OLD RECOVERED FILE
Posted Jan 4.03
I am all for proving or disproving the sightings but here there was nothing
at all. Nothing was said about the shrieks this cat was giving off, pray
tell what other feline does this to warrant the police to believe that maybe
a woman was being attacked. A female puma in oestrous looking for a male,
fits the bill perfectly. Which warrants the question was there a male in the
area?
A vixen will give off some terrifying screams.
As for the eyes, basic experiments by numerous people show that under
different lighting conditions, angles etc. will produce different colour
reflections from animals eyes. As for it being dark, the sighting was made
in the dark, most animals no matter their colour will look dark in bad
light, this is elementary stuff. Rain and other conditions will make an
animal look darker than it is. The police never said the animal was black,
they said it was dark.
The size fits the police description.
People are also, I notice mixing the sightings of the black cat with this
one, this is wrong. The brown tawny coloured cat and the black cat are
obviously two separate animals. The sightings do have a history and this is
not a one off.
Professional zoologists have reported encountering pumas from as little as a
few yards away, these are people who should know what they are talking about
and who have actually seen the animal, not read newspaper reports.
This sighting is actually interesting because it does show a turn around in
the attitude of the Ayrshire Police. I wonder though if a member of the
public had made this sighting how much they would have been believed by the
police.
Unusually too the animal never fled when the officers arrived, in fact it
did walk towards them which is quite worrying. These cats have been shown to
have no fear of motor vehicles and will readily approach them with people
inside, we have even had an instance with loud pop music blaring and it did
not deter the animal. Open the door and the animal usually makes a dash for
it. Maybe the powerful torches of the police officers looked like car
headlamps to a confused animal, I don't really know.
There is always the possibility that it had escaped from an unlicensed
owner, but if so it has been on the loose for several years. We have one
gentleman who reports that he has seen this animal with a cub.
As for them escaping from wildlife parks and zoo's, how many have lost pumas
etc. and do they not notice when their animals wander about the adjoining
countryside, if this is so then there is some very great problems in zoo
management. Or they lie when you ring them to ask if any of their animals
have escaped! Again, where are these zoo's and wildlife parks these large
cats keep escaping from.
The Lynx in the Borders was soon recaptured this year, but that really has
got nothing to do with the sightings that are made every year by sane and
sober folk. It was an escapee pure and simple, caught and that was that.
There are many of the UK big cat investigators who have made it their
business to study colourations, genetics etc. While there is debate in the
USA wether the black puma exists it is highly unlikely that the Uk would
have a multitude of melanistic pumas while their country of origin does not.
Coats of pumas have been recorded as going onto dark grey. In the darkness
this will look black. Same with leopards why should the UK have a host of
black ones, there are virtually no sightings of the spotted leopard. Out of
every litter of four or five one may turn out to be melanistic. Which is one
of the reasonS I do not believe that the black cats reported are all
leopards.
What I do is challenge people zoologists etc. to investigate these sightings
first hand, visit the area week after week, talk to the hundreds of
witnesses, and after that when actually investigated for themselves make an
honest evaluation of the situation, I for one would then listen and respect
what they had to say.
I also respect the police officers who came forward with this, because in
their profession it was no easy thing to do.
As regards the Ardrossan sighting myself and Brian Murphy were the only
investigators there, we searched the area three times and found no signs,
prints, faeces etc. of a big cat being present, but that's not unusual and
does not dismiss what the police officers reported. Although it is a sign of
the times when at a scene of a sighting you are interviewed and photographed
by three seperate newspapers, this is most certainly a first for me.
The latest sighting in the area comes from Bridge of Weir 20 miles or so
from Ardrossan as the crow fly's, but again its black so not the same animal
as the police saw.
The lady reported to the British Big Cat Society: I was walking with my dog
on the cycle track near Bridge of Weir when to my amazement a large black
cat like creature leapt in front of me and my dog, and ran off through then
adjoining field, I have since found out that there have been other sightings
around this area as well, including one around six months ago in the nearby
Merchiston Hospital, Johnstone.
date: 28/12/02
time: 0800 am
location: Renfrewshire
area type: Field
colour: black
species: black panther, puma (witnesses comments)
appearance other: flawless black
length: 4-6
height: 4-5
Mark Fraser
www.scottishbigcats.org
Original story: Doubt Cast On Ayrshire Puma Sightings
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