THE Durham puma has been spotted again - and the policeman tracking its progress believes he is getting closer than ever to proving the existence of big cats in Britain.

Sergeant Eddie Bell, Durham Constabulary's wildlife liaison officer, recently received the report of a big brown cat lurking in the shadows of a rural area near Durham City.

While he has been informed of many similar sightings of what people believed to be the Durham puma over the past 20 years, most have turned out to be feral cats.

But Sgt Bell said the description given by the latest caller, who wishes to remain anonymous, left him in no doubt that he had seen the legendary beast.

He said: "A man rang to report it and the description was very good.

"It was a proper brown puma and its size and shape were described properly.

"About every 15th sighting is probably a puma."

In the 1960s and 1970s, pumas were commonly kept as pets, but when legislation restricting this took effect in 1976, many were released into the wild.

Sgt Bell believes there could still be up to 80 or 90 living in Britain.

Since 1986, he has logged 350 reports in County Durham, but believes only about 70 of them were genuine.

He said the creatures could quite easily have survived largely undetected for so long.

"It is a very easy life for them here compared with North America, where they are from.

"They have survived 10,000ft up in the Canadian Rockies, so there is nothing here that would worry them.

"They are very shy and will fight to the death to protect their territory, but they are not dangerous to people."

Sgt Bell believes there could be up to ten females and three roaming males in the county.