Sightings of big cats in Oxfordshire have boosted the number of wild and exotic animals reported in the UK to more than 10,000 since 2000.

A study out today appears to show there are more wild animals on the loose than ever before, including 5,931 big cats, 332 wild boars and 3,389 sharks in British waters.

The British Big Cat Society has reported a dramatic increase in big cat sightings in recent years, with 2004-5 figures already up 3.5 per cent on the previous year's study.

Hundreds of wild and exotic creatures usually found in the zoo or the jungle are sighted every week up and down the country, it found.

Last November, Michael Lloyd of Kidlington, believed he spotted a black cat between Yarnton and the Hanboroughs while out on his quad bike.

His sighting followed a series of big cat encounters in Oxfordshire. In September 2005 businessman George Gasiorowski spotted a black cat in the same area as Mr Lloyd.

In March 2005, the Cotswold Wildlife Park offered a £5,000 reward for the capture of the cat dubbed the 'Beast of Burford.

This followed a photograph by Phil Batts, of Thorney Leys, Witney, of what he believed could be the Beast of Burford's pawprint, in countryside near the perimeter of RAF Brize Norton.

Chris Mullins, founder and coordinator of Beastwatch UK, who compiled the data used in today's survey, said: "Since 2001 the number of reports has increased at a rapid rate, including monkeys stolen from zoos and private collections to colonies of wallabies and wild boar and more unusual reports such as a chinchilla found in a post box, to a piranha in the Thames."