A man who saw a panther-like creature on his Wantage driveway three months ago is questioning whether it could be linked to the recent savage death of a Canada goose in his back garden.

Stephen Thompson, of Ickleton Road, was pulling into his driveway at about 6pm in January when he saw an animal about 10 yards in front of him.

The animal, which looked like a big black cat, then jumped over a four-foot fence.

Mr Thompson, who runs a leisure and sports club in Newbury, said the animal was definitely not a deer or a dog, and the way it jumped was like a cat.

"It looked like a panther to me," he said. "It gave me a shock. I have never seen anything like it."

Then last Sunday he went into his garden at about 10.30am to find a Canada goose, which had been nesting in a willow tree moments before, lying dead on the lawn with its head taken clean off.

Mr Thompson, who has heard reports of sightings of large black cats killing sheep in the Lambourn area, said he was not sure if the two incidents were linked but said it must have taken an animal of a fair size to kill the goose.

But Graham Scholey, conservation team leader for the Environment Agency in Wallingford, said it was most likely that a domestic dog was to blame. He said foxes were capable of killing fully-grown domestic geese but did not usually do so in residential gardens in the day, and that it was unlikely that a mink or polecat would take on a Canada goose.

Mr Scholey said there was no reason to suggest there was a rogue predator at loose in the area.