Track of the big cat?

April 2004

Anybody ‘luggin in’ to casual chat in the area must have come across conversation on the subject of “big cats oot an’ aboot – lik’ leopards an ’at”.

Every now and again a new report of sightings, evidence of the remains of prey, and of assaults on the person crops up. There is certainly enough in the way of rabbits, hares, birds and roe deer, as well as lambs in the spring, to allow a big cat to survive.

There may be some large cats which have survived in the wild, finding their freedom from zoos or from owners who have tired of them. I have been, for a year or two now, fairly sure that such animals must be about.

Some years ago, driving north between Lumsden and Rhynie, I watched a large, nearly black cat-like animal leap over a dyke and bank of gorse on my right about quarter a mile away.

At first I thought it was a big dog, but as it ran at some speed towards the road it became obvious that it was not only much bigger than any dog, but also that it bounded springily with a downward and then up-curved long tail. It was certainly feline both in movement and bodily set.

Then, more recently, I and my fellow golfers were intrigued to find, in the course of a match round Duff House Royal golf course in Banff, a whole series of pug marks, signs of a scuffle and some hoof marks of roe deer in the sand of two of the bunkers at the sixth hole. The paw prints were much larger than those of a dog or even of a wildcat.

More recently, driving into Banff from Alvah about 1.15am, I caught sight of two widely-spaced green eyes set in a large dark head in the light of the headlights. They peered out of the hedge on the left of the road just north of Bauchlaw farm, but retreated almost as quickly as they had appeared.

On the 29 February this year, I received a phone call from my friends, Tom and Margaret Hendry from Macduff. They are, unlike me, early risers and had just returned from a stroll round Duff House Royal golf course. Tom had spotted what he thought must be the tracks of some big cat and was keen that I should photograph them. Half an hour later I, complete with a foot-rule, was amidst the lying snow of the 12th, 14th and 15th fairways in –3° Celsius to seek out the tracks.

My first picture is intended to show not so much the size of the pug marks as to illustrate how each group of four is separated by a gap of between five and six feet. This was repeated over more than 100 yards. This indicates a bounding animal, much bigger than a dog, which was keeping up an even pace over a significant distance.

The relative position of each pug mark among the fours was very repetitive. I picked up the tracks of the same animal toward the woods at the back of the tenth tee.

The indentations of the tips of claws are visible at the front right edge of the mark. Although the temperature overnight had been continuously below freezing, allowing for some thawing around the edges of the prints, these are still very large and unlikely to be of fox or badger.

By way of comparison I photographed the paw prints of a large retriever-sized dog and some rabbit tracks. The former were no more than three-and-a-half to four inches long or across and the latter smaller still and patterned quite differently.

It is difficult to conclude that these large tracks were made by anything other than a small leopard-sized animal, like a puma or lynx and are probably even a bit small for the latter. No human tracks were anywhere near the big paw-prints over the bulk of their travel over the course so for them to have been made by a very large dog pursuing such a definite and unwavering path seems unlikely.

This is an article from the April 2004 edition of Leopard Magazine. To read much more like this every month, subscribe to Leopard Magazine.