Big Black Cat Caught on Camera in UK
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on April 30th, 2011
Leanne Milne, a fan of Cryptomundo on facebook, tipped us off to the following story.
Here is what she had to say:
Thought I’d post this big cat story here to see what you make of the picture. I live about 5 miles from where it was taken, and there’s no end to the sightings and photographs in this area in general.Leanne Milne
The big cat pictured on camera near Embo
Grisly find as ‘big cat’ is caught on camera
A GRISLY find in Ross-shire and an intriguing image captured on camera has further fueled speculation that a big cat is on the prowl.
The sighting of a large, cat-like beast stopped Tain sisters Lisa and Alana Sydenham in their tracks as they were out driving near Embo on Wednesday night.
Meanwhile on the Black Isle, the stripped-to-the-bone remains of a deer and large paw prints in the mud left another landowner pondering the possibility that a big cat is responsible.
The latest revelations follow last week’s exclusive Ross-shire Journal story in which Easter Ross farmer George Ross, of Rheguile Farm, spoke of the savaging of 18 of his sheep since the beginning of the year.
Lisa Sydenham (29), an administration and information technology student at Dornoch College, contacted the Journal yesterday after her sighting on Wednesday night. She had been driving with sister Alana (26) near Embo outside Dornoch when she caught sight of a large beast on the prowl.
Lisa, who snapped the black creature with the point-and-shoot digital camera she was carrying around 8.30pm on Wednesday night, told the Journal, “It was definitely not just a large domestic cat or dog.
“At first I thought it was a very large dog but from the way it was walking and the shape of its body I could tell that it was a big cat. It was quite a distance away over a field. My sister Alana and I were at first very surprised and then excited. I looked into it and found there had been another sighting in the area last September.
“It looked and moved like a cat.
“It spotted me and crouched down in the grass before walking off. We must have watched it for about five minutes in all.”
She speculated that changes in animal licensing laws some time ago had prompted the owners of some exotic animals to release them into the wild.
The Journal was also contacted yesterday by Black Isle-based Alison Kennedy, who lives near Culbokie. She stumbled across the remains of a deer on land she owns at Upper Braefindon on Monday night and is hoping for some expert analysis of distinctive paw prints found in the mud near the kill.
She told the Journal, “On returning to the spot on Tuesday there were signs that the carcass had been dragged further away and carried off, nothing remained but a severed leg. All other stories only show remains of savaged animals, but I have pictures of paw prints at the site of the attack and the very fresh, almost totally eaten carcass.
“I tried to get SAC vets to visit the site and confirm what might have killed the deer, but have had no response so far.
“If it was dogs, that in itself is very worrying, given the livestock in the area, but more so if it is a big cat.”
She said there were obvious signs of a struggle and the appearance that the deer had been dragged a significant distance during the apparent attack.
Chief Inspector Paul Eddington, who has several years’ experience as a police wildlife crime coordinator specialist under his belt, said there had been several very credible sightings of big cats in Ross-shire down the years.
He said too there had been several stories of exotic animals being released in the Highlands since the 1970s following changes in legislation surrounding what people are permitted to keep as pets.
There have also been documented instances of domesticated cats turning feral and breeding with wildcats.
Ch Insp Eddington also recalled the December 2008 report — first revealed by the Journal — of the attack on a 73-year-old Easter Ross woman convinced she had been mauled after disturbing a big cat near her home.
Pat McLeod, who lived in a remote cottage outside Alness, had required hospital treatment for cuts sustained in an attack the exact details of which remain a mystery. Police were sufficiently convinced to lay traps and issue a warning to the public to be vigilant.
Ch Insp Eddington said, “Anyone who sees something unusual is encouraged to contact us. There’s an issue of public safety to consider and also the wellbeing of any such creature. We have had a number of credible reports down the years and people can be assured they will always be taken at face value.”Hector Mackenzie
Ross-shire Journal
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
Hmmmm.
When sighting such a beast, one strategy might be to yell, loudly: HERE, KITTYKITTYKITTY! It could send the deranged rogue straight toward you! Which would be good if it was your cat, or the one in that “lost” poster.
I can see why the sisters stopped in their tracks. There is a definite Misfortune Index directly associated with felines of that shade.
Gang! That’s what the photo says. Sorry. From the scale of other things in the shot, I have no reason to believe it’s not Tom or Tabby.
Now.
All the savaging ain’t being done by Kitty. If I were the authorities I’d be taking those seriously, whatever was behind them.
The cat in the picture looks like a domestic cat to me.
The cryptid has the silhouette of a domestic cat but so do a lot of large felines like cougars and pumas. No conclusion can be reached from its silhouette alone.
Its size needs to be determined. It looks about half as long as the reed-like plants in the immediate background. If those can be measured by someone who lives in the area, it should not be difficult to assess its size.
This photo looks almost identical to one shown on Monsterquest over a year ago. I bet it’s the same one.
I too think this is a domestic cat. However, I have looked at actual wild cats in zoos and in pictures, and their faces, particularly the males, are much more angular than a domestic cat, which gives them a different profile. Even the biggest male domestic cat does not have the big nose or squared off cheeks of a cougar, for instance. Of course, since the point of these ABC is that we don’t know what they are, because there are not supposed to be black cats where they are being sighted. For all we know it could be some kind of a cross breed between a larger kind of wild cat and feral domestic cats.
When they are savaging herds of animals like this one, why can’t someone just set up a big baited trap like they do for bears and let’s catch one!
If that is a large wild panther, then that grass in the foreground must be HUGE. What’s next, cryptid grasses?
I agree that the animal looks alot like a domestic cat. But the carcass looks like evidence of a large carnivore itself!