BIG cat experts today released "compelling evidence" that pumas, lynxes and panthers really are roaming the countryside.

A study by the British Big Cats Society (BBCS) has revealed there have been an astounding 2,123 sightings of giant felines across the country between April 2004 and July 2005 - almost five per day, many of them in North and East Yorkshire.

Sharp-eyed Evening Press readers, who have reported dozens of sightings of large panther-like creatures in and around York, Ryedale, Pocklington and Selby, said they felt "vindicated" by the research.

Lorry driver Maurice Sipson said: "I have always believed there was such a thing, for the very reason that there can't be that many people mistaken."

In October, 2004, Mr Sipson spotted a four-foot-long cat run in front of his truck on the A59 Boroughbridge Road, near the Wyevale Garden Centre, in the early hours of the morning.

Exactly a year later, Catherine Stallybrass, of Norton, saw a "black feline, rather larger than a German Shepherd dog" crossing York Road in Malton.

Mrs Stallybrass said today: "Ever since I saw a large pawprint in Surrey in the 1960s, big cats have never struck me as contentious. If people still choose not to believe in them, despite all the evidence, then fair enough, but they do exist. They are just a fact of life."

In 1995, Malton Police opened a file on the so-called "Beast of Ryedale", when a cream-coloured puma-type animal was spotted by a passenger on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

A contingency plan was drawn up to deal with the animal, under which authorised firearms officers accompanied by a vet would attempt to tranquilise it with a dart.

Big cats have even been reported on the A1237 York outer ring road - but experts believe the rural Ryedale countryside is the perfect habitat for such creatures.

According to the BBCS study, almost 60 per cent of all sightings are of black cats. Just over 30 per cent are of brown or sandy-coloured ones, believed to be pumas. Another six per cent were lynx-type cats.

Despite the report, the Government has continued to deny the existence of any such big cats. A spokesman for the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said: "Based on the evidence, Defra does not believe that there are big cats living in the wild in England."

Updated: 11:11 Thursday, March 16, 2006