Report sent to Scottish Big Cats
Black Panther seen near Darvel
27 th August 2001
Name. M.D.
Date. 27 th August 2001
Time. About 08:15 roughly
Location Also describe the terrain, town, country etc.
About 1 mile east of Darvel in E. Ayrshire on the A71 road just coming up to Loudoun Hill, just by the Loudoun Hill inn. The road is set about halfway up the southern side of the valley looking out over some farms and the remains of the viaduct. Just before the road goes up onto the moors and past the Loudoun Hill Quarry. I was just driving towards the end of the long straight bit of road before it went up onto the moors properly. It ran across the road in front of me it only hit the road a couple of times. And then was out into the fields. it came from the Loudoun Hill side and crossed the road into
the moor/quarry side.
Weather. Sorta broken clouds and a bit of wind, typical Darvel morning really.
Description of animal. Panther like
Colour & markings.Black with no markings
Size. Quite large.
Maybe slightly lower than a German shepherd, but longer, tail was quite long.
Shape of head.Not sure, kinda boxy, with a sorta squarish long snout.
Shape of ears. Sorry it was going to fast for me to see
Length of body including head. I would guess at about four feet, maybe three and half.
Length of tail. Got to be a couple of feet at least.
Type of movement Sort of leaping movement, not like a dog at least. A lot of shoulder movement.
Distance away. Too bloody close by half! it ran across the road about 6 ft in front of my car.
Moving or stationary. Moving and fast!
Did the animal make any noise? Don't know, I was in a car and it was outside.
Was the animal frightened, indifferent, curious etc.
No Idea, I was bloody terrified tho.
What was the animal doing when you first observed it? Running across the road
Duration of sighting. About one second, but it was a long second.
How many witnesses.
None, unless you count the almighty and good luck getting an interview off of him!
Other observations
I should pointout I used to have a big black dog in the family home and my
neighbour has always had big black mutts, so I know what a big black dog
looks like and this wasn't one.
27 th August 2001
 |
 |
 |
|
| Return to index | Return to Scottish Big Cats | Return to Ayrshire | Return to 2001 |