Report from Chris Smith
'Big Cat' Suspect In Sheep Deaths
From the Inverness Courier, February 20 th 1998
A mystery 'big cat' is the prime suspect for a spate of unusual sheep killings near Inverness. A farmer from the Kiltarlity area is so worried at the rate at which he is loosing his flock that he called in experts to examine the animals remains to try to establish what was responsible for their deaths.
Yesterday a vet who specialises in carrying out post mortems on agricultural animals said the killings were unlikely to have been carried out by known native predators.
Alan Syme, of the Scottish Agricultural College's veterinary laboratories at Inverness, said that the remains of the four ten month-old blackface sheep he studied indicated that they were killed by some creature other than dogs or foxes.
"All that was left of two of the carcasses were the skull and fleece. Another carcass only had the fleece and part of the backbone, while the fourth sheep was mostly intact, but its head, neck and most of its front right leg was missing."
Mr Syme's said the animals deaths were definitely caused by a predator, as the remains were checked for any other possible causes, such as disease.
"I found puncture wounds on the remains, although I could not make any judgement as to what size of teeth or jaws caused these marks because the wounds were multiple and there are no clear bite marks."
The veterinary pathologist said that although it was not unusual for farms to loose one or two sheep, the farmer in question had contacted SAC because a number of animals in the same field had been found dead in a short time.
"Over a three week period, around six or seven animals, including these four, have been lost but some have been attributed to disease and fox attacks.
"The farmer has recently undertaken night vigils to keep an eye on the field where the attacks occurred. If it was a big cat that carried them out, the increased attention to this field has probably scared it away."
There have been regular reports of big cats sighted in remoter parts of Scotland over the last 20 years. In 1981 a puma, was caught in a specially built trap at Kerrow Farm, at Cannich, by farmer Ted Noble. The beast was dubbed Felicity and spent the rest of her days, until her death in 1985, as an attraction at the Highland Wildlife Park at Kincraig.
The Inverness Courier, February 20 th 1998
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