Gareth is a reporter for local papers in Derbyshire and joins us as another journalist guest on the podcast, following Tristan in episode 94.

Gareth has had a long-term interest in big cat encounters and has glimpsed one himself. He explains how big cat stories get high hit rates in the media, so local newspapers welcome news of people’s sightings.

Gareth describes some key big cat events in Derbyshire, including the release of lynx at the former Riber Castle zoo, the long-running Carsington Beast reports, and a farmer finding his dogs confronting a lynx.

Gareth also reflects on the time he received a hoax report and photo, and Rick refers to some recent big cat cases in Derbyshire and a TV show episode due in Summer 2023 which features Derbyshire big cat cases.

See our Refs and Links page at https://bigcatconversations.com/refs-links/ for details of the May 2023 YouGuv survey on people’s belief in big cats living wild in Britain.

Words of the week:   media algorithm

7 July 2023