Hunt for big cats continues
by Brendan McGinty in The Edinburgh Evening News, July 9 th 1997
The most famous big cat sightings have come from in and around Bodmin Moor, Cornwall.
Since 1983, arguments have raged about whether a big cat - or cats - exist on Bodmin Moor and in nearby Exmoor. Two years ago the Government launched an £8,000 enquiry into the sightings in the West Country.
It concluded there was no evidence a so-called 'Beast of Bodmin' existed.
The Highlands are also a fertile ground for big cats. A puma was captured in Aviemore in 1993>, eleven years after another puma had been captured in the same area
And there have been several reports of a puma-type creature in Blairadam Wood, West Fife, over the past four years.
© The Edinburgh Evening News, July 9 th 1997
What's being beastly to Blairgowrie
Extract from: Big cat watchers report that something black and snarling is prowling
By Helena Grace in the Daily Mail September 19 th 1996
Big cat watchers claim that up to 50 may be roaming Britain. There have been more than 100 reports since 1983 of the Beast of Exmoor. Last year a leopard was killed by a car at Hayling Island, Hampshire, and a Devon farmer shot a South American leopard. Two pumas were caught in Scotland, near Aviemore 15 years ago and the other near Inverness two years ago.
© Daily Mail, September 19 th 1996
Beast Of Fife
Extract from Mystery 'cat' is caught on video
By Charles Morton in the Sun, November 17 th 1997
In 1993, a puma was caught near Inverness and another was captured near Aviemore in 1980.
The Sun, November 17 th 1997
Extract from Puzzle Of The Big Cats That Kill And Vanish
Country-wide hunt for mystery beasts
By Duncan Roberts in The Edinburgh Evening News, April 7th, 1997
Almost anywhere you go in Britain you will find a localised tale of a brutal predator terrorising the hillside, devouring helpless lambs and leaving their blooded carcasses in its wake. Reports of huge claw wounds are common with paw prints occasionally found. The sightings are just not restricted to the wilder parts of Britain and Northern Ireland.
As well as Edinburgh there have been urban sightings in Southampton, Falmouth and Dundee. In 1993 the country went Beast of Bodmin barmy with the Sun lending its report to try and track down the creature. There have been more than a hundred sightings of the infamous animal.
And the growing list of captured cats shows that its no mere imagined feline frenzy. In 1994 a leopard was killed by a motorist in Hampshire, and a farmer in Devon shot dead a South American Leopard. A year earlier a puma was captured near Inverness.
© The Edinburgh Evening News, April 7 th 1997
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