Big cats not a tall tale

Sydney Morning Herald ^ | November 2, 2003 | By Eamonn Duff

[aculeus]

A State Government inquiry has found it is "more likely than not" a colony of "big cats" is roaming Sydney's outskirts and beyond.

The revelations are the result of a fresh four-month investigation into the "black panther phenomenon" which for years has plagued residents across Sydney's west, north-west, Richmond, the Blue Mountains and Lithgow.

While National Parks and Wildlife officials are yet to implement a positive course of action, a senior source confirmed last night a big cat expert had been contacted with a view to future work.

He said: "While we still haven't got conclusive evidence that the creature exists, compiled evidence points strongly to the fact that it does."

The source added: "If and when an expert is commissioned, the first aim would be to identify exactly what sort of animal it is. The second would be to ascertain how many there might be."

Although big cat sightings across NSW date back more than 100 years, speculation intensified in May 2001 when a successful Freedom of Information request revealed the NSW Government had been maintaining a secret file on the creature.

It also revealed wildlife hierarchy were so concerned about the potential threat to humans that they commissioned big cat expert Dr Johannes Bauer to evaluate what had previously been deemed unthinkable.

He concluded: "Difficult as it seems to accept, the most likely explanation of the evidence . . . is the presence of a large feline predator."

While conclusive proof has failed to materialise since, sightings have continued to flow in from bushwalkers, tourists and local residents, including a NSW police officer and a Qantas pilot.

When Kenthurst teenager Luke Walker suffered deep cuts in March this year and said they were the result of a terrifying struggle with a panther-like cat, the NSW Government reopened the case.

The latest report, compiled by NSW Agriculture and obtained exclusively by The Sun-Herald, included a review of sightings and extensive interviews with residents of Grose Vale, where the creature has frequently been sighted.

It found that recent witnesses to big cat activity in NSW were highly credible.

Also taken into consideration was a previous report by Dr Keith Hart, district veterinarian of the Moss Vale Rural Lands Protection Board, who, after testing scat samples, concluded a large cat was living in the Grose Vale area.

The report said: "Nothing found in this review conclusively proves the presence of free-ranging exotic large cats in NSW, but this cannot be discounted and seems more likely than not on available evidence."

One theory the report refused to dismiss was that "historically, sightings in Eastern Australia occur in old gold mining areas and that anecdotal evidence suggests pumas [Felis concolor] were brought to Australia by American goldminers in the 1850s.

The report added: "These animals may have subsequently escaped or were released, causing numerous sightings over many years."

Even as the Government was preparing to go public with its latest findings, a Central Coast family approached NSW Agriculture last month with claims that a huge black cat was "openly roaming" their newly purchased Mudgee weekend holiday home.

Speaking to The Sun-Herald, Chris, who refused to reveal her surname through fear of would-be hunters overrunning her property, said: "We've watched it stalk wallabies, we've seen it sitting high up in a tree. It roams around like a large family dog that thinks it owns the place."

She added: "There is absolutely no disputing what it is. The kids are terrified and, to be perfectly honest, so are we."

[winodog]

The Kzin are finally here.

[irv]

The Kzin are finally here.

Are you sure it's not Nastassia Kinsky and Malcolm McDowell?

[jim_trent]

A 108 pound mountain lion was recently captured about 2 blocks from the busiest intersection in a town of 350,000 people. It is now in the zoo. There had been sightings before, which were ignored. There have been other sightings since then. So much for the line about poor wild animals not being able to adapt and not being able to survive in urban sprawl.

[cavtrooper21]

There was a reliable mountian lion spotting here in Lawrence KS.
In the middle of town, about a block west of the University of Kansas.
Here kitty kitty .......

[JRandomFreeper]

So much for the line about poor wild animals not being able to adapt and not being able to survive in urban sprawl.

In 1995, I noted that coyotes (coy-dogs) in N. Central Texas look both ways before crossing I-20. When I was growing up in the '60s, cars hitting dogs or coyotes was a common experience. I can't remember the last time I saw a dog hit by a car.

We watched a hawk sit on a dead rabbit in the middle of a road a couple of days ago. The hawk was keeping the turkey buzzards at a good distance. Everyone was dutifully driving around the hawk/rabbit, and later, either the hawk or base maintenance carried off the rabbit.

It's the cycle of life. Adapting and overcoming.

/john

[DouglasKC]

We watched a hawk sit on a dead rabbit in the middle of a road a couple of days ago. The hawk was keeping the turkey buzzards at a good distance. Everyone was dutifully driving around the hawk/rabbit, and later, either the hawk or base maintenance carried off the rabbit. It's the cycle of life. Adapting and overcoming.

Heck yeah. Around here crows eat the road kill. They see a car coming...lazily fly out of the way just as the car approaches, and then flop back down and keep eating until the next car comes along. Animals learn.

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

"We've watched it stalk wallabies, we've seen it sitting high up in a tree. It roams around like a large family dog that thinks it owns the place."

Did she ever think to try to take a photograph?

[Interesting Times]

The Kzin are finally here.

"Scream, and leap."

[Twinkie]

My mother said there were panthers in the southeastern
U.S. hills & hollers when she was growing up. They were
supposedly all killed off as civilization advanced. She
said they used to make a screaming sound. That was over
60 yrs. ago and in a very isolated area.

[Hugin]

Where's the Crocodile Hunter when you really need him?

"I'm just going to reach over and grab him by the scruff of the neck. Owww! Crikey, he just grabbed my hand. No worrys though I'll just--arghhh!!!"

[Atchafalaya]

Andreas Gallaraga alert!

[Monterrosa-24]

Your mother was right and still is. Our Alabama game guide lists mountain lions with our other animals for which there is no open season. The Wildlife resources folks keep a live puma among the animals in their display of Alabama wildlife. The cat has a breeding population in the area of Bear Creek Lake which is not such a wild part of the state. The catamonts (yet another name for pumas or mountain lions or brown panthers or cougars) are still rare in the rugged mountains around the Smokies in North Carolina but there are a few. 60 years ago deer populations were very low, due in part to the depression where they were viewed as meat on the hoof. But now with seasonal hunting the accepted custom, the deer populations are generally too large so many expect the puma's population to rebound in the SE.

[Monterrosa-24]

You remember that widely circulated article (but fake) quoting American occupation officials and showing their frustration with the German "Werewolves" (Nazi commandos in occupied Germany). In reality, Nazi attacks after the surrender were rare. But on the other hand getting to May 8th, 1945 was pretty costly. Our total losses in Kuwait and Iraq during the last 13 years equals about half of a typical day of January 1945. Only the Democratic leadership could make our situation in Iraq look like a doom and gloom crises.

[Neanderthal]

"The Kzin are finally here."

Speaker to Animals.

[BudgieRamone]

b-b-b-but Kansas doesn't have mountain lions.(sarcasm)

Its a liability issue. The state has been releasing the doggone things and reintroducing them to the Kansas area, however they will deny they are doing so because it opens them up to liability when one attacks say...someones child?
its much easier to say "OoopS! how did that get here?" than to admit to doing it.

Personally, I believe it is being done with the intention of controlling the deer herd here.

JMO

[Swordmaker]

There once was a marsupial tigerlike animal in Australia called the Thylacoleo - it may also be refered to as the Queensland Tiger.

The Thylacoleo (Marsupial Lion) is a carniverous marsupial that lived between 1,6000,000 - 40,000 years ago. It was 1.5 meters long from head to tail and 75cm tall at the shoulders. The Marsupial lion was the largest meat-eating mammal to have lived in Australia, and one of the largest marsupial carnivores the world has ever seen. It would have hunted animals including the giant Diprotodon in the forests, woodlands, shrublands and river valleys.

The Marsupial lion had enormous slicing cheek tooth, large stabbing incisor teeth at the front of the mouth and a huge thumb claw. The claw may have been used to disembowl it's prey or hold down stuggling animals.

Another possibility is the Tasmanian Tiger that has been thought to be extince since 1932. This is the Thylacine which was variously called Tasmanian Tiger and Tasmanian Wolf. It, too, is a marsupial.

Thylacine cyanocephaplus

The Jaws that bite...

The last living pair... now deceased... or are they?

Cryptozoology is such fun!

[Siamese Princess]

The last living pair... now deceased... or are they?

I recently read somewhere that there have been many seemingly reliable reported sightings of the Tasmanian tiger throughout Australia and even New Guinea. Someone is mounting an expedition to look for it.

Regarding mountain lions, a friend of mine spotted one in a park in Jefferson, New Jersey (no more than 50 miles northwest of Manhattan). He's a former big game guide and can tell the difference between a mountain lion and big Labrador Retriever, so I trust him. There are loads of deer even in the suburbs of New Jersey.

[Jonah Hex]

[Rebelbase]

Down Under produces some funky looking critters.