Darren Naish - Hampshire
Dr Darren Naish is a vertebrate palaeontologist, based at the University of Portsmouth, with a long interest in many aspects of zoology. While best known for his work on Mesozoic reptiles (including predatory dinosaurs and pterosaurs), he has also published work on marine mammals, lizards, sloths and other groups. He has published widely in the technical literature and has also written both technical and popular books and many popular articles. He has appeared widely on television and radio and regularly gives talks both to technical and non-technical audiences.
He has always been interested in cryptozoology and has long aimed to bring scientific rationale to this subject: he has argued on many occasions that there is no conflict whatsoever with a scientific approach to data, and a genuine interest in mystery animal research. Naish has been involved in mystery cat research since the early 1990s and has interviewed witnesses, collected sightings and looked for field evidence in the New Forest, on Dartmoor, and in Dorset. He has yet to see a British big cat but, based on the vast quantity of high quality evidence, has long been of the opinion that these animals are a reality and that more zoologists should be prepared to formally accept their presence. He presently works with colleagues in documenting and collecting field sign for British big cats and is often in the field in pursuit of cats and other British wildlife.
Darren owns a highly popular blog, Tetrapod Zoology http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology and has written several article there about British big cats and the evidence for them.