[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.

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.

[14][unreliable source] In 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.

[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.

[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.