ABCs or Alien Big Cats are common occurrences up and down Britain - and Lincolnshire, lets face it, is as believable as any place for a leopard, puma or panther to be roaming.

Vast expanses of fields, disused railway lines and old track ways run through the county.

Places that the Lindsey Leopard has been seen in the last ten years include - Market Rasen, Stapleford Woods near Newark and South Rauceby near Sleaford.

In fact, take a look at the map of where it's been sighted (The sighting in the south of the county may not be the same animal, though)

Could the Lindsey Leopard be, in fact, a Puma?

On the 14th August 1998 two large paw prints (about five inches diameter) were found at Bassetlaw near Gainsborough in cut grass on farm and identified as puma or lynx prints by RSPCA inspector Steve Foster. Photos and plaster casts taken. Numerous reported sightings in following days.

There was also a couple of rather disturbing reports in mid October. The one from Baumber near Horncastle. Three mutilated sheep were found although no cause could be attributed apart from a wild animal.

In Doddington Park, Lincoln a brown or sandy coloured ABC, described as "three times size of domestic cat" was seen. A mesh hutch was torn open, and two rabbits taken.

In late November of the same year a video of the Lindsey Leopard was shot in Woodhall Spa. A zoo expert said it was a large domestic cat.

The most recent reported sighting seems to be in July of 2002 after a man walking his dog claimed to have spotted a large cat.

Chris Till was visiting Laughton Forest, near Gainsborough, when he spotted the large cat in the woods. He said, "I took my dog Rusty to the forest as it looked like a good place for a walk. We had walked about 100 metres down the track when what I think was a cougar walked across my path. It was about 15 metres away, light brown, and was a little over a metre long. I was not scared at all, I was just intrigued by what I had seen."

Neil Pike, a Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust Conservation Officer has written about ABCs on the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust website "Sightings of pumas, jaguars and the like have been fairly regular for a number of years and seem to be localised to West Lindsey, the Horncastle, Louth and Lincoln areas."

"These reports vary in detail and reliability but there can be little doubt that some of them appear to be genuine, and the paw print casts add further to the belief that such a creature is at large in Lincolnshire, and may have been for some years."