What have occurred to all the massive black cat sightings in Moray?

WHERE have all the massive black cats of the Moray countryside gone?

It has been a very long time since there was any sightings of them reported within the press.

They initially got here to prominence when one was killed by a gamekeeper at Kellas in 1984. From then on any specimens seen or killed had been often known as “Kellas” cats.

Between 1984 and 1992 eight of those cats had been killed by gamekeepers in an space starting from Kellas to Burgie and south to Grantown.

They had been reported to be bigger and longer legged than the conventional Scottish wild cat with males averaging 42 inches (170 cm) from nostril to tail compared to male Scottish wildcats 24-39 inches (61-100cm).

The male animal killed at Kellas in 1984 was 15 inches (38cm) on the shoulder compared to the shoulder peak of a male Scottish wildcat at 13.5 -14 inches (34-36cm).

During the years that adopted large black cats had been being reported by members of the general public all through the Moray district and past. Some individuals had been reporting that the cats they’d seen had been the scale of leopards or pumas.

Personally, I doubted that there was black (melanistic) pumas or leopards roaming the Moray countryside as a result of on the time the Kellas kind cats had been being killed or seen I used to be wandering a lot of the Moray woodlands monitoring breeding sparrowhawks.

During the course of my monitoring I solely had one sighting of an enormous black cat and this was on the west finish of Monaughty Forest.

I used to be driving by the forest at some point and noticed an enormous black cat walking alongside a grassy facet monitor that led away from the primary monitor I used to be driving on.

I finished my automobile and spied it by binoculars from a distance of about 200m. Like the Kellas cats it was taller than a Scottish wildcat. It had its again to me and I famous that it wiggled because it walked suggesting to me that it was fairly heavy bodied as effectively.

At one level it turned facet on and I might see faint cryptic stripes like these of a Scottish wildcat by its black prime coat.

I got here to the conclusion that it was most likely a hybrid between a Scottish wildcat and a feral cat which a lot of the Kellas cat specimens had been discovered to be when examined by Dr Andrew Kitchener of the National Museum of Scotland who was an skilled on Scottish wildcats.

After many extra years of wandering the Moray countryside I by no means noticed one other Kellas cat or any indicators of larger cats.

Pumas and leopards make scratch marks on bushes reaching as much as their full stretch which might be noticeable.

They additionally urinate on bushes when marking their territories and the urine of massive cats like home cats has a robust odor. I’ve an excellent sense of odor and may detect the scent marking of foxes simply so would have smelt puma or leopard urine as I wandered by the woods.

It was thought that the supposed puma and leopard sightings had been these of escapees from personal collections. However, no melanistic pumas have ever been recorded of their native habitat and black leopards are uncommon of their native habitat.

n Have you seen an enormous black cat? Share your tales or footage with Merlin by emailing him direct at [email protected]

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