Pumas are large, cat-like animals which are found in America.
When reports came into London Zoo
that a wild puma had been spotted forty-five miles south of London,
they were not taken seriously.
However, as the evidence began to accumulate,
experts from the Zoo felt obliged to investigate,
for the descriptions given by people
who claimed to have seen the puma were extraordinarily similar.
The hunt for the puma began in a small village
where a woman picking blackberries saw a large cat
only five yards away from her. It immediately ran away when she saw it,
and experts confirmed that a puma will not attack a human being
unless it is cornered. The search proved difficult,
for the puma was often observed at one place in the morning
and at another place twenty miles away in the evening.
Wherever it went, it left behind it a trail of dead deer
and small animals like rabbits. Paw prints were seen in a number of places
and puma fur was found clinging to bushes.
Several people complained of cat-like noises at night
and a businessman on a fishing trip saw the puma up a tree.
The experts were now fully convinced that the animal was a puma,
but where had it come from ?
As no pumas had been reported missing from any zoo in the country,
this one must have been in the possession of a private collector
and somehow managed to escape. The hunt went on for several weeks,
but the puma was not caught. It is disturbing to think
that a dangerous wild animal is still at large in the quiet countryside. |