On the trail of Scotland’s mysterious big cats

It’s nearly 45 years since a giant cat native to the Americas was captured within the Scottish Highlands.

The feminine puma – later nicknamed Felicity – was caught by a farmer pissed off by a collection of savage assaults on livestock.

He set a entice utilizing a cage baited with a sheep’s head.

However was the puma actually responsible for the killings or an unwitting participant in an elaborate hoax, and why did massive cat sightings proceed after she was caught?

Mendacity sprawled in a glass show cupboard in Inverness Museum and Artwork Gallery is the preserved physique of Felicity.

Again in 1980, when very a lot alive, she was prime suspect for sheep assaults in and round Cannich, a group on the fringes of Glen Affric’s huge space of hills, lochs and woodland.

Journalist Iain MacDonald was a reporter for the BBC on the time.

“All of it started a few years earlier than with tales of massive cats – individuals had been seeing them, and sheep and different animals had been being discovered apparently torn aside, their bones smashed,” he remembers.

Iain says some individuals had been sceptical of the reviews whereas others satisfied there was one thing on the market.

He says: “It was slightly just like the Loch Ness Monster.

“You may or won’t consider in it.”

Iain says native police had been “to a level”.

Then phrase got here {that a} farmer, Ted Noble, had trapped a giant cat.

Mr Noble had misplaced livestock to assaults himself and reported seeing a big cat stalking his Shetland ponies.

The media descended on Ted’s farm.

“It was a circus,” says Iain.

“There was this poor beast in a cage snarling and hissing at everyone and a crowd of journalists, photographers and cameramen all milling round.

“It was a bit weird.”

Not everybody believed Felicity was behind the assaults.

There have been just a few pink flags.

Specialists described her as aged, tame and obese. She additionally had arthritis.

Some instructed she was a pet both deserted – and even used to hoax Mr Noble.

Felicity was taken into the care of the Highland Wildlife Park close to Aviemore.

Iain interviewed the park’s proprietor, Eddie Orbell.

“Eddie stated ‘this beast hasn’t been within the wild half an hour. It has been fed and nicely taken care of’,” says Iain.

“He solid appreciable doubt she might have been haunting the Highlands for years.”

Iain heard tales from the park of Felicity behaving like a family moggy.

“It allowed individuals to scratch it behind its ears and there is a story one of many keepers would stroll across the park with Felicity draped round his shoulders,” he says.

Felicity lived out the remainder of her days on the park. She died in 1985.

After the Felicity’s seize reported sighting of massive cats continued nearly unabated.

“We nonetheless often get contemporary sightings,” says Paul Macdonald of Scottish Large Cat Analysis.

The challenge has a community of 80 volunteers and has gathered greater than 1,600 massive cat sightings going again to 1947.

In current instances these encounters included:

• October 2018 – Experiences of a giant black cat in east Ayrshire. A police helicopter carried out a search, however Scottish SPCA stated photos taken by the general public confirmed a big home cat
• August 2010 – Police warn of reviews of massive cats in Easter Ross and Sutherland. A “very giant, muscular black cat with a sq. head” noticed close to Tain
• July 2010 – Police say a black cat the “measurement of a German shepherd canine” seen in woods at Inshriach, Kincraig
• December 2008 – A girl reviews she was attacked by a big cat whereas placing out her bins in Alness, Easter Ross
• October 2005 – Fife Constabulary placed on present a solid of a giant paw print in an effort to determine a cat-like creature dubbed the Beast of Balbirinie

Paul, a Scottish Borders-based sword-maker who grew up in Lochaber, helped to arrange the group in 2019.

He has been fascinated by Scotland’s mysterious cats since his personal sighting within the late Nineteen Eighties.

Paul says he and a pal had been travelling by prepare close to Glenfinnan after they noticed what he describes as a melanistic leopard, also called a black panther.

He says: “It was about 4 to 5ft lengthy in physique, had a protracted tail and muscular rolling shoulders because it slowly slinked away.”

Paul believes most of the massive cats had been pets dumped after the introduction of 1976’s Dangerous Wild Animals Act.

“Folks used to have them of their flats,” he says.

The legislation requires individuals to purchase a licence and preserve the animals in acceptable sized enclosures.

Paul says: “I believe there have been a number of launch occasions by house owners whose different choice was to have the cats destroyed.

“A bootleg commerce in unique animals since then have added to these releases.”

Scotland’s nature company NatureScot advises on non-native mammals within the wild and has information on its website about the right way to report uncommon species.

A spokesperson stated: “Whereas we obtain one or two sightings of massive cats a 12 months, not one of the reviews submitted over the previous 34 years have supplied adequate proof to conclude that massive cats had been current.

“The final verified sighting of a giant cat within the wild in Scotland was in 1980.”