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Was a Panther Seen in Pollok Park? By David Oliver

Glasgow Extra: 17th July 2009

Glasgow Extra
   
COULD there be a panther on the prowl in Pollok Park?
A southside psychology student swears she saw a big cat at the prize-winning country park's Pollokshaws Road entrance.
The girl (21) from Newlands asked us not to identify her fully but was happy to share her tale with Extra readers.
She was returning to Auldhouse by car about 10pm on June 25 with her parents after a family visit when she's certain she saw a "huge black creature."
She said it was sitting by the White Cart water, near Pollokshaws West railway station.
She addeD: "My dad was driving and my mum didn't notice it, but I did.
"It was a big, black cat - bigger than a German Shepherd dog - -just sitting there, with a reasonably long black tail, underneath the railway bridge.
"I got a real fright when I saw it, but I saw it clearly - the light night meant it wasn't a shadow or trick of the light, and it wasn't a dog, not with a head and a long tail like that - no way."
Linn Park was reported to have had a panther-like creature roaming it in 2005.
The White Cart, which flows through both of these southside parks, would be a natural habitat for any such beast.
Big cats researcher Mark Fraser told The Extra: "A sighting of a big cat here is quite plausible because there is a country corridor, and leopards in their own country of origin do frequent towns, that is a fact.
"It's perfectly natural, and fits in with the animals in the wild coming close to dwellings. We are just not quite sure what these things are yet."
However, Glasgow city council and its park rangers said, to date, they had not received any reports from park staff, visitors or passers-by of a big cat frequenting Pollok.
ACCORDING to the Big Cats in Britain research group the British climate imposes no difficulties for big cats but neither has anyone in the UK been killed by a big cat. Any reported injuries have been relatively minor.

Do you have any information on the above reports. Were you the person involved, or are you aware of any more sightings in this area. We would appreciate any information that you could give us.

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