RUFFED CAT REVELATIONS - LESSER-KNOWN MEXICAN MYSTERY CATS, PART 1 (OF 3)

 

Reconstruction of the possible appearance in life of Mexico's mysterious ruffed cat (created by me using Grok X1)

When cryptozoologists think of Mexican mystery cats, the example that always comes instantly to mind is the onza – that elusive gracile enigma that may simply be  a bona fide puma, taxonomically speaking, or may not be at all, because the controversy regarding its taxonomic status is still far from resolved (click here to read my detailed ShukerNature article on this subject, and check out my definitive book on feline cryptids, Mystery Cats of the World Revisited, for additional information).

However, it is by no means the only Mexican feline cryptid – I was aware of three others, but earlier this year Mexican palaeo-artist and cryptozoological enthusiast Hodari Nundu, who is also a longstanding friend of mine on Facebook, presented on his FB page some information regarding several additional ones. Not only that, he also prepared a series of exquisite full-colour illustrations of some of these creatures, and has now very kindly permitted me to include them in my exclusive coverage here on ShukerNature of his home country's fascinating diversity of lesser-known feline cryptids – thanks very much Hodari!

Having spent a very productive Christmas Day morning yesterday writing this article (living alone with no family any more, I enjoy Christmas in my own way, by doing what gives me pleasure and keeps my mind occupied, which is writing), its final sizeable word count persuaded me that it would be better served split into three separate, reader-friendly parts rather than presented as a single decidedly lengthy read. So that's what I've done. Herewith, therefore, is Part 1 (with Parts 2 and 3 following later this week), which I have devoted entirely to what may sound somewhat paradoxical – the best-known of these lesser-known Mexican mystery cats. Namely, the ruffed cat.

 

THE RUFFED CAT

I first documented this hitherto obscure Mexican mystery cat in my very first book, Mystery Cats of the World (1989), but expanded my coverage of it three decades later in that book's updated, greatly-enlarged second edition, the afore-mentioned Mystery Cats of the World Revisited. Here is what I wrote about it there:

The onza may still share Mexico with one other mystery felid. To my knowledge, however, this second crypto-cat's existence is based solely upon a single account, written by the American zoologist, veteran cryptozoologist, and popular writer Ivan T. Sanderson in the form of an article published in April 1973 by Pursuit - the official periodical of the Society for the Investigation of The Unexplained (SITU), which Sanderson founded. In his article, no name was allocated to the creature, but for reasons that will soon become evident, I shall refer to it here as the ruffed cat.

During 1940, travelling alone through Mexico on a mammalogical collecting trip, Sanderson arrived at an unnamed mountain settlement in the state of Nayarit's Sierra mountains. These are totally separated from the neighbouring Sierra Madre Occidentale ranges, and possess their own distinctive flora and fauna. At this settlement, a few locals spoke Spanish, and Sanderson let it be known that he was seeking specimens of a particular form of squirrel. The locals promised to obtain some for him, and in the meantime they brought along a number of skins of other mammals, in the hope of selling these to him too.

Amongst them was a large and very tough skin of a most unusual cat. The skin measured just over 6 ft from nose-tip to tail-base, with a further l.5 ft constituting its relatively short tail. Of course, it is difficult to say how closely these measurements reflected this cat's actual length when alive, because it would be virtually impossible to ascertain how much the skin had stretched or shrunk during drying. Intriguingly (in view of the onza), Sanderson noted: "The legs appeared to have been rather long compared to, say, a house-cat or a puma". The paws were still attached to the skin and were very large, well-furred, and splayed, with most of them still possessing their claws, which were bright yellow in colour and very clearly retractile. The cat's face was short (again like the onza).

The cat's pelage was firm dorsally, soft ventrally, and predominantly brown in colour. The head and shoulders lacked markings, but the flanks and upper limbs bore a series of wavy stripes in alternate light and dark shades of brown, whereas the lower limbs were very dark brown in colour, almost approaching black. The ridge of the spine running along its back was also dark brown, and (as far as Sanderson could recall) so too was the tail.

By far the most outstanding feature of the skin, however, was that the hairs sited just behind its shoulders appeared to grow forward to yield a large ruff encircling the neck and covering the ears from above and behind.

 

Artistic representation of the ruffed cat (© owner of this illustration is unknown to me despite searching online, but I found the illustration itself here on the Cryptid Wiki website, where it is attributed to FreakingNews.com – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis only for educational/review purposes only)

Sanderson stated that he bought this skin, and another smaller pelt of this same strange cat form that was in poorer condition but with sharper stripes. Together with other mammal skins that he bought, these felid pelts (which apparently cost a lot more than any of the others) were sewn up in several layers of sacking, and were finally stored in the government jail of Belize, which Sanderson was using as a base.

Tragically, however, during a subsequent trip the jail was lashed by a severe hurricane and, being at sea-level, was completely flooded out. As a result, everything not in bottles was totally ruined, including the skins.

This is a most compelling, but, sadly, rather intangible affair, because there is so little in the way of hard facts that can be followed up. The area itself is unnamed; the skins are lost; and Ivan Sanderson, who travelled there alone and hence was the only named eyewitness to them, can no longer be questioned, as he passed away in 1973. The only hope is the possible existence still of the jail - perhaps, if it does survive, records regarding the skins may too, which could add some details to the account left behind by Sanderson.

 

A third ruffed cat representation (created by me using Grok X1)

What could these mystery cats have been? Lynxes have relatively long legs and short tail, large paws, and thick fur around the neck, which can look a little like a ruff, but no lynx possesses anything remotely as extensive as the ruff described by Sanderson for the Mexican ruffed cat. Moreover, as a trained zoologist and a mammal collector, Sanderson would surely have compared its skins specifically with lynxes if they had appeared comparable with such. Instead, the detailed description that he gave does not fit that of any known felid.

The only sequel that I know of to this sorry saga is that Sanderson claimed that he later saw another skin of this very distinctive cat form on sale at a tourist store in the big market at Colima, situated at the south end of Nayarit's mountain block. Regrettably, however, the price that its owner was asking was far beyond what Sanderson could afford.

It would seem that the only way to follow up any aspect relating to the Mexican ruffed cat is to do what Sanderson suggested at the end of his article:

"…pay a visit to the market in Colima. They may still have unknown cat skins for sale."

They may indeed.

Since the publication of the present book's original edition in 1989, two additional snippets of information that may have possible relevance to the ruffed cat saga have come to my attention. The first of these was a brief but tantalising paragraph in Harold T. Wilkins's book Secret Cities of Old South America (1952):

"At Atitlan, in Guatemala, is another monstrosity carved on a big boulder. It takes the form of a cat with a sort of ruff at his throat, which points to the east. On top of the boulder is a basin, but what purpose this cavity served, unless to hold a human victim's sacrificial blood, is unknown."

Guatemala is of course situated immediately to the south of Mexico, and, indeed, only separated from it as an independent nation in its own right during the early 1800s. Consequently, it would not be implausible if the ruffed cat had once existed in Guatemala as well as in modern-day Mexico.

The second, related item is the following email posted on the cz@onelist.com cryptozoology discussion group by CFZ founder Jonathan Downes on 1 June 1998:

"I think that there is still evidence for there being a new and undiscovered species of large felid in Mexico. Across Mexico City, for example, there are a number of pieces of stylised statuary which appear to show a puma like animal with a brushlike mane like a punk-rocker's Mohican! This animal seems to be a well known archetype within the Mexican culture."

A mystery Mohican cat from Mexico – I like the sound of that!

In addition, on 6 June 2017 Hodari posted on my FB page the following thought-provoking information, plus two photos of the sculpture in question:

This is an Aztec "cuauhxicalli", a stone recipient meant to receive the heart of human sacrifices. This piece is from the Anthropology and History Museum at Mexico City. The curious thing about it is that, even though it is labelled as depicting a jaguar, it has two unusual traits that would suggest otherwise. For starters, it doesn't have any spots, which the Aztec were careful to etch in most jaguar representations. Also, there's that strange ruff on its cheeks, more reminiscent of a tiger or lynx than a jaguar. Cougars lack spots as adults but they don't have anything resembling this ruff. It can't be a bobcat because it has long tail and small round ears. So what is it? A fantastical creature, product of mixing jaguar, puma and bobcat features? Or maybe something else? A tiger? A surviving American lion? Unknown felid? I thought you'd find it interesting.

 

The two photos of the above-described Aztec cuauhxicalli shaped like a mysterious ruffed cat (© Hodari Nundu/Anthropology and History Museum, Mexico City – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

I certainly do find it interesting. Although its ruff is seemingly less pronounced than that of the skins procured by Sanderson (and its tail possibly longer), this Aztec-sculpted creature certainly doesn't correspond to any currently-known Mexican felid, as noted by Hodari, and is yet another example, therefore, of a mystifying cat from this country that sports a very noticeable ruff.

But where is the mystifying ruffed cat today? I know of not a single modern-day report of a living cat fitting its instantly-recognisable description.

How ironic it would be if the skins encountered by Sanderson were from the very last representatives of a felid so distinctive, and, seemingly, so greatly feared too, that in ages past humans had been sacrificed to a graven image of it, but which had subsequently slipped into extinction before the modern scientific world had even had time to acknowledge its existence. From deity to deceased, in just a few centuries?

 

Be sure to check out Parts 2 and 3 of this article, in which I document no fewer than six additional feline cryptids of the lesser-known Mexican variety, when I post them on ShukerNature later this week.

 

The two editions of my Mystery Cats of the World book (© Dr Karl Shuker/Robert Hale Limited/Coachwhip Publications)

 

 

A BLACKER SHADE OF DARK - THE GENETIC EXPLANATION FOR PSEUDO-MELANISTIC TIGERS, REVEALED AT LAST!

 

Exquisite painting of a pseudo-melanistic tiger, prepared specifically for my writings by acclaimed animal artist and longstanding friend Bill Rebsamen – thanks Bill! (© William M. Rebsamen)

True melanism is when an animal's background colour is abnormally dark (due to the expression of a mutant gene allele), so much so that any surface patterns or markings are hidden by it, as with the rosettes of a black leopard, for example.

Despite many eyewitness reports and anecdotal accounts on file, however, no melanistic or black tiger has ever been scientifically confirmed, and this exotic cat form thus remains a cryptid – claimed to exist by locals but not verified by science (for more details on ShukerNature regarding melanistic aka black tigers, click here).

Yet in recent years, following largely unconfirmed sightings dating back half a century, media reports have documented several living specimens in eastern India's Similipal Nature Reserve of what they refer to as black tigers. Photographs of these supposed black tigers, however, swiftly confirm that they are not melanistic specimens. Instead, they represent an equally intriguing but reverse phenomenon, known correctly as pseudo-melanism.

This is characterised by the animals' background colour being normal but their surface markings being abnormally abundant and broad, and having fused together to yield an almost unbroken, solid black mass of dark pigmentation, especially dorsally and upon the tigers' flanks, that has largely obscured the background colouration.

 

Skin of a reverse-coated pseudo-melanistic tiger from Similipal, India (© Dr Lala A.K. Singh)

Until very recently, the genetic basis of pseudo-melanism in tigers has remained unknown. In September 2021, however, a newly-published study in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) conducted by a team of researchers from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) in Bangalore revealed that this condition was the result of a rare mutation in one gene, Transmembrane Aminopeptidase Q (or Taqpep, for short).

Recessively inherited variants of this gene are also responsible for the markings in domestic cats, and in the ornately striped king mutant form of the normally spotted cheetah.

Moreover, whereas it has been estimated that up to 37% of all tigers in the Similipal Nature Reserve are pseudo-melanistic, there do not appear to be any such specimens anywhere else in India. The researchers believe this unusual situation to be due to a combination of a small founder population at Similipal, its isolation from other tiger populations, and inbreeding within the Similipal tiger population. Also, these tigers' darker colouration may be giving them a selective advantage when hunting in the shadowy forests of Similipal.

For further information on ShukerNature concerning pseudo-melanistic tigers, click here; and for feline pseudo-melanism in general, click here. See also this fascinating subject's coverage in my trilogy of cryptozoological cat books – namely, Mystery Cats of the World, Cats of Magic, Mythology, and Mystery, and Mystery Cats of the World Revisited.

 

My trilogy of cryptozoological cat books (© Dr Karl Shuker & Robert Hale Ltd/CFZ Press/Anomalist Books respectively)

 

THE ISLE OF WIGHT MEGA-FOOTPRINTS – A CAUTIONARY CRYPTOZOOLOGICAL TALE

My cast of one of the set of Isle of Wight mega-sized animal footprints from April 1994 (© Dr Karl Shuker)

Here's a cautionary little tale for cryptozoology that I included during a lecture presented by me on modern-day mystery beast reports at the very first Fortean Times UnConvention, held in London during 18-19 June 1994. However, I've never previously documented it anywhere online – so it's high time that I did.

In April 1994, naturalist Martin Trippett from the Isle of Wight (a large island situated off southern England) informed me that a garden in the IOW town of Ride had recently received an unusual visitor. The garden had been freshly dug on the day in question by its owners, who then placed their garden rubbish in some bin-liners. The garden was completely enclosed by a 3-ft-high wall and its only entrance was via a gate, which they locked that night.

 

Showing what a bona fide big cat footprint looks like, here is a real lion spoor cast in brass as a (very!) heavy paperweight, placed alongside a ruler for scale purposes; it was purchased  for me by my mother Mary Shuker in South Africa, November 2008 (© Dr Karl Shuker)

The next morning, they found that some unidentified animal had been in their garden, ripping the bin liners to shreds and leaving huge footprints all over the freshly dug soil. The photograph opening this present ShukerNature article is of a cast of one set of those prints (later described to me over the phone by some IOW newspaper reporters), which Martin very kindly posted to me for my examination and permanent retention.

Measuring 4.5 in long and 4 in across, the prints had no claw marks at all, which ostensibly leaned towards a huge cat as an identity. However, when the casts were sent to me, I could see from the shape of the heel pad and the diverging placement of the toe pads that they were in fact dog prints, albeit from a very large and extremely well-manicured dog – so this is what I told the reporters.

 

Diagrams comparing dog and cat spoor – typical examples (click to enlarge for reading purposes) (© Trevor Beer – reproduced with his kind permission in my 1989 book Mystery Cats of the World and in its updated 2020 edition Mystery Cats of the World Revisited)

Inevitably, they were rather disappointed, as this dashed any hopes for them of dramatic headlines concerning giant cats on the loose. Nevertheless, they then confessed to me that they had actually been informed by the police that a Great Dane dog had been loose in this particular area for the past week, a huge breed that could very easily scale a 3-ft-high wall if it so chose (more details here).

All of which proves that however tempted you may be to give the media the story that it wants, regardless of your own personal opinion, it is not a good idea to do so. Cryptozoology has a nasty knack of coming back to haunt those who flirt with its favours.

 

Vintage photograph from 1910 of a Harlequin Great Dane (public domain)

 

KELLAS CATS, RABBIT-HEADED CATS, FAIRY CATS, AND DAEMON CATS - A CLOWDER OF FORMER FELINE CURIOSITIES

 

The late Corinna Downes from the Centre of Fortean Zoology alongside a taxiderm Kellas cat (© Jonathan Downes/Centre of Fortean Zoology)

One would surely imagine that a mystery cat ceases to be a mystery once at least one specimen is finally obtained and submitted to science for detailed examination. Remarkably, however, at the time of publication of my very first book on such felids, Mystery Cats of the World, way back in 1989, this was not the case with the Kellas cat from northern Scotland, U.K. Four years after its official discovery – and despite being represented by a series of preserved specimens – this enigmatic, then-controversial felid form was still awaiting a conclusive scientific identification.

Happily, however, not long after my book's publication, that identification was duly made, but was found not to be one of any taxonomic significance, i.e. the Kellas cat was shown to be neither a new species in its own right nor even a new subspecies of an already-known species, as now briefly recalled. I have already dealt with this subject very comprehensively in my 1990s paper reviewing this felid form's history and presenting my own bibliographical researches regarding it that was published by the International Society of Cryptozoology's peer-reviewed scientific journal Cryptozoology, which should be consulted for further details.

The history of the Kellas cat began publicly on 19 September 1984, when a local Moray newspaper, the Forres Gazette, devoted its entire front page to a detailed world-exclusive report written by its editor, David Morgan. Its subject was the hitherto little-publicised capture within the Scottish Highlands three months earlier of a large and most striking cat – which did not readily recall any felid then known to science.

"Mystery 'Big Cat' Could Shake World!" read the eyecatching headlines. "Does West Moray shelter a species unknown to man...?"¹ The photograph immediately beneath these imposing lines was no less startling either, and certainly lent them its full support – for it depicted a quite extraordinary cat. Its pelage was dark and bristly, predominantly black in colour but flecked all over with very long, gleaming white primary guard hairs. Its broad head tapered to a narrow muzzle, with jaws that contained spectacularly prominent upper and lower canines (the upper pair actually projecting from the mouth even when the jaws were closed). A second photograph showed the specimen laid down upon its right flank beside a measuring ruler, whose scale revealed that in total length the cat was approximately 3.5 ft. This photograph also depicted the noticeable gracility of the cat – possessing a slender body and seemingly lengthy limbs.

An adult male, it had been trapped in a fox snare in June 1984 within the grounds of Revack Lodge. The lodge's gamekeeper, Ronald Douglas, had subsequently discovered the dead body and brought it back to the lodge, whereupon, as a result of its very noteworthy appearance, Highland Wildlife Park director Edward R.J. Orbell and local veterinary surgeon John Robertson were invited to view it, and some photographs were snapped by Orbell.

 

The Revack cat (© Edward Orbell)

News of this singular find rapidly travelled throughout Great Britain; and recognising its potential scientific worth, Douglas sent the specimen to a local taxidermist in Kirkmichael, Perthshire, for mounted preparation. At this point, however, it seemingly vanished, because for many years afterwards its whereabouts were a mystery, but its skin (minus the tail) was eventually rediscovered, as noted in 2008 by British palaeontologist and cryptozoological writer Dr Darren Naish in a Tetrapod Zoology blog article.

Meanwhile, on 3 October 1984 the headlines of the Forres Gazette were once again dominated by news and accompanying photographs of a large, black, ferocious-looking cat. As I discovered when I examined this specimen myself, it was  clearly of the same felid type as the Revack cat – a second adult male complete with sparkling white guard hairs (plus two small white spots – one on the middle of its chest, the other inguinal), sizeable canines, and gracile build. Its head-and-body length was 26 in, with a further 12 in constituting its tail length.

Apparently it had been one of a pair of such cats observed in January 1983 by local laird Tomas Christie, near to the River Lossie in the vicinity of the tiny village of Kellas in West Moray. He shot one, the other escaped unharmed. Christie had seen and shot other individuals of this cat form in the past, and decided to have this latest example preserved as a permanent exhibit. Thus it was mounted for display purposes by a local taxidermist, placing it upon a robust pine branch in a somewhat menacing, snarling pose. Having read the Forres Gazette account of the Revack cat, Christie realised that his own specimen was evidently of a similar type, so he contacted editor David Morgan to inform him of its existence.

Within a fortnight of this second specimen's media debut, the Revack cat had somehow vanished. Suddenly, Christie's exhibit was the sole preserved representative of this newly-discovered felid form known to be in existence. Needless to say, therefore, it received considerable publicity – so much so, in fact, that the entire cat form that it represented began to be referred to as the Kellas cat, after this Kellas-derived example. Moreover, this name was both descriptive (alluding to a locality within this cat form's known distribution range) and specific (no other type of cat was referred to by this name).

Consequently, when I instigated my own independent researches relating to this felid, culminating in my production of my afore-mentioned scientific paper, the first one to document it and discuss zoologically its most likely zoological identity, I formally adopted the name 'Kellas cat' for this new felid form within the latter work – a name that has since been widely used and acknowledged as its official English name.

 

The mounted specimen originally shot by Tomas Christie (© Dr Karl Shuker)

When the Revack specimen first attracted public attention, it was assumed by some to be an immature individual of the black pantheresque mystery cat reported from Exmoor, Scotland, and elsewhere in Great Britain. However, it soon became clear that it represented a completely separate, smaller felid type. Consequently, Christie's mounted specimen was examined at London's Natural History Museum, with the scientific world and the general public alike awaiting the outcome with interest.

Although a most significant animal, this Kellas-derived example was not ideally suited for the precise and painstaking purposes of taxonomy. For example, certain cranial bones were missing, including the nasals – crucial in cat classification. In addition, by being a mounted taxiderm specimen, its internal structure could not be readily studied. Fortunately, however, the museum was able to counter this latter problem to a certain extent, by employing x-ray analysis in order to obtain an indirect view of those components of its skeleton preserved within its mounted form.

In the late spring of 1985, a short report was issued by Daphne Hills, at that time the NHM's expert on small mammals, in which her opinion concerning Christie's Kellas cat was summarised (and I duly received copies of this report from several different people). It stated that although the possibility of the specimen being either a domestic cat x Scottish wildcat hybrid or a feral domestic cat could not be totally ruled out, available evidence suggested that it was most probably a melanistic Scottish wildcat – and as such the first one documented. This identity had also been put forward independently by certain other zoologists, including Dr Frank Turk.

Since then, however, several additional dead and even some living specimens have been procured (some of which sported cryptic pelage striping and/or brown vibrissae and eyebrows), with Kellas cat material having been subsequently examined both at the NHM and at what is now the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. Moreover, as they were all unmounted specimens, their internal components could be examined directly, rather than only indirectly (as with the Christie taxiderm exhibit). In every case, the specimen in question was concluded to be a domestic cat x Scottish wildcat hybrid, with all but one of these specimens closer in form to its wildcat progenitor than to its domestic cat progenitor (in the case of the one exception, the reverse situation was apparent).

Consequently, as its status is only that of a crossbreed, the Kellas cat is nowadays looked upon merely as a feline curiosity rather than as a cat form of any precise taxonomic worth. Nevertheless, and as I predicted in my earlier-mentioned Cryptozoology paper, it would appear to be more than just a simple, first-generation hybrid, inasmuch as the Kellas cat's distinctive morphology is thought to be the outcome of several generations of interbreeding and backcrossing, i.e. introgressive hybridisation. This process can yield progeny that are very different morphologically not only from their hybrid parents but also from their two original pure-bred progenitor species.

 

Kellas cat found during 2002 in the Insch area of Aberdeenshire; now on display as a taxiderm specimen in the Zoology Museum, University of Aberdeen, Scotland (© Sagaciousphil/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 4.0 licence)

Speaking of distinctive morphology: in 1988 an even more than normally distinctive Kellas-like cat was shot by a local gamekeeper in the Dufftown area of Speyside. Distinguishing this adult male example from previously publicised Kellas cat specimens was not only its alleged lack of white primary guard hairs and chest patch but also, in particular, its oddly-shaped head, reminiscent of a rabbit's, together with large ears, Roman-type nose, and notably small braincase. A second 'rabbit-headed cat' was shot in December 1993 by gamekeeper Jimmy McVeigh after his dogs had flushed it out of a pond in a locality near East Kilbride where it had been swimming in pursuit of some wildfowl. This cat was an adult female but displayed much the same head shape and Roman nose as the Dufftown cat. Moreover, it has been suggested that the Revack specimen of Kellas cat from 1984 may have been yet another rabbit-headed cat; but unlike claims to the contrary for the Dufftown individual, the Revack cat's pelage definitely sported long white primary guard hairs.

According to an online article on Kellas cats by veterinary surgeon Aron Bowers (click here to access it), the East Kilbride rabbit-headed cat's skull was later examined in Edinburgh at what was then still the Royal Museum of Scotland by felid expert Dr Andrew Kitchener, who had previously examined Kellas cat material there. In his article, Bowers stated: "Kitchener's findings suggested the rabbit-headed cat skull exhibited no real anatomical differences between it and specimens of Scottish wildcats, and domestic cats and their hybrids". In her own online account of Kellas cats, cat author Sarah Hartwell briefly commented that the Dufftown rabbit-headed cat: "...had a distinctly Siamese/Oriental profile indicating the domestic breed that had been involved with the hybridisation".

During one of the numerous always interesting and informative telephone conversations that I enjoyed for many years with internationally-renowned felid geneticist Roy Robinson, he mentioned to me that after scrutinizing photographs and written descriptions of the Dufftown cat, his considered opinion as to its identity was that it was most probably merely a freak, teratological specimen of either a large black feral domestic cat or a Kellas cat. The second of those two options put forward by Roy is also my own personal opinion with regard to the likely identity of the rabbit-headed cats.

Although it became known to science only quite recently, in reality the Kellas cat may not be of only quite recent origin, at least not if we take note of two very intriguing items of information drawn from certain archaeological and folkloric sources (in addition, of course, to generations of local sightings of such animals). Firstly: as I originally learnt back in the 1980s from the late Prof. A. Charles Thomas (who was then Director of the University of Exeter's Institute for Cornish Studies and a leading archaeologist specialising in prehistoric and protohistoric Britain), evidence from early place-names in northern Scotland indicates that one of the native animals incorporated into this region's tribal nomenclature of early Roman/post-Roman times may have been a fairly large black form of cat.

Secondly: while researching Scottish mythology in relation to the Kellas cat during the mid-1980s, I discovered from the writings of Katherine Briggs and others that Highland folklore includes a legendary cat form called the cait sith or fairy cat – a sizeable creature sporting a black bristly pelage, white throat patch, and sparks or stars over its fur, according to traditional local accounts. If these 'sparks' or 'stars' refer to gleaming white primary guard hairs (and one could hardly ask for a more apposite layman's description of them), then the cait sith bears an almost exact resemblance to the Kellas cat. Consequently, if the latter felid form is only of quite recent origin, it is truly a most remarkable coincidence that the only region of Great Britain from which specimens or sightings of Kellas cats have emerged is also the very same and only region of Great Britain that contains in its traditional folklore a creature bearing an uncanny similarity to the Kellas cat.

 

As seen here, the Kellas cat certainly recalls traditional folkloric descriptions of the legendary Scottish cait sith or fairy cat (© Centre for Fortean Zoology)

No less surprising, however, is the existence of a felid that at least on first sight seems to be an eastern European counterpart to the Kellas cat. Yet just such an animal was scientifically documented as long ago as 1904, as now revealed.

During the early 1980s, I was surprised to uncover a scientific paper published in 1904 by the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London concerning a black cat that appeared very reminiscent of Scotland's then-unexplained feline enigma the Kellas cat, but which inhabited Transcaucasia. Also known as the South Caucasus, this is a geographical region near the southern Caucasus Mountains on the border of eastern Europe and western Asia, roughly corresponding to the area occupied by modern-day Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.

Within this paper, the cat had been formally described and named – Felis daemon – by the eminent Russian zoologist Prof. Konstantin A. Satunin, basing his description upon two mounted specimens, three skins, and three skulls, all housed in what is now the Russian Academy of Sciences (headquarters in Moscow, archive and library in St Petersburg). Other scientists, however, did not share his view that this felid form warranted separate taxonomic status.

In 1917, fellow Russian zoologist Dr Nestor Smirnov referred to it as F. silvestris caucasicus aber. daemon (i.e. treating it as a morph or aberrant form of the Caucasian wildcat). Conversely, another Russian zoologist, Dr Sergey Ognev, relegated it even further – to the level of a mere feral domestic cat (even though he did concede that a melanistic morph may exist within the Caucasian wildcat population).

Moreover, in 1951, within his major taxonomic review of Small Cats, Catalogue of the Genus Felis,  British felid taxonomist Reginald I. Pocock also classed F. daemon as a feral domestic cat, and it has remained thus ever since. Yet is this a truly accurate assessment of its status? And how (if at all) is F. daemon related to the Kellas cat?

 

Vintage picture of a stuffed Felis daemon specimen (public domain)

Feral domestic cat or not, the Transcaucasian daemon cat certainly displays some marked morphological similarities to Scotland's Kellas cat, as the following description of this contentious mainland European felid demonstrates.

Based upon the museum specimens examined by Satunin, its length from nose to tail base ranged from 22.5 to 30 in; its tail length from 13.5 to 15 in. Fur colour varied from black with a slight reddish tinge to reddish-brown, slightly paler on underparts, inner surface of extremities, and distal under-surface of tail.

Viewed at certain angles, black transverse stripes were visible upon the flanks of the body's foreparts, more conspicuous on faded skins. Very long white hairs were scattered scantily all over the body. Vibrissae and eyebrows were brown, claws white. With regard to cranial features, Satunin noted that F. daemon differed from the wildcat both in the possession of a somewhat narrower frontal region and in the extension of the upper jaw bones further back than the nasal bones (which is the reverse condition to that exhibited by the wildcat).

Clearly, the dark pelage flecked with long white hairs exhibited by Transcaucasia's daemon cat compares with that of the Kellas cat, and especially with certain specimens of the latter felid form that share its cryptic striping and even its brown eyebrows and vibrissae. But how closely do their relative body proportions compare?

With the exception of one extra-large skin (but which may well have been stretched during preparation), F. daemon specimens examined by Satunin do compare favourably in head-and-body length with the Scottish wildcat and Kellas cat specimens measured in detail. Conversely, the tail lengths recorded from the F. daemon specimens are rather longer than those documented for Scottish wildcat and Kellas cat.

 

Sketch of a Kellas cat by renowned Exmoor-based naturalist and artist Trevor Beer on an illustrated lampshade that he very kindly created for me many years ago (© Trevor Beer)

Worth mentioning here is that an increased tail length is one condition proposed by wildcat expert Mike Tomkies and others as evidence for wildcat x domestic cat hybridisation within the Scottish Highlands.

Possibly the Transcaucasian daemon cat is a simple (i.e. first generation) melanistic hybrid, as opposed to an introgressive hybrid resulting like the Kellas cat has apparently done from several generations of interbreeding and backcrossing. It would be interesting to see what genetic analyses conducted upon DNA samples extracted from the preserved F. daemon skins would uncover.

Also of potential relevance here is Felis obscura – aptly-named inasmuch as this mysterious South African cat form has long since faded into zoological obscurity. Indeed, even its name was ultimately given by palaeontologist Dr Q.B. Hendey to an entirely different felid, a fossil species from South Africa's Miocene and Pliocene epochs (Annals of the South African Museum, January 1974).

However, the original F. obscura, as formally dubbed by French zoologist Anselm G. Desmarest in his renowned tome Mammalogie ou Description des Espèces des Mammifères (1820), was a living felid, almost uniformly black or exceedingly dark brown, with faint striping on its limbs, tail, flanks, and cheeks.

The only image of F. obscura that I am currently aware of is the following depiction, consisting of a colour plate from 1834:

 

Plate from 1834 illustrating Felis obscura (public domain)

This dusky felid was first brought to popular attention by eminent French zoologist Baron Georges Cuvier. He briefly documented it in Vol. 8 of Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles (1817), and referred to it as 'Chat noir du Cap' ('black cat of the Cape').

Nowadays, this F. obscura (as opposed to the wholly different fossil one) is synonymised with the African wildcat F. lybica. Consequently, if any museum specimens of it exist, they presumably constitute melanistic African wildcats.

And so, with the cat-egorisation (sorry!) of Felis obscura ostensibly resolved, it's time to bid a fond farewell to this dark-coated clowder of erstwhile mystery felids – duly disentangled and delineated.

 

I wish to dedicate this ShukerNature blog article to the late Corinna Downes, wife of CFZ founder Jonathan Downes, who was a longstanding cryptozoological colleague and friend. God speed, Corinna, requiescat in pace.

 

For more information on mystery cats of many kinds, be sure to check out my trilogy of books documenting these feline cryptids – Mystery Cats of the World, Cats of Magic, Mythology, and Mystery, and Mystery Cats of the World Revisited.

 

My trilogy of books dealing with mystery cats (© Dr Karl Shuker)

 

 

IS THIS MYSTERIOUS PAINTING A PORTRAIT OF THE NUNDA?

Close-up of an extremely distinctive big cat that looks very like native descriptions of a Tanzanian mystery felid known as the nunda or mngwa, as depicted in a mysterious painting recently encountered and purchased by longstanding Facebook friend Maxine Pearson (© Maxine Pearson)

In a previous ShukerNature blog article (click here to access it), I documented one of the most ferocious mystery beasts ever recorded – an East African mystery big cat (morphologically but not necessarily taxonomically) that was reported from coastal Tanzania during the first half of the 20^th Century, and known variously as the nunda or mngwa. It was blamed for the bloodthirsty slaughter of several locals during two separate outbreaks of killings, but was never captured. A few fur samples were obtained, but tragically they were not retained for formal scientific examination. According to eyewitness descriptions, however, this rapacious cryptid was described as being a cat the size of a donkey, and leaving behind leopard-like footprints the size of a lion's, but readily delineated from both leopards and lions by virtue of its most unusual pelage. This was said to be grey in colour and brindled in pattern, i.e. marked with streaks and possibly some spotting too, as brindled animals often exhibit spots among the streaks and stripes.

No known species of cat fits this description in toto. The nearest is the grey, sometimes spotted morph of the African golden cat Caracal (=Profelis) aurata, but at only twice the size of a typical domestic cat, this species is far smaller than the nunda, and surely therefore could not inflict the terrible wounds or attack humans with such overwhelming ferocity as described for the nunda. However, veteran cryptozoologist Dr Bernard Heuvelmans speculated that perhaps the nunda constituted a hitherto-undiscovered giant version of this species, which would be a truly belligerent beast to encounter.

 

My three books on mystery cats (© Dr Karl Shuker)

Tellingly, moreover, as I pointed out in my mystery cat books, locals have claimed that despite its huge size, the nunda does not roar like a Panthera big cat (lion, tiger, leopard, jaguar), but actually purrs, like what are collectively known taxonomically as the small cats, and which include the African golden cat among their number. In addition, the African golden cat is so notoriously elusive that it has actually been dubbed by mammalogists as Africa's least known felid (click here for more details), so of all cats native to this continent, it may well possess the greatest potential for unveiling unexpected, unsuspected attributes.

Over the years, a number of artists have sought to depict Tanzania's monstrous mystery cat, of which the following example is probably the best known:

 

Cryptozoological artist William Rebsamen's vivid representation of an attacking nunda (© William M. Rebsamen)

Very recently, moreover, what may be a hitherto-undocumented and truly spectacular painting of a nunda was discovered in the most unexpected of circumstances. Now, by kind permission of its discoverer (and purchaser), longstanding Facebook friend Maxine Pearson, here for your cryptozoological consideration via this ShukerNature world-exclusive is that truly remarkable and extremely beautiful painting, together with the sparse details currently available regarding it. Consequently, Maxine and I very much hope, kind readers, that you will be able to assist us in uncovering further information relating to it.

I first learned of this painting's existence on Sunday 21 March 2021, when I received a short message on Facebook from Maxine, enclosing the close-up of the cat in the painting that opens this present ShukerNature article, plus a close-up of the artist's signature, and the following information:

Jon Downes [of the Centre for Fortean Zoology, based in Devon, UK] said he thinks this may be a mngwa. I just got it from some charity auction. It's in oils. The painter's name [is] below although I don't know him. Any thoughts?

When I looked at the close-up photograph of the cat, I was certainly very intrigued, and could readily see why Jon thought that it might be a mngwa (aka nunda – I prefer the latter name, as it's easier to say!), and I replied to Maxine stating this. I asked if she could provide me with any additional details regarding the painting and any further photographs of it, which she very kindly did. I'm incorporating the most significant of those photos (which she snapped using her Samsung mobile phone) throughout this article, and here are the additional details:

Maxine lives in London, but the auction at which she won this painting was held next to the garrison at Eastbeach, Shoeburyness, in southeast Essex, England, by a Southend-based animal charity named Charlie Boys Angels (see details concerning it given at the end of this ShukerNature article), of which she is a member. Charlie Boys Angels helps homeless people with dogs, and as one of its means of raising funds for this very deserving cause it holds an auction every month. After winning the painting with a bid for £15, Maxine received it from Charlie Boys Angels about a week ago, and was quite surprised to discover how large it was, measuring approximately 4 ft across by just under 3 ft tall. The identity of the person who donated this painting to the auction is currently unknown, but Maxine has promised to ask the charity if they know, so I may be able to add this detail here at a later date.

 

Close-up of the artist's signature, visible at the bottom right-hand corner of the painting - click photo to enlarge it for viewing purposes (© Maxine Pearson)

Also currently unknown is the identity of the artist who painted it. As seen in the above close-up photograph of the artist's signature, his/her surname may be 'Peters', and the "'05" inscription next to it indicates that it was painted in 2005. However, Maxine is not totally certain that Peters is indeed what the signature reads as, and even if it is, Peters is a very common name, meaning that without additional information it would be exceedingly difficult to track the artist down. I have tried both a Google Image search and a Tineye Reverse Image search in the hope of discovering this painting online, but without success.

Interestingly, as seen here, when the painting is photographed in its entirety the colouration of the cat varies depending upon the painting's location. When Maxine photographed it by a window, the light from the window shining upon it rendered the cat very dark, so that it almost resembled a black panther (i.e. melanistic leopard), with its markings not particularly distinct. When the painting was placed on the floor, however, away from the direct light shining through the window, the cat was much lighter, with grey fur and very distinctive markings, and Maxine informed me that this latter appearance is the painting's normal one.

 

Maxine's painting when photographed by a window (© Maxine Pearson)

 

Maxine's painting when photographed on the floor (© Maxine Pearson)

So what could Maxine's mystifying cat be? Its build and face are those of a big cat, by which I mean a species belonging to the genus Panthera, and most closely resemble a leopard's or jaguar's. Its coat colouration and pattern, conversely, are fundamentally different from those of a leopard or jaguar. Instead of sporting the leopard and jaguar pelage's typical golden background colouration, Maxine's cat is uniformly grey. And instead of displaying the leopard's familiar rosette markings (also exhibited by the jaguar, but which additionally sports a central spot within each rosette that is lacking in the leopard's coat pattern), the pelage of Maxine's cat consists of a heavy mottling of single polka dots, not arranged into rosettes, but which in places merge together to yield streaks and short stripes, especially on the limbs and dorsal region.

Close-up of the painted cat's limbs, revealing merged spots (© Maxine Pearson)

I noted earlier here that the only known African cat that possesses a pelage similar to that of Maxine's mystery cat is the spotted grey morph of the African golden cat – a polymorphic species that exists in a range of different coat colours and patterns, including unspotted red, gold, grey, and black, plus spotted red, gold, and grey. Although most common and widely distributed in West Africa, it is now known to exist in Central and East Africa too.

For morphological comparison purposes, here are two African golden cat skins, the left-hand one representing its spotted grey morph, the right-hand one its spotted golden morph.

 

The skin of a spotted grey specimen of African golden cat (left) and the skin of a spotted golden specimen of African golden cat (right) (public domain)

And here is a close-up of the fur patterning of Maxine's mystery cat as depicted in the painting:

Close-up of the depicted mystery cat's fur patterning (© Maxine Pearson)

As you can see, there is certainly a resemblance.

To see what a spotted grey specimen of the African golden cat looks like in life, click here to view a photograph of one such animal that was snapped using a trail cam during a study of this elusive species' ecology and conservation by Laila Bahaa-el-din as part of her 2015 PhD in the School of Life Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. And click here to download the entire paper containing this photo. You will see straight away, however, that whereas their coat colour and patterning are similar, the golden cat's head is very different in both shape and markings to that of Maxine's cat, which, as already noted here, is leopardine or jaguarine.

 

Close-up of the leopard-like or jaguar-like face of the mottled mystery cat depicted in Maxine's enigmatic painting (© Maxine Pearson)

Equally, it is its unique combination of leopard/jaguar-like head and grey mottled pelage that distinguishes this portrayed cat from any felid on record from anywhere outside Africa too.

So how do we explain this painting? Is it an attempt by someone with cryptozoological knowledge to depict the likely appearance in life of the nunda? Or might it portray some exceedingly rare, freak version of the leopard or jaguar, both of which are well known for the great variation of their coat colour and patterning? Yet I have never seen an example of either in which the rosettes have broken up into single or merged spots (although I have seen in both species the opposite extreme, where the rosettes have merged to yield an extraordinarily beautiful, striking pelage adorned with stripes and swirls greatly resembling that of the cheetah's rare king cheetah variant). Another option is that it constitutes some exotic big cat hybrid, of which a wide range have been bred in captivity. I know of a female jaglion (jaguar x lioness hybrid) named Jahzara, born at Bear Creek Wildlife Sanctuary in Ontario, Canada, on 9 April 2006, whose pure-bred jaguar father Diablo was melanistic and she has inherited his dark coat, but her markings are still rosettes, not polka dots (click here for full details). Or is it simply a portrayal of a fantasy felid, not based upon any real specimen but originating entirely from the artist's own imagination? At this stage, we simply do not know, but it is certainly most intriguing that the cat that it depicts should so closely recall a documented mystery cat from the same continent.

If anyone reading this ShukerNature article has any knowledge concerning this painting's origin and/or artist, or any thoughts that they would like to offer regarding the possible identity of the cat depicted in it, please post them below this article – Maxine and I would be very interested to read them!

My sincere thanks indeed to Maxine Pearson for so very kindly sharing her wonderful discovery and photographs of it with me, and for permitting me to document it here.

 

A close-up of the flank markings of Maxine's mystery cat as depicted in the painting (© Maxine Pearson)

 

CHARLIE BOYS ANGELS: Here is a description of what this very worthy charity is all about, quoted from their official Facebook page (click here to visit it):

Charlie Boys Angels support homeless and vulnerable individuals with their animals in the Southend and surrounding areas of Essex by providing essential items, access to free veterinary treatment and support to find pet friendly accommodation.

This page was set up to help us get our name out there and the fantastic work that we do and is dedicated in memory of a beautiful white staffie called Charlie Boy, let us tell you his story...

Charlie Boy and his owner were sadly made homeless back in November 2016 and it was around this time that this group was founded to help him with a skin complaint. Tragically in January 2017, they were both attacked on the street – Charlie Boy jumped up to protect his owner and was fatally stabbed, he died a short time later.

After his death, our group and the local community was filled with heartfelt memorials for this brave boy who had sacrificed his life for his human so it was then that it was decided that we would continue our work in his memory to help others just like them who are homeless and vulnerable with their animals and also those without.

We provide:

- Animal items such as food, blankets, treats, collars, leads, coats, toys, flea & worm treatment etc.

- Clothing items such as Jackets, Jumpers, Hats & Scarves, Gloves etc.

- Help to find pet friendly accommodation

- Help towards the cost of vet treatment

- Foster Care in Emergency Situations

We want to prevent this tragic incident from ever happening to anyone else in the future and so far we have achieved this, making sure that everyone we work with are safe and have everything they need to look after their companions.

4 years into our work, we have now joined in partnership with the Aspirations Program whose mission is to empower individuals on their journey of recovery from the harmful effects of active addiction – working together to make a difference to people’s lives.

We do not receive any government grants and rely solely on support from the public and fundraising to help us continue the work that we do and keep our vet treatment free and accessible to those who need it the most. We have our current Facebook pages including our fundraising page.

We will add link into the comments below for ease.

We also have our wish lists on Amazon, again we will place a link below. Please share this post as it’s extremely difficult to arrange fundraising at this time due to current restrictions.

If you wish to kindly make a donation towards the work we do, you can do so by Bank Transfer directly to the below details as unfortunately we no longer have access to a PayPal account – all donations are so greatly appreciated.

Account Name: Charlie Boys Angels

Sort Code: 20-19-97

Account Number: 90007625

Reference: Donation

 Thank you most sincerely for reading this – Karl.