BCC EP:144 The farm and the wildwood – tales from a Derbyshire sheep farmer

Jamie is a sheep and cattle farmer in Derbyshire. He’s experienced several big cat incidents, starting with seeing a black panther swat butterflies as a youngster while walking with his Grandmother.  Jamie describes finding a cat’s lay-up spot with prey remains, being growled at, watching eyes like car headlights through night vision, and firing a warning shot beside a cat to make it retreat.  Jamie is keen to learn more and content to live with big cats if they stick to natural prey. He describes two isolated cases of sheep and lamb kills, and considers what caused a big cat to prey-switch in those cases.    As the episode was being recorded, Don (our guest from ep 84) claimed to be watching a big cat elsewhere in Derbyshire on his thermal camera. See the footprint photo on our Refs & Links webpage, taken the next day at the spot where the animal was looking over a stone wall as Don observed it from distance.  Words of the week:   Code Omerta  27 September 2026