ROBIN STOWELL: Puma encounter

Fifteeen years ago I lived in Buckinghamshire and was a member of BBONT (Berkshire Buckingshire & Oxford Nature Trust). One hot sunny Sunday afternoon I was photographing butterflies on one of their reserves and had just taken a photograph of a five-spotted burnet; I congratulated myself because it was the first one I had seen. Having walked on a few yards I came round a vertically hanging branch of a small oak tree when I came across a beautifully marked full grown puma. It had been basking in the hot sunshine and I was no more than ten feet fom it. Fortunately it was more frightened of me than I was of it and it jumped up and dived through a hole in the hedge. It was a beautiful golden colour with white underneath and up its chest. I tried looking through the hedge to see if I could get a shot of it but with the macro lens that I was using it was impossible.

Later I only told a few trusted friends because someone in the area was hunting with a crossbow and had, to my knowledge, shot a fox through a foreleg, which became gangrenous. There were plenty of deer in the area to provide a source of food and I had not heard of any sheep being killed at the time. However, don't let anyone doubt the veracity of my account I and am willing to swear to the truth of it in any court in the world, or in the next, if I get the chance.