Tracks of a black leopard or melanistic panther in Scotland, at first dismissed by police as those of a St. Bernard dog, have been confirmed as a large feline’s.

Scottish law enforcement authorities, on the evening of February 1st, released a statement noting they feel a black leopard (the size of a collie) is roaming near a Scottish town.

As the Glasgow Herald is reporting in their February 2nd issue:

A plaster cast of a paw print made following a sighting of the so-called “Beast of Balbirnie” in October [2005] has been studied by zoologists. The large, dark-coloured animal has been spotted several times in recent months near Markinch, Fife. Constable Mark Maylin, wildlife officer with Fife Constabulary …said: “We’ve had a plaster cast of the animal’s footprint examined and the conclusion was it was certainly not a dog. Experts were as certain as they could be that it was an exotic cat. They couldn’t specify the species but due to reports of sightings we’ve had about a large black cat, it’s almost certain to be a black leopard.”

Efforts will now be made to capture it. But some experts are dubious it will be caught.

Maylin said: “The reality is that we are very unlikely to get close to the animal unless we’re very, very lucky….It’s not really worrying. These things have co-existed with humans in the countryside for quite some time, if you believe the sightings. As long as it stays like that I don’t see any problem. Personally, I don’t believe everyone who saw it could be wrong.”

The “Beast of Balbirnie,” during the last few months, has been sighted near the trash cans of homes on the outskirts of Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland. More that six different large cryptid felids are reported to be roaming in Fife alone, say the police.

But a skeptical cryptozoologist has disputed the findings on the cast. According to the Herald:

The cast of the 9cm by 10cm print taken by police is almost three times as big as a domestic cat print, normally 3cm to 4cm. But Paul Westwood, who monitors and files sightings nationwide on his website, was not convinced. After studying a picture of the cast, Mr. Westwood said that it was the wrong shape for a cat.

Sightings of large felids, “Alien Big Cats” (ABCs), have been a frequent occurence in the United Kingdom since the 1970s. Most authorities acknowledge that the exotic pets laws passed during that decade caused many individuals to release their captive large cats into the wild. Breeding populations of non-native felids appear to have established themselves in the wilder parts of the UK, especially in Wales and Scotland.

The situation in North America is more complex. It appears in Canada and the USA the cryptid cat circumstances include (1) reestablishment of mountain lions (throughout the East) and jaguars (SW USA); (2) exotic large cat pets being released; (3) feral domestic cats that appear larger than they are; (4) pet smaller exotics and their hybrids with feral cats; (5) misidenifications (e.g. black labs, black Angus calves; inanimate objects; (6) hoaxes; and (7) cryptid felids as yet to be discovered, possibly related to the American Lion, Panthera atrox.

But, as they say, that’s a story for a future blog, but which can be read about, in the meantime, in Mysterious America, (obtainable while it still is in print, as a hardbound edition for two more months only).