'I heard a very deep growl' - The search for the elusive Hartlepool Puma

Further afield there was the Durham Puma and even the Trimdon Panther.

Could they have been all one beast or perhaps a family of big cats roaming our countryside?

Or were they simply feral cats or merely everyday animals such as foxes whose size had been enhanced to startled onlookers by shadows?

Former Hartlepool wildlife officer Ian Bond spent more than a decade chronicling sightings across the North East after a “close encounter” of his own in 1999 on the Castle Eden Walkway.

Ian heard a “very deep growl” which left him “transfixed”.

The experience followed a summer filled with reports of big cats at the country park.

"It was very unnerving,” said Ian, who went on to document around 200 similar sightings between 2000 and mid-2012.

In 2010, Ian, wrote a book called the called the Path of the Panther and is convinced there was a black panther roaming south-west Northumberland.

As for sightings closer to home, Ian recalled in 2022: "I spoke on the this subject in the art centre in the middle of town. Some of the audience said they were out for a walk in the woodlands up near Crimdon and they were sat having a cup of coffee and this panther walked past,” he said.

"Going back, there were a lot of sightings.”

He added: "Some of the sightings were very believable. I came to the conclusion that there was definitely one or two cats on the loose across the North East.

"But I don’t think there is an established population of big cats across the North East or we would have found them by now.”

Younger sceptics may not be aware that the private ownership of big cats and other “exotic animals” was only outlawed in Great Britain in 1976.

A loophole in the law meant it was also not illegal to release such creatures into the countryside until 1981.

Were then pumas or panthers abandoned by their local owners?

Mr Bond was certainly not the only person to openly discuss sightings with the Mail.

Back in 2011, Geoff and Myra Denton, from Hartlepool, told the Mail they had seen a puma cross the road ahead of them as they were passing Crimdon Dene while visiting friends.

The creature had a “big long tail” and went across the road pretty quickly before disappearing.

In March of the same year, Mal Sandles found what he thought was puma footprint in a patch of mud while he was walking his dog in Hart.

Further back in time, Jack Smurthwaite, from Elwick, spotted a big cat and its cub while walking in the village’s woodland in 2004.

While the reports have largely dried up – or even tailed off – Ian was told of a sighting of a puma near Trimdon three years.

Although he said the report was believable, he doubted if it was the same beast spotted more than a decade ago.

Ian said: "I don’t know if there are any big cats left in the North East anymore, I think we might have tracked them down if there were, but I am convinced there were at least a couple back in the day.”

To find out more, visit Ian’s blog raveonthewing.com