"... the thorny issue of whether or not panthers, lynx and black leopards roam Scotland has been taken seriously by several official bodies."

Clearly, not official bodies who understand that panthers and black leopards are the same animal...

Researchers obtained 86 pages of correspondence and pictures under freedom of information laws from Police Scotland, the Scottish Government and NatureScot.

Oh, impeccable sources then! And yes, Reader, there are pictures. Out of focus, fuzzy pictures. That clearly show large black cats. 

None of them black leopards! Or even wild boar. 

They include tantalising reports about spates of livestock killings where sheep carcasses were stripped of meat in a way which didn’t resemble fox or bird attacks, and one officer who recorded three to four sightings of a big cat.

A wee dram or two taken, perchance..? 

...a police officer told Scottish Wildcat Action about ‘lots of reports of big cat sightings and activity on the north coast’. The officer said: ‘I was present when a ewe was brought in off the hill with two puncture marks on the front of her right shoulder and two at the back of it. The wounds were over three inches apart.’ Other carcasses had ‘very large puncture marks into bone’.

Better add 'jaguar' to the list of imaginary beasts roaming in the gloaming then...