Travel warning issued to Gloucestershire motorists

With the continuing icy temperatures across Gloucestershire, the Met Office has issued a yellow ice warning for the county.  The warning will remain in place until Monday, 6 February.

Over the weekend, an amber warning for the Gloucestershire area was issued by the Highways Agency and motorists were urged to take care and be prepared if they planned to travel.  As the cold temperatures continue, residents are advised to listen to local radio to keep up-to-date with weather and travel conditions.

The Highways Agency will give regular updates through their Twitter account and they can also be contacted on 0300 123 5000 for the latest news.

Many areas of the UK were affected by the snow yesterday but Gloucestershire seems to have escaped the worst of it.  A light snow shower hit Cheltenham yesterday, and while temperatures remain icy cold, most traces of snow were gone by this morning.

The cold weather is expected to continue into the week.

No cat DNA found on Woodchester deer carcass

The deaths of two deers in Woodchester, Gloucestershire earlier this year led some people to speculate that they'd been killed by a big cat given the injuries found on them.  However, a press release issue by the University of Warickshire says that no cat DNA has been found on one of the deer carcasses but fox DNA has been discovered.

Researchers from the university also say that they expect to find that the second carcass will also contain fox DNA. Dr Robin Allaby, an Associate Professor at the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warickshire, tested 45 samples of taken from the wounds found in the deer carcasses.  The carcasses were tested for fox, cat and dog DNA.

Commenting in a press release, Dr Robin Allaby said:

“We did not detect cat DNA on either deer carcass. Other than deer, by far the strongest genetic signal we found on the Woodchester Park carcass was from a fox. That fox DNA was found on the ribs, legs and fur plucking sites from the Woodchester deer carcass.”

“On the second deer carcass we found canid DNA. A more detailed analysis is underway to pin down the canid species but our expectation is that that will also be fox DNA.

Gloucestershire is well known for sightings of big cats.  In the period from 2004-2005, 104 sightings were reported.

Rick Minter has authored a book on big cats and the reported sightings in the UK.  In a University of Warickshire press release he said:

"There has been speculation of breeding amongst feral big cats in the UK. We are no closer to indicating that with these results, but lessons have been learnt from Warwick University's valuable input to this exercise. The strong media interest suggests an appetite to look into this subject further, and recent community surveys in Gloucestershire have indicated a strong desire for big cat evidence to be researched carefully."

"We should not be complacent about possible big cats in the UK, but considering these animals living secretly in our landscape can fire people's imaginations and help us consider all of the wild nature around us. Our outdoors can still hold surprises maybe."