Walker Allan Griffin is convinced the animal he photographed was no mild mannered moggy

IS this the picture of a powerful puma-like creature stalking its prey in grassland near Axminster - or simply a domestic cat lazing in the summer sunshine.

Walker Allan Griffin is convinced the animal in his photograph is no mild mannered moggy.

He snapped the “black beast” while visiting Burrow Farm Gardens, with his wife Lesley.

“It was definitely not a domestic cat – we were about 100 feet away from it when I took the picture,” he said.

“We could both tell this was a large animal . It had a broad head with snub nose and green eyes.

“I quickly gabbed the camera and started walking towards it when my wife caught my arm and said ‘don’t go near’.

“I took two or three paces forward and within two seconds it had got up, spun around and shot off.”

Mr Griffin said workmen were cutting grass nearby and he believes the animal had been distracted by the noise of the lawnmower, which enabled him to get as close as he did.

He added; “One of the men said he saw the animal, too, and had never seen something that big before.”

“It was the size of a puma or even a black leopard.”

Mr Griffin, a financial consultant based in Taunton, is keen to know exactly what the animal was and would like to hear from any Midweek Herald reader who can help him identify it.

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