'I know what I saw' - Scotland's history of big cat sightings

'I know what I saw' - Scotland's history of big cat sightings2 hours agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleCraig WilliamsBBC ScotlandScottish Big Cat Research TeamThis 2024 image from Dumfries and Galloway is typical of big cat photographsJohn Kirk is clear about what he saw while driving into Grantown-on-Spey with his wife on the evening of Friday 17 April."We were going to pick up the grandchildren from a friend's house," he says."We came off the roundabout, heading into Grantown, just coming up to the cemetery. And something flashed across the road at a great rate of knots. "And I thought: 'That's a cat'. "I turned to my wife and I said: 'Did you see something there?' "She said: 'Yeah but that was no deer. It was like a cat.'"It was bigger than my collie. It would have been sitting about two feet high, long tail. It was definitely a cat."Lynx dies after being captured in CairngormsSecond pair of lynx captured in CairngormsJohn's not the type who's prone to fanciful notions.He farmed the Cairngorms for more than 50 years. He knows the landscape, its secrets, and its wildlife.And - as he says - he knows a cat when he sees one. He believes they saw a black panther that night. He has good reason to be confident about this, because it's not his first."I seen one about 25 years ago. It was on the road, and it was a panther. It was a black panther crossing the road in front of me."When John got to the top of a nearby hill the road was covered in rabbits, running away from the spot where he had seen the big cat."It was one of the most amazing sights I've ever seen. I actually had to stop the vehicle to let the rabbits cross the road," he said."They had obviously smelt it coming up through the wood and they were heading towards the forest. I had never seen nature do something like that before."John KirkJohn Kirk and his wife saw...