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April 1985 Kellas cat shot at at Advie, north of Granton.
October 1985 A fourth Kellas cat shot near Dallas, near Kellas.
Spring 1986 Kellas cat trapped near Dallas and taken to the Highland Wildlife park in Kincraig.
Four further kellas cat specimens were obtained in the late 1980s.
(Below) 1n 1988 a gamekeeper working on an estate near Dufftown in Speyside, North East Scotland, discovered a large black cat in a trap he had set for foxes. lt was the size of a very large Scottish Wildcat, but there the resemblance ended. The trapped cat had a slim muscular body, long legs and a long whip like tail. The coat was short and pure black, the chest deep, the hind quarters powerful, but the most striking feature was the head. The animal looked in profile like a hybrid between a cat and a rabbit. The skull was long, the brow sloping down into a pronounced Roman nose, the cranium was flat and broad, the ears large and pricked with a leathery appearance. The jutting upper jaw overshot the lower jaw, the canine teeth were very long, the lower angled to fit into grooves in the upper jaw the upper teeth protruding below the lower jaw. The cheek bones were high and broad, giving the creature an almost oriental appearance. (Di Francis)
(Below Centre) Cat killed by game-keeper Jimmy McVeigh in East Kilbride.
(Below right) The Dufftown Cat.
Thanks to Merrily Harpur for the following five pictures
No better person to explain these pictures is Di Francis.
Many thanks to Di for the following.
In 1988 a gamekeeper working on an estate near Dufftown in Speyside, North East Scotland,
discovered a large black cat in a trap he had set for foxes. It was the size of a very large Scottish Wildcat, but there the resemblance ended. The trapped cat had a slim muscular body, long legs and a long whip like tail. The coat was short and pure black, the chest deep, the hind quarters powerful, but the most striking feature was the head. The animal looked in profile like a hybrid between a cat and a rabbit. The skull was long, the brow sloping down into a pronounced Roman nose, the cranium was flat and broad, the ears large and pricked with a leathery appearance. The jutting upper, jaw overshot the lower jaw, the canine teeth were very long, the lower angled to fit into grooves in the upper jaw, the upper teeth protruding below the lower jaw. The cheek bones were high and broad, giving the creature an almost oriental appearance.
While the outer appearance of the Dufftown rabbit headed cat was curious. The identity became even more baffling when the specimen was prepared for examination. The skull was of a fibrous creamy composition, the cranium was actually indented, the nasal passage, very broad, indicating a heightened sense of smell, the ear drums were very large, suggesting excellent hearing, but the cranial capacity was half that compared to a wildcat or a domestic cat of similar size, giving the skull a comparatively small brain in relationship to it's size. The crest of the skull was broad and heavy, in keeping with heavy muscle in the back of the neck and the lower jaw had tiny hooks, perhaps to prevent dislocation when biting, suggesting that the creature had an extremley powerful bite. The gamekeeper described the ferocity of the trapped cat as quite terrifying and decided as he could not approach close enough to release the animal, his only course of action was to shoot it. It was obvious from the damage to the body that the keeper had stood a good distance away when he killed it, suggesting that he had been afraid to approach the unfortunate animal. Scientists dismissed the Dufftown cat as an oddity, but author and researcher Di Francis, was convinced that the Dufftown creature was a primitive unknown species and that there was other's like it out there in the Scottish hills and forests.
It was not until 1993 that her faith was rewarded. In December of that year a big black cat was seen swimming after wildfowl near East Kilbride. This act alone was unusual but when the keeper sent his two dogs to scare the cat away from the birds, the cat came out of the water and took on both dogs with such ferocity, that the keeper was forced to shoot the cat to protect his dogs from the attack. The cat, a female, closely resembled the Dufftown beast and it appeared a second rabbit headed cat had been discovered.
During research into identification of the animals, photographs of a mystery cat killed earlier by gamekeeper Ronnie Douglas on the Revack Estate were compared with those taken of the Kilbride specimen which suggested that the Revack animal had similarities with the other two but unfortunately the skull of the Revack cat had been lost and only the skin, minus its tail, now exists. However in the future it will be possible to carry out genetic tests on all three specimens to confirm or eliminate a species link.
If all or two of the animals are genetically matched and there are any differences between them and other known feline species, the results must suggest the exciting possibility that the rabbit headed cats are a new species at present unknown to science.
That one of the three specimens obtained to date was trapped alive and then killed, would suggest that a campaign to approach a number of Scottish estates requesting the co-operation of owners and gamekeepers could result in the capture of live specimens for observation and study.
An article in the Scottish Field, published in 1938, reported a gamekeepers tale of finding near Elgin, a feral kitten that could not be domesticated. It revealed unusual behaviour traits, superb hunting skills and finally, returned to the wild. A photograph showing the gamekeeper having a tug of war with the cat and a dead rabbit revealed the mystery cat to be a rabbit headed cat, identical in outward appearance to the Dufftown and Kilbride specimens.
For years there have been many stories of wild pum's and other big cats roaming across Scotland, it is quite possible that some of the descriptions of smaller cats could in fact be descriptions of the rabbit headed cats. They are not large enough to kill full grown sheep but they certainly could and probably do kill lambs, for everything about their morphology would point to an extremely efficient killing machine. Powerful, with acute hearing and a good sense of smell, built for speed but with a comparatively small brain, it would appear to be the perfect instinctive hunter, a sort of feline shark.
If the rabbit headed cats are in fact a new species indigenous to the British Isles, it is without doubt an interesting zoological discovery. That it could escape detection for so long is surprising, yet the specimens exist, have been found in Scotland and are available for study.