Report from George Markie

Big cats hunting in a pack

10 th July 1995

Banff:

Gamekeeper Stanley Windsor saw three large black cats in a "feeding frenzy." He came to within 50 yards of the animals on this particular morning just at daybreak. He had agreed to stake out the carcass of a savaged sheep on a friends farm. He continues: "They were snarling, spitting and kind of growling at each other as they were feeding. I'd never heard the likes of that noise before."

"It was quite frightening. But as I climbed the wire fence to get nearer, my denims got stuck and made the wire fence twang which made the beasts run off. Within five minutes one of them returned."

Windsor was lying in wait behind a bale of straw when the lone cat returned. "The beast came hurtling down the hillside, leapt over a barbed wire fence without breaking stride, and began ripping the guts out of the carcass again."

Windsor who was 25 yards away fired his 12 bore shotgun and claims that with his first shot the creature screeched, with its long tail arched over its back in shock and pain. The second shot caught it just behind its front legs, but it managed to stagger out of the field and disappear under the thick cover of gorse.

Windsor describes this big cat as: "Jet black, larger than an Alsation, with small pointed ears, and a tail thick at the base with a curl at the tip."

He continues: "I have been a gamekeeper for 28 years, and I have never seen anything like this before. They were definitely not dogs or foxes. They were big cats and they were hunting in a pack!"

10 th July 1995

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