By Tim Binnall
In a curious big cat case out of England, a woman spotted what some believe to be a dead puma on the side of a road and, when she later went back to get a look at the creature, it had mysteriously vanished. According to a local media report, witness Courtney Roberts noticed the downed animal while driving near the city of Chester last week. Taken aback by the strange nature of the creature, she managed to film the puzzling sight. After she posted a still photo from the footage (seen below) to social media, it quickly came to the attention of wildlife experts and British big cat researchers, who suggested that the dead animal could be a puma.
Adding an air of mystery to the case, Roberts went back to the scene around an hour after sharing the image online and the downed creature was nowhere to be found. "I've literally gone up and down again in my car with my full beams on," she wrote, "but I can't see any animal there now." The disappearance of the suspected big cat was particularly weird as it occurred in such a short amount of time, which led Roberts to speculate that "I think someone's seen my post and they've taken the animal." As one might imagine, this sparked some conspiratorial chatter among people online, though the big cat may have simply been injured and fled the scene upon recovering.