Puma’s in the Highlands?

Lambing went as usual in 2009, the crop of lambs were eventually split from their mothers around July/August time, the male lambs went to the market in September/October and the female lambs continued their growth. In October however, Ruth found a carcass — the partly eaten remains of a large female lamb. The lamb was really too large for the predator to have been a fox and the nature of the kill was very different to that usually displayed by a fox.

All predators have methods for killing that can let us know what killed a sheep. Foxes generally take part of the ears and eat specific areas of the body, so leave tell tale signs. The carcass Ruth found had no sign of the ears being chewed, the neck seemed to have been cleanly snapped (instant death) all the “soft” areas had been completely eaten leaving an almost empty shell, there was no sign of the lamb having struggled, barely any wool torn off - nothing to indicate a chase. This was extremely baffling not to mention unpleasant.

Utterly despondent, Ruth phoned Susan next door to ask whether anything “odd” had happened on their croft, likewise, she phoned Ian Simpson who had gimmers overwintering on their croft. In both cases their response was — nothing odd had been happening.

The dead lamb was duly buried, but we were left concerned about the nature of the kill. That evening the three dogs were barking madly, something they had been doing for the last couple of days, was this a sign something was amiss? Annie decided to take Tiff the dog and the lambing torch out with her to investigate. A short while later, she was back — reporting that “something” was in the forestry on the opposite side of the road, would Ruth go take a look. Ruth and Annie set off, again armed with the trusty lambing torch. Two fields down from where the female lambs were, Annie stopped and pointed to the forestry, sure enough, by the light of the torch, two eyes could be seen — the animal was looking directly at us but was not moving away. Ruth decided it was probably a deer, it couldn't be a fox as their eyes shine back a distinct red colour. Ruth advanced up the field, towards the roadside keeping the torch aimed directly at the eyes. Could it be a badger or a pine marten if it wasn't a deer, then …?

By the time Ruth reached the boundary fence, the lambing torch battery was beginning to give out and the light had dimmed. Climbing over the fence and up the banking to the road, the eyes disappeared, a dark shape was seen moving slowly away up through the forestry. Ruth crossed the road and proceeded to give chase. Annie decided enough was enough and shouted to Ruth to come back, there was no point following this animal through the forestry and up the Struie at 1am …

Walking back to the house Annie questioned Ruth about what she had seen. Simple answer — no idea at all. The animal was much larger and longer than a badger, pine marten or fox, but smaller than a deer. It's body shape was wrong for a deer and the way it moved was steady, not like a deer bounding off — this creature sloped off calmly, in an unhurried fashion, it was not displaying fear.

Two days later, Ian Simpson phoned, he had found a carcass in his field — the kill appeared to be similar to our lamb. Five days later, he reported a second killing, this time, all that was found of the gimmer was what amounted to a sheepskin rug and an empty skull — the brain cleaned out completely. A third kill took place at the Simpsons — something was very much amiss.

Annie had been chatting to James Ross, the guy who keeps our baler in working order, who also happens to be handy with a rifle, he agreed, the kills were not that of a fox. By this time, Ian Simpson had found a third carcass in much the same state and had taken to hanging a radio out in the field and leaving lights on around the proeprty. The owner of the sheep that were grazing on the Simpsons posted pictures of the first carcass on U-Tube. Ian Simpson had called in a vet to look over one carcass and he had stated it might be a big cat.

Over the next couple of weeks, Sandy Henderson reported the loss of two gimmers in similar circumstances - empty skulls, missing heads and sheepskin rugs. The predator had removed the skin as cleanly as a trained butcher — something that was way beyond the ability of the average fox. In total, around 10 sheep were killed in the area before the beast moved away and the killings stopped. Did anyone see anything? yes, Ruth received a phone call from a property owner not too far from Sandy Hendersons reporting sightings of a large black cat, his neighbour, on the opposite side of the road found a sheeps head on his wood chip pile.

Annie and James took to “lamping” for a number of nights. Driving around the area armed with rifle and a large, bright, long reaching torch looking for the predator. Nothing was seen and no further sheep were killed. So that appeared to be the end of the killings for 2009. But we had similar killings in 2010, we lost one large male lamb in October. Was it the cat you want to know? We can't be certain, but, there were no signs of a struggle or chase, no torn wool, whatever killed the large lamb left the carcass uneaten and took the head — we haven't yet found that head. A further large lamb was found, alive but with bite marks around its head — we assume the “cat” grabbed the lamb, was disturbed and ran off — the lamb survived and was treated with an injections of long acting antibiotic to stop infection.

We feel sure this will not be the end of this topic…