The Kellas cat is a large black cat found in Scotland. It is an interspecific hybrid between the Scottish wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris syn. Felis silvestris grampia) and the domestic cat (Felis catus). Once thought to be a mythological wild cat, with its few sightings dismissed as hoaxes, a specimen was killed in a snare by a gamekeeper in 1984[1][2] and found to be a hybrid between the Scottish wildcat and domestic cat.[3] It is not a formal cat breed, but a population of felid hybrids. It is named after the village of Kellas, Moray, where it was first found.
| Kellas cat | |
|---|---|
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| Mounted zoological specimen of a Kellas cat | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Suborder: | Feliformia |
| Family: | Felidae |
| Subfamily: | Felinae |
| Genus: | Felis |
| Species: | |
Specimens, examination, and captive breeding
editThe "dog-size" animal snared in 1984 was 38 centimetres (15 inches) to shoulder height and measured 110 cm (43 in) from nose to tail.[1][4] When this find was reported, "[f]armers and gamekeepers responded immediately with claims that they had been shooting large black cats on Highland estates for years."[5] Skeptics initially dismissed the animal as "a very large feral domestic cat".[6]
A researcher at the National Museum of Scotland examined eight Kellas cat specimens.[7] One carcass was already in the museum's collection; the remaining seven were supplied by Di Francis,[8] who was described by Thomas as a "writer, researcher and practical naturalist".[7] Thomas identified one of the animals as a melanistic wildcat;[7] this juvenile male was the first wildcat ever documented as melanistic in Scotland.[9] Most of the other specimens examined were concluded to be hybrids but more closely aligned to the Scottish wildcat; only one hybrid leaned more towards a domestic cat.[10]
The purported first live Kellas cat, a female, was caught at the Kellas estate by the Tomorrow's World team and featured in the 1986 episode "On the Trail of the Big Cat".[11] A second, male, was captured in 1988 in Inverness-shire. Both were kept for a time in the Highland Wildlife Park at Kincraig, then eventually taken on by Francis; she found them untameable but successfully bred them, producing the first litter of captive-born Kellas kittens.[12]
The Zoology Museum of the University of Aberdeen also holds a mounted specimen that was found during 2002 in the Insch area of Aberdeenshire.[13] Another specimen is kept in a museum in Elgin.[14][unreliable source]
Distinction from other alleged cats in Britain
editIn 1988, in Dufftown, Moray, another wildcat-sized black animal was trapped and killed, and upon examination has been suggested to be a different species entirely, for having a very different skull structure, which is narrower and elongated, with a notably smaller brainpan, and unusual dentition.[15]
Media reports about the Kellas cat in the 1980s often confused it, despite it being not much larger than a house cat, with purported sightings throughout Britain of leopard-sized or larger creatures, sometimes said to be black, tawny, or striped, and blamed for various livestock killings.[16] While a single puma, that had escaped or been released from captivity as an exotic pet, was captured humanely in 1980 in Cannich, Inverness-shire,[17] the remainder of such alleged great cats in Britain have proved to be elusive and dubious cryptids, generally regarded as urban legend.
Cat-sìth legend
editThe folklore of the cat-sìth ('fairy cat') may have been inspired by the Kellas cat.[18] The cat-sìth is a fairy creature from Celtic mythology, said to resemble a large black cat with a white spot on its chest. Legend has it that the ghostly cat haunts the Scottish Highlands. The legends surrounding this creature are more common in Scottish mythology, but a few occur in Irish mythology.
The historian Charles Thomas speculated that the Pictish stone at Golspie may depict a Kellas cat.[19] The Golspie stone, now held at the Dunrobin Castle Museum, shows a cat-like creature standing on top of a salmon, which may allude to the characteristics ascribed to a Kellas cat of catching fish while swimming in the river.[7]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b Bowers (2006).
- ^ Francis (1996), pp. 5–7.
- ^ Nowak, Ronald M. (2005). Walker's Carnivores of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 237. ISBN 978-0-8018-8033-9 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Francis (1996), p. 10.
- ^ Francis (1993), p. 140.
- ^ Francis (1993), p. 141.
- ^ a b c d Thomas (2013), p. 174.
- ^ Kitchener (1996), p. 395.
- ^ Kitchener (1996), p. 213.
- ^ Kitchener (1996), pp. 397–399.
- ^ Hann, Judith (22 May 1986). "On the Trail of the Big Cat". Tomorrow's World at Large. Series 23. Episode 35. BBC 1 – via YouTube.
- ^ Francis (1993), p. 142.
- ^ "Catalogue record: ABDUZ:CLD07". University of Aberdeen. Archived from the original on 7 October 2016. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
- ^ "Kellas Cat". Engole: The Elven for Knoweledge. 2020. Retrieved 4 February 2024.
- ^ Francis (1993), pp. 143–144.
- ^ Francis (1993), pp. 141–142, et passim.
- ^ Francis (1993), pp. 127–128.
- ^ Matthews, John; Matthews, Caitlín (2005). The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures. HarperElement. p. 91. ISBN 978-1-4351-1086-1.
- ^ Thomas (2013), p. 175.
Bibliography
edit- Bowers, Aron (2006). "Kellas Cats, Scotching the Myth". ScotCats.online.fr. Scottish Big Cat Trust. Archived from the original on 14 September 2015.
- Francis, Di (1993). The Beast of Exmoor: And Other Mystery Predators of Britain. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 9780224036658 – via Internet Archive.
- Francis, Di (1996) [1993]. My Highland Kellas Cats: The discovery and origin of a ferocious new black wild cat (Large-print ed.). Leicester: Ulverscroft. ISBN 9780708935392 – via Internet Archive.
- Kitchener, Andrew (1996) [1993]. "Appendix: Investigating the Identity of the Kellas Cats". In Francis, Di (ed.). My Highland Kellas Cats. (Op. cit.)
- Thomas, Charles (2013). Gathering the Fragments: The Selected Essays of a Groundbreaking Historian. Sheffield: Cornovia Press. ISBN 978-1-908878-02-1.