On the trail of Scotland’s mysterious big cats

It has been almost 45 years since a big cat native to America was captured in the Scottish Highlands.

The female puma – later nicknamed Felicity – was captured by a farmer out of frustration after a series of brutal attacks on livestock.

He set a trap using a cage cut from a sheep’s head.

But was the puma really responsible for the killings or an unwitting participant in an elaborate hoax, and why did sightings of the big cat continue after its capture?

Felicity’s body is preserved in a glass display cabinet at Inverness Museum and Art Gallery.

In the 1980s, when she was still very much alive, she was the prime suspect for sheep attacks in and around Kinch, a community on the edge of a vast area of ​​hills, lochs and woodland in Glen Affric.

Journalist Iain Macdonald was a BBC reporter at the time.

“It all started a few years ago with stories of big cats – people seeing them, and sheep and other animals being found apparently torn apart, with broken bones,” he recalls.

Ian says some people were skeptical of the reports while others believed there was something there.

He says: “It was a bit like the Loch Ness Monster.

“You may or may not believe it.”

Ian says the local police were “somewhat” interested.

Then news comes that a farmer, Ted Noble, has trapped a big cat.

Mr Noble had lost cattle to attack himself and had seen a large cat chasing his Shetland ponies.

The media descended on Ted’s farm.

“It was a circus,” says Iain.

“There was this poor beast in the cage screaming at everybody and a crowd of journalists, photographers and cameramen swarming everywhere.

“It was a little weird.”

Not everyone was convinced that Felicity was behind the attacks.

There were a few red flags.

Experts described him as old, clumsy and overweight. He also had arthritis.

Some suggested she was a pet either abandoned – or even used to trick Mr. Noble.

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

Ian interviews Eddie Orble, the owner of the park.

“Eddie said, ‘This animal hasn’t been in the woods for half an hour. It’s been fed and well cared for,'” says Iain.

“She showed considerable suspicion that she could have hunted the Highlands for years.”

Ian has heard stories of Felicity treating the park like a house moogie.

“He allowed people to scratch behind his ears and there’s a story that one of the guards used to walk around the park with Felicity wrapped around his shoulders,” he says.

Felicity spent the rest of her days at the park. He died in 1985.

Sightings of the big cats continued almost unabated after Felicity’s arrest was reported.

“We still get fresh sightings regularly,” says Paul McDonald of Scottish Big Cat Research.

The project has a network of 80 volunteers and has collected more than 1,600 big cat sightings since 1947.

Recent competitions include:

• October 2018 – Reports of a large black cat In East Ayrshire. A police helicopter searched, but the Scottish SPCA said photographs taken by members of the public showed a large domestic cat.
• August 2010 – Police warn of reports of big cats. In Easter Ross and Sutherland. A “huge, muscular black cat with a square head” was seen near Tan.
• July 2010 – Police say a black cat “the size of a German Shepherd” was spotted. Inshrich, in the Forest of Kincraig
• December 2008 – A woman reported that she was attacked by a large cat while she was taking out her boxes. Alans, in Easter Ross
• October 2005 – Fife Constabulary showed a cast of a large paw print in an attempt to identify the cat-like creature The beast of Balberini

Paul, a Scottish Borders-based swordsmith who grew up in Lochaber, helped set up the group in 2019.

He has been fascinated by the mysterious cats of Scotland since the late 1980s.

Paul says he and a friend were traveling by train near Glenfinnan when they spotted what he describes as a melanistic leopard, also known as a black panther.

He says: “Its body was about 4 to 5 feet long, it had a long tail and its shoulders flexed in muscles as it slowly glided.”

Paul believes that many of the big cats were pets that were thrown away after they were introduced. The Endangered Wild Animals Act of 1976.

“People used to keep them in their flats,” he says.

The law requires people to purchase a license and keep the animals in an appropriately sized enclosure.

Paul says: “I think there have been a number of cases of releases by owners whose other option was to destroy the cats.

“Since then the illegal trade in exotic animals has increased these releases.”

Scotland’s nature agency NatureScot provides advice on non-native mammals in the forest and Information on its website About reporting rare species.

A spokesman said: “While we do get one or two big cat sightings a year, none of the reports submitted over the past 34 years have provided enough evidence to conclude that big cats exist. were

“The last confirmed sighting of a big cat in a Scottish forest was in 1980.”