A FORMER police chief has caught on camera what he believes to be a large, non-native black cat on an Eden railway embankment.

Kevin Pitt, a retired chief superintendent with Cleveland Constabulary, is convinced that what he saw from outside his static caravan at the Wild Rose Caravan Park at Ormside, near Appleby, was a panther-like creature said to be stalking Cumbria.

His wife Jackie was first to see the animal at around 7.40pm last Saturday night and drew her husband’s attention to the creature on the Settle-to-Carlisle line. He said the cat was about 250 metres away, walking nonchalantly across an embankment close to Mill Bridge.

“I phoned the police straight away,” said Mr Pitt, who lives at Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees.

“I want to let the local farmers know because I don’t want them to blame dogs if there are sheep killings.”

Mr Pitt, 62, said his wife said to him: “Look over there, there is a big dog.”

He added: “I said to her: ‘That’s not a dog, that’s a cat.’

“You could tell by the way it was walking. It also had a muscular lump on the back of its shoulder.

“It wasn’t in a hurry or anything, it was like it was strolling nonchalantly along. We weren’t scared or anything – it was kind of nice to see.”

Mr Pitt, who has lived in Zambia and South Africa and has seen big cats in the wild, is convinced the animal he saw was a large black feline.

“I know quite a lot about cats. I have dogs and cats, you can tell them apart by the way they walk. I can say 100 per cent that it was a big cat.

“It was not a cheetah, it was all dark. What I know, from that distance, is that it was a large wild cat.”

Danny Bamping, from the British Big Cat Society, said: “The photos are interesting – but too far away and too poor quality to be able to tell if it’s feline, canine, a cuddly toy or a cardboard cut-out.”

Mr Pitt also reported his sighting to police, who have passed on news of the sighting to their wildlife officer.

A police spokesman said that the sighting was being investigated along with another in a field at Hackthorpe, near Shap, on Wednesday.