Report from Mike Inglis
Fishery Sighting add to Black Cat Mystery
By Michael Alexander in the Dundee Courier and Advertiser, Tuesday, 20 th April 1999
THE MYSTERY behind Fife's big cat sightings deepened yesterday with reports that a puma-like creature had been spotted on the shores of Lindores Loch.
Several anglers on the veranda of the loch's fishing lodge on Saturday evening were stunned to see what looked like a large black animal prowling along the tree line next to an adjacent railway embankment.
The claimed sighting came less than 36 hours after reports of a black cat-like animal chased by two dogs being walked by their owner five miles away at Heatherall Woods, near Ladybank.
Yesterday Mr Andy Mitchell, whose wife Margaret runs the fishery at Lindores, was utterly convinced he had seen something very unusual.
He said that judging by its description, the creature spotted at the loch could "almost certainly" be the same one which stopped Markinch man Alistair Campbell in his tracks as he walked in the Ladybank woods on Friday.
Mr Mitchell (49) said there had been several definitive sightings of a large feline in the Lindores area over the past couple of years, with all accounts being broadly similar.
Large paw prints had also been found in snows around the loch over the winter and these had been identified by wildlife experts as being of feline origin, he said.
However, efforts by a local gamekeeper and several fishermen to follow these tracks had been unsuccessful because the trail was only visible for a short distance.
"I would say there have been four or five sightings of a big cat around here over the past couple of years and what I saw on Saturday was clear as day," Mr Mitchell insisted. "Although we were about 300 yards away, you could tell it was about the size of a good-sized labrador but much longer and had the definite walk of a cat."
The angler said the sightings were apparently made only when the area was very quiet, a situation underlined, he suggested, by the fact that the cat's scent was apparently never sniffed out by hounds when hunting parties went out searching for foxes in the area.
He claimed that on one occasion while out in the nearby woods, silence of a tranquil evening shattered by a piercing growl from behind him. Since then he remained convinced a large wild animal is roaming somewhere there-a view said to be shared several of his angling colleagues.
As The Courier reported Saturday, numerous sightings puma-like creature have been made across North East Fife in the past few years.
Experts have said it would possible for a large cat-whether wild or one which has escaped from captivity-to remain self-sufficient.
However, while police continue to treat reported sightings seriously, there has still been conclusive evidence to prove identity of the elusive animal.
Dundee Courier and Advertiser, Tuesday, 20th April 1999
 |
 |
 |
|
| Return to index | Return to Scottish Big Cats | Return to Fife | Return to 1999 |