Tiger King star Carole Baskin thinks it's possible big cats could be roaming free on the Isle of Wight - and it's not the first time she's been made aware of sightings here.
The owner of the Big Cat Rescue Sanctuary, who shot to fame in the hit Netflix show, is to star in a new documentary investigating alleged panther appearances on the Island.
Jake Valvona's ‘The Mystery of the Panther’ will look into stories of big cats living undetected in the wild here and will explore how they got here - if, of course, they have.
A number of apparent sightings of the giant mammals have come over the years. Most recently, an Isle of Wight family claimed to have seen a large black cat near Lynbottom Tip in Newport.
No photos have ever been captured, and the mystery over whether the sightings are fact or fiction remains.
Carole Baskin believes it wouldn't be hard for the cats to roam free on the Island however. She told Jake Valvona:
"We get so many reports from all around the world of people seeing big cats but the Isle of Wight, when you mentioned it, immediately came to mind. Our previous operations manager Scott Lope had actually been invited there to do a programme about the thought that there were black leopards running lose on the Isle of Wight."
Scott Lope directed 'Monster Quest: Black Beast of Exmoor' which explored sightings of a big cat in British forests.
Carole added:
"The thing about, if it is a leopard, I think they are the most adaptive of all of the cats and the favourite picture I ever saw was a National Geographic photo where they were filming this village and the didn't even realise they had captured a leopard in the middle of the village in the middle of the day that the cat was so well camouflaged by a stack of sticks and it was just waiting for night.
"You could living around these cats forever and not know they're there because they're so smart and so elusive."
'Mystery of the Panther' is produced by Jake's company Imperial Media.
The former Isle of Wight College media production student is shooting the documentary himself, with help from friends.
It is due to be released on Amazon Prime and Vimeo in 2022.
Islanders who would like to tell their Isle of Wight big cat stories can email Jake on [email protected].
Or, if you think you've got what it takes to narrate the show, you can email [email protected] with your name, date of birth and town of residence.
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