Big cat steakout
SCHOOLBOYS screwed up their courage to spend a night in the woods in a bid to catch a glimpse of a big cat thought to be a lynx. Ryan Coffey, Henry Williams and Marco Ezhringer, all pupils at John Henry Newman School, Stevenage, came up with the idea afte
SCHOOLBOYS screwed up their courage to spend a night in the woods in a bid to catch a glimpse of a big cat thought to be a lynx.
Ryan Coffey, Henry Williams and Marco Ezhringer, all pupils at John Henry Newman School, Stevenage, came up with the idea after Ryan spotted the beast while out jogging near his Forresters' Drive home in Welwyn GC.
He said: "It was about 10 times the size of a domestic cat and I was terrified. I just ran when I saw it."
Ryan, together with Henry, of Radcliffe Road, Hitchin, and Marco, of Wisden Road, Stevenage, used a piece of succulent steak to lure the creature to their tent, pitched close to Panshanger aerodrome in Welwyn GC.
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The brave teenagers also tied a plastic bag to a nearby branch as a warning system if the beast was close by.
Ryan, 16, said: "We got specialist advice from people all over the world before we set out.
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"We wanted to take a picture of it because there has never been a picture taken of a lynx in the UK."
Although the youngsters were denied a glimpse of the cat that night, Ryan said: "We recorded a growling noise on a mobile phone which sounded like something we had never heard before."
The meat they had left out as bait was also swiped.
Undeterred, the trio are thinking of going camping again in the next week or two.
Perhaps this big cat is the "beast of Brookmans Park" - a creature rumoured to be stalking the area and reported by our sister paper, the Welwyn and Hatfield Times.
