A BLACK wildcat has been spotted in Swindon woodland.

Lorry driver Brian Wakefield was walking in Bradon Woods near Pavenhill with fianc Alison Carter when he spotted the creature.

Mr Wakefield, from Cuckoosmead in Covingham, said: "It came out of the woods and across the path about 100 yards in front of us while we were walking.

"It was quite weird at the time.

"It was a big, black cat about the size of a Labrador, and with a long, sweeping black tail.

"I had a camera with me, but I wasn't ready in time to take a photograph of the cat.

"But I did photograph its paw-prints, and they were about two inches from back to front."

A lover of nature and walking, Mr Wakefield knows enough about animal tracks to be able to tell the difference between those made by large cats and those made by other creatures.

He also revealed that he had seen big cats during other walks in recent years often in the countryside surrounding Purton.

Other people have seen the creatures throughout the Swindon area.

Explanations offered for their presence include wild-cats crossbreeding with escaped domestic cats to create the black or dark strain.

Alternatively, some experts speculate that the big cats were once kept as exotic pets by unscrupulous owners, only to be dumped when they became too large and unmanageable, or when their owners became alarmed at the prospect of prosecution for owning dangerous and illegal animals.

The big cats could also be the descendants of ones illegally released into the wild when many private zoos were closed in the late 1940s.

In April, the Evening Advertiser told how Highworth police were investigating several reports about a possible family of big cats in the local countryside.

Among the witnesses was water worker Stan Silver, 60, who saw one of the creatures as he drove along a country road near Castle Eaton.

He said: "I have never seen anything move like it in my life a greyhound would not have caught up with it."