CARL WRITES: Is there [another] big cat on the loose in Helensburgh

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Arguably, the most famous alleged case of a big cat from Helensburgh (Argyll and Bute, Scotland) occurred in July 2009, when MoD Police dog handler Chris Swallow, reported seeing a large black cat close to the West Highland railway line, near his home. Unfortunately it was nothing of the sort! But, as is often the case with ABC reports, once a story makes headlines, that’s it, it become set in stone, especially when the witness is obviously credible and very unlikely to have created a hoax. However, what Mr Swallow observed was, without doubt, a black domestic cat. It just so happened that from his observation point, which was positioned in such a way that made the tracks seem considerably closer together than they actually are; thus making the cat in question look larger. This can be conclusively proven if one watches the entire unedited video, which, as the frame pans out, more of the track farther along the line is revealed, which then veers round to the right, lining up perfectly now with the observer and showing the actual width of the track, and correcting the illusion. Unfortunately the cat doesn’t continue along the line to this point. Mr Swallow, by focusing on framing the animal with his camera, would likely have not noticed this at the time. There is unfortunately little unanimity among ABC researchers. And we must do a better job of separating the ‘wheat from the chaff’ if we are ever going to make better sense of the British phenomenon. The recent case published on May 9^th seems genuine enough, in the sense the location of the sighting (Helensburgh Golf Club’s course) is the kind of place where wildlife and man do come into contact, and during the covid 19 lockdown, who is to say these animals haven’t been making the most of our absence, in fact, they likely have! Here we have two eyewitnesses, a man and his wife (both unnamed), observing an animal at a distance close enough to be identifiable. With that being said, one must also consider whether the couple had been influenced by the erroneous, but nonetheless well known, 2009 report. There have been other reports made from Helensburgh, other than the two examples mentioned here; even a few observations of faun coloured big cats believed to be pumas. So who knows. Unfortunately, again, we don’t have much to work with. We must therefore remain cautious, but not overcautious.