The second panther sighting of the summer has been reported in Bulgaria, and has been sparking viral memes and national conversations about an illegal exotic animals trade
Bulgaria’s “black panther saga” has taken another strange turn as residents in the mountain town of Dupnitsa claim to have filmed a “large black feline moving through tall grass” – the second sighting reported this summer.
The first sighting, near the city of Shumen in eastern Bulgaria, was recorded in July and put the area on high alert. Authorities warned that the “wild predator” was “extremely dangerous and not to be approached.” Locals also found large animal prints and animal remains in the vicinity.
It was soon speculated that the leopard had escaped from a private collection and that the animal had been at large for weeks. Some even suggested it might be one of a small population now prowling the wild after an earlier video from two years earlier came out, allegedly showing a juvenile panther.
However, experts dismissed the young feline as a “domestic cat,” possibly a “Maine Coons.”
Although a two-week search operation was launched, efforts were aborted when no physical traces could be found.
Search efforts have now been revived thanks to a second video, however, appearing to show a large, jet-black animal roaming a field, albeit almost 430km away from where the first sighting was reported.
Following the first sighting, experts quickly intervened to dismiss the feline theories.
Dr Stoyan Lazarov, a zoologist from the National Museum of National History, said that the paw prints “likely belonged to a large dog.” Fellow zoologist Professor Nikolay Spasov concurred.
Although the new video has fuelled viral speculation of the black cat’s return, Desislav Nachov, Dupnitsa’s mayor, said no decision has been made as to the identity of the animal or whether to reopen emergency searches.
He said: “This depends on the assessment of the police. The person who filmed the video described the animal he saw as resembling a large dog.”
Nachos also told media that he has personally investigated the site where the beast was reported.
The purported panther has become a viral sensation in Bulgaria, where social media has been inundated with AI images of the phantom feline and videos of it dancing to Bulgarian folk tunes or dining on traditional foods.
It has also been depicted on a mocked-up 20 euro note, while comedians have taken to Instagram and TikTok to retell the panther’s adventures from its point of view, mocking authorities.
Romania’s emergency services got in on the joke too, posting an AI-generated photo of firefighters rescuing a panther from a tree. The post quickly won thousands of likes and shares.
More seriously though, the rumours have reopened national conversations about exotic animal ownership.
In 2024, authorities rescued an alligator that had been living between Communist-era housing blocks in the capital of Sofia. In 2019, an African wild cat known as a caracal was spotted and captured in Plovdiv in the country’s south. And in 2014, a leopard that had escaped from a local zoo was shot and killed by local hunters in Lovech.
This is also not the first time that big cats have been reported in Europe. In January, four lynx were spotted in the Scottish Highlands, believed to have been illegally released. Similar lynx sightings were also reported in Penzance in March, while black hairs tested at a Gloucestershire farm in 2023 showed a “99% DNA match” to a big cat species after videos similar to those seen in Bulgaria were spread.
Animal and wildlife experts in Bulgaria are now urging the country’s government to clamp down on a national exotic animals trade.
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