As far back as 1973 there were reports of a large black cat-like beast in the area of Cannich, which is not far from Loch Ness. A certain Miss Chisolm saw one frequently, and was afraid it would eat her chickens. On one occasion, at least, she saw it leap an eight foot deer fence. The same lady said she saw smaller, spotted creatures as well, and on one occasion saw the large black one carrying a smaller spotted one.
Ted Noble, a farmer in the same locality, had sheep killed and consumed in typical cat fashion. He set a cage trap and caught a puma. Strangely, it seemed not to have a taste for raw rabbit meat, and prefered tinned cat food. A female, it seemed to have little fear of humans, and spent the rest of its days at Kincraig Wildlife Park before dying in its sleep. Ted Noble appeared to be the victim of a hoax, or perhaps the cat had been recently released in the area before entering the trap.
Further east, and a few years later, there were numerous sightings near Ardersier point, and on the A96 between Inverness and Nairn. Northern Constabulary had some of its officers involved in an investigation of those sightings, and one of the officers saw a large black panther-like cat, a report of which was recorded in the force's records at the time.
Others saw the same, or a similar animal in the locality of Ardersier. One of those people had been in Africa for many years and swore he saw a black leopard. Those, and many other documented sightings can be found in the first book by the author Di Francis, who has written several books to date, including one on the so-called Kellas cats. Her first book was called 'Cat Country' and was, at one time, available in my local library.
A few miles further east, at Fochabers, it is widely held that a black panther exists. My father's brother was a fishing ghillie there for twenty five years, and he had hens killed, and found large footprints in fresh snow. He tried to trap the creature, and nearly did, but it was, and occasionally is, still seen. Some of his gamekeeper friends know of it too.
A gamekeeper at Rothiemurchus shot a large cat some years ago, and apparently kept it in his freezer for a long time. I don't know if it still exists.
There have been sightings by all sorts of people, in many localities within fairly short distances of Inverness/Loch Ness for many years. Strathpeffer has very often been mentioned in relation to sightings.
Balbirnie park in Fife has long been associated with big black cats, as have Inverkeithing, Dalgety Bay, and Aberdour, in the past. I saw a large dark-grey coloured cat near Dalgety Bay and, when I asked two people at the side of the road what they had been looking at, before I arrived, they said "it looked like a large cat".
There have been several sightings near Arbroath over the last ten years or so, with people such as a delivery driver, farm workers, horse riders, and factory workers among those who say they've seen a large black panther. One locality, a wood near my home, has had three sightings by one person. When I asked another woman who lives near there if she had seen anything, she said, "Oh, did you not hear about my black panther encounter", and proceeded to tell me about hearing her pet cat 'screaming' outside her bedroom window one evening at dusk and, when she opened the curtains, she saw it on the window sill, hair on end, looking down at a 'black panther' on the patio. Her neighbour heard the commotion and simultaneously looked from her window to see the same thing. It turned and leapt a six foot garden fence. She lives within 300 yards of the woman mentioned above who had the three sightings in her wood.
There have been newspaper reports about unusual cats being sighted on the coast between Carnoustie and Arbroath. Descriptions of these animals would suggest that there is at least one black panther-like animal, and others which may be lynx, or serval-like, often with tufted ears and a bob tail and spotted coat.
We had a Suffolk ewe at work, which was heavy in lamb, found dead, with the flesh eaten neatly off the uppermost side of its face. The area around the eaten part had been stripped of its hair, and there was lots of little tufts of facial hair on the ground around the ewe's head. There were no signs of a struggle, other than the marks on the grass which are to be expected when a sheep is down and unable to get up...that is a worn area where the rear legs have been moving. There was the usual heap of dung which you'd expect from a sheep which has been down a while, none of which had been disturbed. Behind the carcase, there was an area of flattened grass, as if a large animal had been lying partly across the ewe's shoulders and neck as it fed.
The predator had obviously been disturbed by the arrival of an employee, who said the ewe was still warm when he found it. I later visited the sight and inspected the field boundary. I found scratch marks on a corner fence strainer, and I believe they were left there by the animal as it exited the field at the corner with the woodland. The field boundary is mains electric fencing, and leaping out at the strainer would be a natural way for a large animal to leave that field. Later, I also found a large scat with deer hair in it. Unfortunately this was discarded in error by another employee before it could be sent for analysis. The ewe, unfortunately, was collected by the knacker before I could inspect it for marks and wounds.
These large cats will have large territories. There may be weeks or months between their visits to some parts of those territories, so any sightings of them will be intermittent and rare. They are very good at concealing themselves too, which means that many people are unaware of their presence. I remember seeing a piece of film shot in America, where some kids were being video filmed by a family member as they played in a suburban garden. The camera operator started to zoom in on the chain link fence boundary of the garden, and it became apparent that there was a puma lying in the bottom of the hedge just outside the fence. It was almost impossible to see, but it was within ten yards of the people, and very much at ease there.
I have seen a large black cat on the road at night. One person I know says he saw two on the A9 near Dunkeld, at night, and another person told me she saw two in a playpark at about 5am one morning. Recently, during the last spell of lying snow, at first light, and at about 150yds, I saw two very dark coloured creatures running across an open area between two woods. They had long tails...much longer than anything else I have seen, and blunt faces. They were bigger than foxes, and covered the ground in a totally different manner, moving in graceful leaps and bounds. I would have said they were playing as they went. I had just fed my horses and was heading back to take the kids to school. It was snowing heavily at the time, so by the time I was able to get back there and inspect the area, it was impossible to make anything of it. Some years ago I found some black hair on a barbed wire fence. I thought it belonged to a neighbouring farmer's dog, but he later told me his dog never went there. Unfortunately I did not collect that hair at the time. Lots of opportunities to collect such evidence must be missed frequently by many people, owing to various circumstances.
Many people have never seen a fox, or a badger, or an otter...but we all know they exist in Britain. When I can afford it, I am going to buy one of those remote cameras which record by infra red light and can be secreted and left for a month.
Topic: Big cat at Loch Ness ? (Read 9352 times)
