It's a jungle out there!

Disbelievers will scoff at such an unlikely scenario, but there are experts and enthusiasts who believe the idea is a genuine possibility borne out by a string of eyewitness reports.

The latest sighting, in July 2002, came near Askerswell where a Bridport woman and her friend spotted a sleek, jet-black, cat-like creature about two feet long with a very long tail that curved round. The beast was spotted nearby at the same time last year.

There is no question of innocent ramblers having their throats torn out by a passing man-eater, but equally there are too many incidents for the big cats concept to be discarded as pure fantasy.

And it is undisputed fact that Dorset has a history of keeping big cats at a variety of sites in the past 150 years.

Plymouth College biologist and big-cat enthusiast Chris Moiser said that the last century saw dozens of Victorian menageries and private zoos all over the country and there was evidence of a menagerie's visit to Dorset as early as 1806.

He said: "Newspaper reports in an Exeter Flying Post of 1806 said it was the largest collection in the known world.

"The animals were displayed in five large caravans and at Weymouth they were attended by his Grace, the Duke of Cumberland, Lord Derby, Lord Poulet and family, and all the rest of the nobility and gentry.

"Among animals on display were a Bengal tiger - 'which devoured a whole bullock's head, horns and all' - a lion and lioness, panthers, leopards, a hyena, a lynx, a kangaroo and ostrich."

He added: "Many of these menageries passed through Dorset visiting country fairs to stage shows. Weymouth, Dorchester, Bridport and Wimborne were some of the sites visited in the last century."

Chris said that the biggest menagerie, Wombwells, came through Dorset in 1855, 1860, 1867 and 1868, stopping and exhibiting in Bridport, Weymouth, Dorchester, Blandford and Wimborne.

He said: "It is a genuine possibility that there may have been escapes from the menagerie during one of its visits or that cubs were sold to local people to keep as exotic pets, because posters detailing the menageries often carried advertisements saying the exotic animals were for sale from the menagerie, which would also buy them.

"This is direct evidence that exotic animals were being kept in Dorset since the menageries were obviously keen to buy selected animals."

Chris added that menagerie numbers faded in the early part of the 20th century towards the outbreak of the First World War, partly because of the threat of starvation and partly because improved transport meant people could visit zoos in the large towns and cities.

Chris said: "Some menageries did keep visiting Dorset but the last one went out of business in about 1931.

"Circuses still continued to visit, bringing wild animals for shows in Dorset where people could pay a bit extra to go behind the scenes and see them afterwards."

Chris added that the menageries occasionally had big cats escape and not all of them were caught, although there were very few sightings in the countryside. All this began to change with the growth of safari parks in the 1960s.

Chris said: "People flocked to visit safari parks, which knew the value of having cuddly lion cubs and other big cats on show.

"The problem came when the cubs grew up and the parks had to feed them up to 10 pounds of meat per day during the slack winter period.

"It became very cheap to privately own a big cat - people could buy a lion, a puma or a leopard for as little as £20.

"I believe this laid the foundation for many modern big-cat sightings since quite a few of these animals escaped and were never caught.

"The famous Surrey puma of 1963 is one incidence and I have recorded puma sightings in Devon and Cornwall in 1966 and 1967."

He added that people often could not afford to spend hundreds of pounds on proper caging, something they were required to do by law from 1976, when the Dangerous Wild Animals Act came in.

Chris said: "There was a big story about a lynx being caught in a London back garden so I think it is very probable that big-cat sightings in Dorset are more than likely true.

"The type of dense woodland cover available in Dorset is ideal habitat for a puma or lynx, which would be able to exist comfortably on local wildlife such as rabbits, hares and deer.

"Any sightings should be reported to police and the Big Cat Society."

The summer of 1999 brought many sightings of a big feline creature, variously reported as a "panther", a "dark beast" and a "big black cat" across the east Dorset area. In April and May the Echo received reports from Merley and Verwood; followed by similar sightings in June at Verwood, Alderhot and Ringwood Forest; and another spot at Holt Wood in August.

The most alarming evidence of big cat activity though came on June 19, 1999 when a sheep was mauled to death at Edmondsham.

Another large cat was spotted near West Bay in May 1996 when a black panther-like creature was spotted roaming farmland north of Dorchester.

Pauline Perks saw it go by her kitchen window and a similar animal was later spotted by her husband, Jeffrey.

Mrs Perks, who lives near Plush, said: "It was right outside my kitchen window. It just shot straight past and I saw it as plain as can be.

"It was absolutely black and as big as an Alsatian dog. It had its ears sticking back, flat on its head. It was a big cat, like the black panthers you see in the zoo."

With so many sightings over such a wide area in such a small county it is perhaps hardly surprising that the British Big Cat Society was formed in summer 2001 to collate reports from Dorset and also from big-cat hot spots such as Scotland, Devon, Somerset and Wales. Secretary Danny Bamping said the Society's main aim was to co-ordinate all sightings, coverage and investigation of big cats.

Danny said that he knew of several reports of big-cat sightings in Dorset with the majority occurring on the outskirts of Weymouth and others in rural areas, notably up towards the border with Somerset.

He said that if more tangible evidence than countrywide sighting was needed then prints, hair and skulls had been found at a variety of sites in the past 10 years, while the most convincing finds had included two lynx found dead on roads in Kent and a puma trapped alive in Scotland in the 1980s.

Danny said: "Dorset is not a hot spot for big-cat sightings but they do crop up regularly and I definitely believe there is something in them.

"We have spoken to a number of Dorset eye witnesses and their overall accounts are too specific to be dismissed out of hand. It is pretty impossible for 250 people a year in Dorset and the rest of the country to be going mad and reporting things which don't exist."

He said that the society certainly believes that the lynx may be in the process of becoming re-established in the British countryside.

He said an increase in lynx-type sightings combined with a lynx encounter and stories of them being released back into the wild as recently as February this year, have all added to the lynx-related "evidence" accumulated recently.

In the past year the society has had more than 750 reports of big cats in Britain, with a significant rise in sightings of lynx-type animals over the last six months.

It now has a network of more than 500 members around the UK and hopes to undertake a nationwide "trigger camera" project later this year.

Danny said: "During the first five months of 2002 we have seen an incredible amount of big-cat activity and I would urge the public not to approach big cats should they see them in the wild in Dorset - or anywhere else in Britain.

"There is not one county that the society has not had a confirmed big-cat sighting in. The response from the public has been fantastic and the website has certainly aided a lot of people in coming forward."