Is this proof big cats roam the wilds of Britain? Pub customer videos 'five foot' long beast prowling through field - after scientist found DNA showing non-native felines are at large in UK

A pub punter has captured a mystery 'five-foot' long beast crawling through the Lincolnshire countryside as he was sitting at a picnic table enjoying the summer sun.

Stuart Qualtrough was enjoying a drink at the Coach and Horses Inn in Hemingby when he spotted the big black figure prowling through the fields last Saturday.

Whilst sitting on the bench, the local captured the footage of a four-legged creature making it's way towards the shrubbery neighbouring Lincolnshire Wolds National Landscape.

Detailing how the large creature came out of the woods before circling back to the grass, he said: 'Unless I need my eyes testing, it was about 5 foot long.' 

'I was enjoying drinks from the pub at the picnic table with my partner and son. They were at the bar when it came into view but I showed them the video.

'They could see from the distance and the perspective it was a very long cat, too long to be a domestic cat,' he added.

'We stayed for a further 30 minutes to see if it came back into view, but it vanished.'

There have long been rumours of big cats roaming the British countryside over the years. 

However this most recent sighting comes shortly after scientists discovered the DNA of a big cat on a savaged sheep's carcus in the Lake District.

They said the DNA found on the dead animal was definitive proof that a leopard roams the area.

The sheep were discovered by Cumbrian local Sharon Larkin- Snowden in a undisclosed upland location in October. 

When she came across the ravaged sheep, she claims to have disturbed a creature feeding on the dead animals.

'I saw something black, running, and I assumed at first it was a sheepdog,' she said. 'Then I did a double take and realised it was a black cat,' she said

'It ran towards a stone wall, stopped and then jumped the wall. It was big - the size of a German shepherd dog.' 

She then took a swab and sent it to Rick Minter, the host of the Big Cat Conversations podcast, who passed it on to Prof Allaby.

After analysing the sample, the professor discovered it had the 'Panthera genus' DNA - meaning it had to have come from a lion, leopard, tiger, jaguar or snow leopard.

Biologist Prof Allaby, who has always been 'open-minded' about the possibility of of big cats in Britain, told BBC Wildlife magazine that the results of his test had left him in no doubt there was one stalking the Cumbria countryside.

'It makes me a convert,' he said. 'On the balance of probabilities, I think this is a genuine hit.'

However the most recent sighting in Lincolnshire is not the first in the area, with speculation rife of a 'Wolds Panther' or the frightening 'Lindsey Leopard' trawling about in the 90s.

In 2004, one retired banker has alleged to have seen a large cat-like animal in Horsington, near Horncastle.

Bernard O’Halloran claims the beast ran through his garden, later chasing it down the road in an attempt to get a clearer view.

He told the Lincolnshire Echo: 'I was sitting in the back room when I caught sight of something in the corner of my eye. 

'It was a large black cat about the same size as our pet Alsatian dog Lexy. It bounded across the lawn and disappeared into the undergrowth. 

'It was certainly not a domestic cat – it was something like a panther or a puma.'