The Rutland Panther Watch log for 2002 carries an email from a man who walked his dog in Burley Woods, "near a manor house overlooking Rutland Water near my home in Oakham", on 21 October 2002. He had noticed many deer acting skittish before he found the kill. Soon after, his dog acted oddly and they found a young adult male deer, full size but with short stubby antlers, apparently killed very recently since there was no smell. Its throat was torn out and its stomach slashed open with the contents spilled to one side, and there were no other signs of human injury. A patch of blood lay about 50 metres away. He also heard a loud noise from the wood that he took to be a deer's warning call, a low growl or bark.
The log's author spoke to the man and said he was fairly positive it was a panther kill, disturbed by the walker and his dog, and read the low growl as the classic leopard cough of warning. He noted that the man went back the next day and the carcass was gone, which he guessed was buried or hauled up a tree. He added that there had been many panther sightings within a quarter mile of the woods, and that the deer kill photographs on the website were taken half a mile away.
This is a single email and an enthusiast's reading of it. Foxes, dogs, or poachers can also account for a carcass of this kind, and the carcass vanished. It is a record of a local claim, not a confirmed predator.
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