For years there has been sightings of 'big cats' in various parts of the Kingdom of Fife, from West Fife around the Blairadam Forest and Cowdenbeath right around the coast to Kirkcaldy, St Monans and around north-east and central north Fife such as Cupar, Strathmiglo, Ladybank and Balmullo.
Some people don't believe this, but virtually every month there are reports of someone seeing some kind of large cat-like animal prowling around the fields or woods of Fife, that it makes seem a very strong possibility that there really is a 'creature' out there.
The reports also indicate that they are nocturnal and shy.
Fife's lovely rural and wooded landscape is home to many animals. Obviously there are many farms with traditional farm animals such as sheep and chickens etc, but you often can be driving along and a deer will come out in front of you, or a pheasant scrurrying across the road, as well as rabbits and many other creatures. All of these would be a delicious meal for a hungry large cat.
But no-one seems to be sure what it is. There are many theories; some think it is a leopard, others suggest it is a puma or a lynx. Yet others describe their sightings as a large version of mixture between the ordinary domestic cat and the famous Scottish wildcat; although most of the sightings have been of beasts much larger than this.
Some folk have reported that they make a screaming noise and that often indicates that it could be a puma. On the other hand, as many of the sightings have been of 'black cats' this often suggests panthers.
It has been suggested that there are more than one large cats around the Kingdom and the big question is where did they come from. One line of discussion is that when the Law changed in 1976 stating that people could only keep large cats as pets if they were licensed and abided by extremely strict rules for their enclosure. This had large cost implications and some people believe that this was when some folk released their so-called pets into the wild.
The conclusion is that there really is some kind of big cat or cats throughout Fife. So far there have been no reports of people being attacked. But the mystery continues.
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