THE I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! campmates need to keep their wits about them as ‘killer pumas’ are feared to be on the loose near the castle.
Ten stars have already entered Gwrych Castle near Abergele in north Wales and are already making the cold and historic building their home.
But there have been several reports in the last 12 months of large black cats prowling the area close to where the ITV1 show is filmed.
In March, paw prints were even discovered in the grounds of the Grade I listed 19th-century castle used for I’m A Celebrity.
The two sets of prints had no claw markings, which dog prints usually feature. Pumas are known to retract their claws when running.
At the time, local Sean Hayes said: “Looks like a puma to me.”
Fellow Welsh resident Lisa Morgan added: “You need some wildlife cameras up for a few weeks. Pumas would be a fab find.”
The photographs came following multiple sightings of a big beast in the area.
One was reported by terrified Toby Matthews, who said he came face-to-face with a big cat while walking through woodland at night in November 2020.
He recalled: “Maybe 50 or 60 feet away was an enormous black cat looking right at me.
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“I took a photo then turned around and quickly walked back. I wanted to start running but was worried it’d give chase.
“I’m convinced that it was a puma. It was about two or three times the size of my little Labrador.”
In January this year, witnesses described seeing “a large cat roughly the size of a Labrador” walking along a busy road near Talacre in Flintshire.
It followed other sightings of a black “dog-sized” cat 20 miles away in Pontybodkin.
A monitoring group called Puma Watch North Wales was even set up after a series of mystery sheep killings across the countryside.
Commenting on the paw print photos, a spokesman for Gwrych Castle said in March: “We’ve seen reports of a puma roaming the surrounding woods of Gwrych Castle.
“This paw print was spotted in our woods last week. But what do you think, puma or dog paw print?”
I‘M A CELEBRITY…GET ME OUT OF HERE! CONTINUES AT 9PM ON ITV1
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