Weymouth driver claims he saw 'bobcat' near Affpuddle

Born and raised in Weymouth, Ian Knight has been a taxi driver for 11 years.

Mr Knight was driving a customer - who had broken down outside of Dorset - home to Ringstead at 2am.

He was driving on the B3390 near Affpudle when he saw an animal dash into the trees from the roadside.

It was captured on his dashcam - the footage can be seen below - and Mr Knight says it was bigger than a cat. He claims it may have been a bobcat - a species of wild cat native to North America.

Mr Knight said: "I was talking to a customer about Christmas and as we came around the corner I saw the back end of some kind of wild animal.

"I said to my customer 'Did you see what I just saw'?

"I have heard rumours about big cats around the country but never in this area."

Mr Knight has been a taxi driver for more than 10 years (Image: Ian Knight)

In October 2023, a woman cycling near Wareham Forest reported a close encounter with a 'great big animal with a dark black body' that she thought may have been a big cat.

Mr Knight described what he saw - on Tuesday, January 2 - as an animal bigger than a cat but smaller than a dog, with short fur but a tan colour to it like a 'British bulldog's bum'.

"It was definitely not a fox because it had no tail at all. It was very unusual," added Mr Knight.

"I was shocked. It is the first time I have seen something like that.

"I quite like my wildlife so I thought it could be a big cat like a lynx but they have longer fur which is what led me to think it could be a bobcat.

"I am adamant it was a bigger cat like a lynx or a bobcat. It is very far away in the footage but (it resembled a big cat)."

The bobcat, also known as a red lynx, are around two to three times the size of a domestic house cat.

A spokesperson for Dorset Wildlife Trust said: "It proved rather difficult to identify this animal from the clip.

"Our ecologist thinks that it is probably a fox as it is the right size looking at the height it came up the tree. Or there is a possibility that it could be a deer from the way it went into the trees at the end.

"We’re sorry that we can’t definitively identify the animal that was seen."