Warning to hikers: alien big cat spotted in Scotland

If you thought the only monster in Scotland was the one in Loch Ness, you thought wrong. Mysterious giant cats are stalking the land, and while many people consider them as big a hoax as Nessie, one has recently been sighted and filmed. The video, taken by an off-duty Ministry of Defense dog handler, shows what appears to be a black feline measuring, if you judge by some nearby railway tracks, to be about four feet long. It’s certainly way too big to be a normal cat and doesn’t look at all like a dog. In fact it looks for all the world like a jaguar, although jaguars don’t exist in the wild in Scotland or anywhere else in the British Isles.

Sightings of wild cats are fairly common in the British Isles and have been dubbed by the easy to remember moniker Alien Big Cat (that’s ABC). Many look like pumas or jaguars. The Big Cat Research group has gathered data on more than 5,000 sightings and has lots of photos on their website, some laughable, some downright eerie.

You might just fob this off as a bit of harmless mystery, or some pussy on steroids, but one Scottish woman was attacked by an alien big cat and required numerous stitches. After that incident local police warned people not to approach or feed any giant cats they come across. So if you’re planning a hike in Scotland, be careful. Oh wait, I’M planning a hike in Scotland. Uh oh.

Fewer Loch Ness Sightings Might Mean Fewer Tourists

Sightings of the famous Scottish monster are down lately — only two sightings this year so far and three in 2006. Ten years ago sightings were in the double digits and residents fear that fewer Nessie sightings could mean fewer tourist dollars. Nessie has been a key tourism draw, bringing an estimated 6 million pounds a year into the Scottish Highlands.

The Loch Ness Monster Fan Club runs four web cams on the North Shore of Loch Ness, hoping to record a glimpse Nessie. There have been more than 4,000 purported sightings, and lots of speculation as to what the creature might be. Some believe Nessie is an unknown species while others speculate that it could be a sturgeon, or even a last surviving dinosaur.