On the prowl for no ordinary moggy

Published on Wednesday 22 July 2009 21:58

EVERY winter, Robert Stewart hears the same apocryphal story. Sufficiently rich in detail, yet vague enough to withstand any rigorous scrutiny, it is germinated by the idle gossip and banter of village life, before falling dormant for another year.

Thirty years he has been walking the backroads of Sundrum, and for 30 years he has heard talk of the big cat.

"It's legendary in this area, the idea of a big beast seen out in a field, but no-one knows for sure," said the 88-year-old during his daily outing. "You hear about the big cats up north in places like Caithness. But is there one here? I don't know. You'd think it would have been verified after all these years – maybe it will be now."

After three decades of speculation, it appears that extraordinary evidence has now emerged to back up some extraordinary claims.

Six days ago, a farmer in Coylton, a village five miles east of Ayr, made an alarming discovery during a routine check on his animals.

One of his horses in a field near Sundrum Castle had sustained severe injuries. Four wounds, each about three inches long, ran down its hind quarters, with one cut an inch deep into the flesh, requiring stitches.

On inspecting the horse, the farmer's vet suspected something out of the ordinary and contacted Strathclyde Police. The force took photographs of the injuries, sending them on to George Redpath for inspection.

A retired police officer from Balmullo near St Andrews, the 65-year-old is an expert in the wilder side of Scotland's wildlife, and on seeing the pictures, he was left in little doubt. This was the work of the fabled big cat of Coylton.

"Looking at it, I'm 95 per cent sure those injuries were caused by a big cat," Mr Redpath told The Scotsman. "The very sharp claw marks show how the paw has been drawn down the back of the horse. Whatever it was trying to grip the horse and bring it down. A dog wouldn't do that."

So certain was Mr Redpath, that Strathclyde Police alerted members of the public that a big cat was on the prowl.

"After consultation with experts, the evidence points to a big cat, possibly a puma, having caused the injuries to the horse," confirmed Superintendent John Hazlett.

The injuries come only two months after a sighting about half a mile away. John Sutton, a 47-year-old project manager working on a housing development, witnessed a sandy-coloured animal emerge from undergrowth near Sundrum Castle Holiday Park on 21 May.

Describing it as about 6ft long and 4ft tall, he recalled: "When I saw it coming out of the bushes I was startled and it just stared me straight in the eye. I was scared but I quietly just backed away from it."

None of this is news to Mark Fraser. As head of the Big Cats in Britain research group, he is the conduit for the increasing number of sightings by members of the public.

"Coylton has been a hot spot in the past year," he said. "There have been several sightings of a big black cat in the area, and other sightings in and around Ayrshire.

"We found a print by Loch Doon recently, and there was a sighting of a huge black cat in Monkton three weeks ago, as well as a similar sighting near Kilmarnock.

He added: "These might be different to the reports of the puma in this case, but it could be the same cat."

For all the urgency of the recent reports and the growing evidence suggesting that something is indeed out there, the folk of Coylton are by and large relaxed about the possibility of their new neighbour.

Three residents of properties in Sundrum Estate simply laughed off the idea that their family might be in peril.

One said: "I haven't seen anything. One of the builders working down the road came to our door to tell us there had been a sighting but that's been it, there's nothing else."

"There's probably more danger with the Glasgow holidaymakers coming down the coast," quipped another. "I heard the sighting wasn't a puma, but a St Bernard's dog."

A worker at the nearby Drumcoyle Livery Yard also dismissed any notion that other horses could fall victim. "There are more worrying things than a puma," he said drolly. "The collapse of Scotland's economy is one example."

Marie Morrow of Glasgow said her trip to the holiday park had been tainted a little by the news. She said: "My son phoned me last night and told me the news, and I was concerned. We are camping near the treeline by the castle where the sighting was."

The holiday park, currently home to hundreds of caravanners and campers, played down the incident yesterday.

The duty manager told The Scotsman that if there were any problems with safety it would not accept bookings.

For now, there is little that can be done. The police have warned people not to approach any big cat they encounter, even though Supt Hazlett said it was unlikely a puma would attack a human.

Mr Redpath's advice: "If you see it, stay well clear. Make yourself big, don't bend down, don't turn your back, and whatever you do, don't run away."

HUNTERS RECKON SCOTLAND MAY BE HOME TO 40 BIG CATS

THE small but dedicated band of experts who investigate big cats across Scotland say the number of reported sightings has increased dramatically in recent years.

Mark Fraser, head of the Big Cats in Britain research group, receives four or five reports a week, whether photographs of strange animals or images of their prints.

Although there are "genuine mistakes" among such sightings, showing nothing more than the trails of domestic animals, he stressed there remains a considerable big cat population, consisting of pumas, leopards, and lynx.

"They are out there, there's no question," said Mr Fraser, who saw his first big cat after 15 years of investigations. "We had around 200 reports last year, and over the past five years the number shot up."

Mr Fraser said sightings of sandy-coloured pumas, such as the animal linked to the recent sighting in Coylton, used to be the most common.

Now, however, they only account for around 15 per cent of sightings – about eight out of every ten big cats is reported as being black.

George Redpath, a former police officer and retired executive member of the Scottish Big Cats research group, also said the number of sightings was on the up.

"I've had an awful lot of sightings, more this year so far than I had in all of 2008, " he said.

The big cat population – estimated at around 40 in Scotland – has been a talking point since the first leopard sighting in 1868.

It is generally accepted that their presence dates back to the 1976 Dangerous Wild Animals Act, which ruled that such beasts had to be licensed. A number of unscrupulous owners, who considered such animals as a fashion accessory in the mid-1970s, let their oversized pets run loose into the wild.

In May, Craig Cordell, a photographer, took an image of what appeared to be a panther-like creature at Duffus Castle, near Elgin.

Last December, a 74-year-old woman from Alness claimed she was attacked twice by a big cat.

Reports have come from authoritative sources – seven years ago, three police officers reported being faced with a dark-coloured, cat-like beast in the Ayrshire town of Ardrossan.

They said it was about 3ft tall, with piercing yellow eyes and a long tail.

The topic has even been deemed important enough to be discussed in the House of Commons, when 12 years ago Alex Salmond informed the then Scottish Secretary, Michael Forsyth, of big cat attacks on farm animals in his Buchan constituency.