Report from Mark Fraser
Puma seen at Crosshill
late October 1999
I just recently found your site which acted as a nice confirmation that I didn't have hallucinations last Autumn. Having said that, I would rather not have my name on the web site, but feel free to put in any other details. The sighting was late last October at about dusk. The location was a private forestry track near the Blair Forrest which is about 4 miles South of Crosshill in South Ayrshire and half a mile from home.
As I came over a rise on the track I saw a big cat about 100 yards away. Size wise it was similar to a big German Shepherd and light brown in colour. It didn't have Lynx tufts on the ears, and the tail was very long. Also the very last part of the tail appeared to have some stripes on it, but I couldn't be 100% on that due to the distance and the amount of light. (the eyes did reflect greenish-yellow in the headlights) In hindsight, the most similar picture I've seen was of a Puma.
As soon as I saw it I stopped the truck and it stood looking back at us for possibly 15-20 seconds, before loping off downhill into the trees. The way it moved was totally feline, but with a bit more purpose than the average tabby. As soon as it moved off the track I drove down to the spot that I had seen it and jumped out to check down between the trees with a spotlight torch. I got another view of the cat (more its eye reflection than anything else) before it disappeared again.
My brother in law was with me and pretty much confirmed my assessment. The area is a mixture of private forestry, forestry commission and open moorland which is pretty uninterrupted for about 30 miles south and 15-20 miles East.
At the time I had only be living there for a couple of months so I wasn't sure if it was a regular visitor or not. I asked the local forestry ranger about big cats and, after a brief attempt to convince me that it was a Roe deer, admitted that he had caught a glimpse of "something" a couple of years before. Despite keeping my eyes open, being outside in the Forrest a lot and having a couple of dogs, I haven't seen any sign of it since.
In my opinion, it seems more likely that it was "passing through" than has a permanent base in the immediate area. Having said that, the private forestry area isn't hunted and felling seems to be very rare and seasonal, so there could be quite a large area that has little human contact which could provide a fairly safe environment for the cat. Food wise, there are the deer, lots of rodents, rabbits etc., as well as a fairly high number of "escaped" or poorly farmed sheep running free in the woods. If a big cat wanted somewhere quiet, it couldn't get much better.
In conclusion, I'm 100% certain that what I saw was a big cat and I'm also 100% certain that it wasn't black, wasn't a Lynx or a Scottish Wild cat. I'm about 85% sure in identifying it as a Puma, but having never seen one in any other situations, I'm not 100% It did seem pretty shy and more interested in making its escape than considering us as "dinner"
late October 1999
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