Half eaten sheep carcasses with the bones licked clean of flesh were found(Image: Jam Press Vid/Darren Tinsley)

Suspected big cat leaves discarded sheep bones inside hidden den - with flesh licked clean off

Big cat hunter Darren Tinsley stumbled upon the den in an abandoned, metal pipe and to his surprise, half eaten sheep carcasses with the bones licked clean of flesh were strewn inside

by · The Mirror

A suspected leopard's lair packed full of discarded sheep bones has been found in the British countryside.

Big cat hunter Darren Tinsley stumbled upon the den in an abandoned, metal pipe and to his surprise, half eaten sheep carcasses were strewn inside. Other remains were discovered nearby in a similar condition. Darren, 42, said the skin had been peeled back and bones licked clean of flesh.

Now the explorer believes the creature responsible could be a leopard or puma prowling around Frodsham, near Runcorn, Cheshire. He said: "They all looked like they have been savaged. All the bodies looked like a cat had torn the skin back and eaten it from the insides and out."

Big cat hunter Darren Tinsley (pictured) stumbled upon the den( Image: Jam Press/Darren Tinsley)

All the skin had been cleaned off like they had been licked off by a big cat. There were a few carcasses inside and around the pipe. There were others around a tree at the other end of the field - easy places for a cat to kill and eat them without being noticed."

Darren added he'd had five big cat sightings over 28 years. He explained: "My first one was in 1997 then 1999 but I didn't see another until around 2014," he told What's the Jam.

Half eaten sheep carcasses were strewn inside an abandoned metal pipe( Image: Jam Press/Darren Tinsley)
Darren said it looked like a cat had 'torn the skin back and eaten it from the insides and out'( Image: Jam Press Vid/Darren Tinsley)

He added: "It was close up just meters away so I got a good look and then then again in 2015 and 2016. But that was the last time - I have not seen not one seen since. When I saw one up close it confirmed it for me. So I know what I knew I saw every other time. I have been obsessed since."

It comes after experts said big cats could be on the prowl throughout the British countryside after a recent sighting of a creature with "muscular shoulders". Some scientists have recently indicated wild big cats are not just figments of the imagination, but instead could be prevalent across Britain. Paul MacDonald, from the Scottish Big Cat Research Team, says they maintain a confidential list of sightings to shield the animals from potential harm or hunters.

Other remains were discovered nearby in a similar condition( Image: Jam Press Vid/Darren Tinsley)

And University of Surrey's big cat expert and Lecturer in Ecology and Conservation, Tara Pirie, spoke to Radio Hereford and Worcester, saying: "I think it is highly feasible, I've been a safari guide in South Africa for 10 years so I got up close and personal with leopards, lions, cheetah and as far as I'm aware we're still allowed to have one of these big cats and it to have escaped or it to have been actually let loose."

She added, "Big cats are highly adaptable, there's food, there's water, there's a lot of cover, so in my mind there's absolutely no reason that a big cat could[nt] be roaming the country."