I believe to be the female puma I saw coming down the track, on the 30th of April, with her new cub in the dead of night but I have not made these photos public.
Above is a Labrador dog photographed from the same camera and showing the size comparison.
