DOG walker Angela Boyd says she had a close encounter of the big cat kind when she was exercising her animals on the Blackdown Hills.

Angela, from Westford, said she saw a large black shiny creature lying on a bank about 200 metres away as she walked in bright sunlight in woodland on the northern slopes of the hills above Taunton and Wellington.

She was nearly back to her car and took a photo before her camera batteries died – she says the picture shows a big head with two little pricked ears. She then blew her gundog whistle to see if the creature stirred – but it did not move. Days later when she went back to where the animal had been laying she measured the area and believes the big cat measures at least 5ft from its head to the base of its tail.

Angela believes it is not the first time she has encountered a big cat – she says they first appeared in the 1980s or 1990s. She said: “A very large black leopard ran past me a few winters ago when he had been disturbed by my two previous German Short-haired Pointers, who had been hunting pheasants in a rough, marshy area.

“I had seen what I thought was a huge ‘black’ down where they were – and I was worried in case it went for my dogs. However, it ran towards me – but when it was 30 metres or so away it saw me standing still, looked at me and changed course, veering off to its left into adjacent fields.

“I realised at that moment it was a leopard – and it realised I was not hazel tree but a human being!” Angela says the cat has previously stalked her and her dogs – once within sight of her car it signed off by making what she says is the characteristic ‘sawing’ noise of a leopard.

She added: “My recommendation to anyone walking on the Blackdown Hills is that they listen to the sounds made by pumas and leopards, and familiarise themselves with them – and pay attention to the behaviour of their dogs. Many dogs are terrified when they scent a big cat and will turn tail and run back to the car and/or bark in warning mode.

“Some scent the cats, others recognise the sounds – in any case, believe your dog.

“The big cats do their own thing, keep a low profile and I know of no records of them attacking people on the hills.”