AN EXPERT on "big cats" has questioned a Ryedale woman's claims that she sighted two of the mystery beasts roaming together in the district.

Elizabeth Downes was driving from Sledmere to Garton-on-the-Wolds with her mother on Saturday, October 18, when she noticed two large animals in a field next to the road.

"I thought at first that they were black labradors just in the fields, just either playing or stalking something," said Miss Downes, 30.

"They were quite large, at first I thought they were just dogs. As we were approaching I got a very good view of both of them. It was obvious that they were cats and not dogs. They were totally jet black.

"Their heads were small and blunt-looking, like a big cat."

But big cat expert Sergeant Eddie Bell, a police officer in County Durham, said the animals she saw were more likely to be wild cats, not the pumas which he is convinced do roam wild in North Yorkshire.

He has collated sightings of such animals since 1986 and believes there are a number of pumas on the loose in Ryedale.

He believes this is mostly because pumas were popular with private owners in the 1970s, and many of them were released into the wild when the Dangerous Animals Act came into force.

Sgt Bell said the animals Miss Downes saw were unlikely to be big cats, like pumas, because in the majority of sightings people described them as being the size of small ponies, not dogs. He said most big cats, with the exception of lions, were solitary animals so they would not be seen in pairs.

A stunned motorist reported the last sighting of a big cat in Ryedale, on the A170 near Snainton, in April last year.

Sightings of big cats in Ryedale can be reported to the Evening Press Malton office on 01653 690610.

Updated: 11:06 Thursday, October 30, 2003