AUSTRALIA SIGHTINGS: The mystery of big cat sightings

T'S the mystery that refuses to die.Documents released by Parks Victoria show the organisation continues to receive alerts of big cat sightings in the Grampians region and elsewhere throughout the state.Intriguing correspondence obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveals campers and bushwalkers have reported a variety of contacts with large, feline-like animals."My husband has sighted (and reported) the puma several times over the past 20-plus years, suggesting a territorial pattern of movement," wrote one Grampians visitor last year.And in September another reported seeing a "large cat-like animal" while driving along the Glenelg River Rd. "I have seen large black cats before but never 150cm long. I am just saying what I saw, no more," the camper wrote.But Parks Victoria says there have been no "confirmed" sightings of pumas, panthers or any sort of big cats in the region or elsewhere in the state.Evidence such as photographs, DNA or live/dead capture simply doesn't exist, according to a departmental officer.The FOI requests were instigated by 42-year-old independent amateur big cat researcher Michael Moss.Mr Moss, from the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, said previous FOI requests over the past decade supported big cat sightings in every state of Australia, and that the latest crop of documents only confirmed their existence."I speak to the farming communities," he said."The farming communities are seeing Tasmanian Tigers regularly. Parks Victoria doesn't want to know about it. They just want the whole thing to go away."But some claims in the FOI documents are extraordinarily detailed.In an extensive Grampians sighting, a spotter writes over three pages how his dog chased "the strangest animal with stripes on its back.""The best description I can give is that (the animal) bounded on the combined back legs onto the READ MORE

AUSTRALIAN SIGHTING - Big cat mystery latest in state's creature sightings

THERE'S nothing quite like a mystery animal sighting to divert attention from life's less-happy realities such as the global economic crisis.
So this week's reports of a big cat prowling the rural suburb of Glenwood, north of Gympie, have not only given some light relief on the news front, they have also reignited the age-old debate over the existence of mythical and mysterious creatures in Queensland.

From the Kilcoy Yowie to the Logan Bunyip; the Buderim Beast to the Gayndah Bear, this state has had more than its fair share of unexplained animal sightings over the decades.

Whole websites are now devoted to Australian cryptozoology, featuring regular blogs detailing the latest sightings, recording local legend and analysing every skerrick of data, from prints and poo to grainy photos and video clips.

And now the Glenwood Panther can be added - thanks to the quick thinking of Pepper Rd pensioner Colin Rossow, 67, who managed to take a plaster cast of a huge paw print in soft dirt near his grape trellis last week.READ MORE

AUSTRALIA SIGHTINGS: Big Cat Story 9th October 2013

Stories have abounded about Australia's big cats - black, panther-like creatures - since the mid 1800s. Plumber by trade Roger Mazzocato has spent every spare second for two and a half years hunting a big cat, known in Bealiba in outback Victoria as the Beast of Bealiba.

Mr Mazzocato's hunting ground measures about 200 square kilometres, often scouring the countryside for road kill and dead animals. He then places them where the cats have been spotted, and mounts cameras on trees - hoping to get a clear shot of the beast.

Video is below on the Today Tonight page

read moremage 

AUSTRALIAN SIGHTINGS: It's official - the phantom big black cat is back

It's official - the phantom big black cat is back The Daily Telegraph

Mr Williams said he has heard of big cat sightings around his local area for 30 years, including landowners who have seen sheep and deer ripped apart.

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AUSTRALIA SIGHTINGS: Couple sees 'cat-like' mystery animal bolting from scrub near ...

Couple sees 'cat-like' mystery animal bolting from scrub near ... Herald Sun

But Toolangi naturalist Bernie Mace said the study was "inconclusive" and said sooner or later someone would get evidence to prove big cats existed in the area ...

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AUSTRALIA - Tracks of the Big Cat

On the 29th of February,1997 the Macarthur Chronicle published a collection of local big cat sightings going back many years. In a recent case it was reported that a young teenaged girl named Emilly was chased by a panther ^[1] while riding her horse at the Sugarloaf Horse Centre ^[2], a place I know well. Throughout this article, I will refer to “panthers” as the original articles did, even though it is not a correct term.

The Sugarloaf Horse Centre is a 220 hectare (approximately 600 acre) heritage listed property on the outer fringe of Sydney. It contains a fresh water canal servicing Prospect reservoir and the ambitiously named Mt. Sugarloaf. The riding centre is one of the oldest continually operating farms in the district, in use since about 1835. It has been spared from the encroachment of the urban sprawl due to a large supply of natural gas and a rich coal seam being mined via Appin.

Could a big cat live here? There would be no shortage of food or fresh water. The land is rich with hares and rabbits, some wallabies, almost a hundred delicious horses, and a steady flow of tender young riders visiting every week. With shady streams, thick scrub, and a small forest of native trees you could imagine that a panther would be hard to find if it didn’t want to be found. In theory, they could hide in the undergrowth or up in trees and would only need to come out at night to hunt. In practice however, as quiet and stealthy as they are, they are not invisible, nor are they obsessively shy. When resting in trees, their long drooping tails would tend to give them away, assuming the spindly eucalypt limbs don’t snap under their weight. Few trees here look strong enough to support a 60kg feline. These are not ideal conditions. READ MORE

NEWSLINK: Australian cryptozoology course

On the hunt for a big cat?
ABC Online (blog)
A short course looking at crypto-zoology is stating this week at the Bass Coast Adult Education Centre. The course aims to offer skills and explanations about big cats, Yowies and other legends. Craig spoke with Mike Cleeland about the four week program.

NEWSLINK: Australian Big Cats

Australian Big Cats: Western Australia Big cats
By mike
Six-foot Big Cat captured on video. I had to pull the embed video link which "The Sun" supplie s because for the first time ever..someone wanted me to pay £500 for using the e... Hybrid Cats. Australian Big Cats – www.australian-big-cats The ...

NEWSLINK: Mystery Cats in Australia

Unlikely animals in the Aussie outback
WA today
There has been evidence suggesting hippopotami, big cats and even more Tasmanian Devils, believed to have become extinct from mainland Australia hundreds, possibly thousands of years ago have been living it up here. Back in 2009 a pig hunter in the ...

NEWSLINK: More on the Australian mystery cat news

Ask Agnes: Pink elephants
Weekly Times Now
SEEING as they couldn't find any big black cats, I suggest the Government would be better advised to go looking for pink elephants. Up here in the Strathbogie hills, every time someone sees a pink elephant, they (I mean my big brother and sister and ...

NEWSLINK: Australian mystery cats released by American soldiers?

Pumas freed by Americans, readers say
Weekly Times Now
MANY readers believe American soldiers released two big cats into the Grampians wilds after their tour of duty ended in World War II. A study by Deakin University in 2001 concluded "a big cat population in the Grampians mountain range is beyond ...

SIGHTING: Australian "Black Cat as big as a fox" (Photo)

Big cat caught: The cat measures up to fully grown foxes after the shoot.

CARPENDEIT dairy farmer Ricky Bailey initially thought he had spotted a fox in his scope while out shooting a few months ago.

"It was 150-180 metres out. We had a look through the scope and it was a big cat. It was black and big and had no collars on it," he said.

Ricky was shooting on a Pirron Yallock dairy farm, west of Colac, and said he hadn't spotted a cat this large.

"It was the same as a full-grown fox but not quite as deep in the chest but just as long," he said. "When you held it up in the air by the base of its tail, its legs and head was hanging down on the ground. You see a lot of cats around dairies, but not that size."

He sent this picture of the dead cat to the Weekly Times after Pirron Yallock was named as an area where large cats had been sighted.

Read on...

SIGHTING: An Australian Mystery Cat

Winchelsea big cat revealed Weekly Times Now David took photographs and then interviewed the farmer who finally offered information about big cat sightings in the area. "I'd heard the myth about the big cats, but in my job I was trained to deal with facts," David said. He considered marauding ... .

MORE ON THE CONTROVERSIAL AUSTRALIAN BIG CAT STUDY

Safe from big cats
Ranges Trader Mail
“The study concluded the most obvious explanation for many of the reported sightings of big cats over the years is that they were large feral domestic cats,” he said. “Some preliminary DNA evidence also cannot be entirely dismissed but it is not ...

Big cat study complete - Premier of Victoria
A report examining alleged sightings and evidence of 'big cats' in Victoria is complete, concluding the existence of a living population is highly unlikely.

NEWSLINK: More on controversial Australian big cat study

HAVE YOUR SAY: Big cat study small on results
Knox Leader
The official conclusion is that big cats sighted over the years are large feral domestic cats, according to Victorian Agriculture and Food Security Minister Peter Walsh. THE existence of big cats in Victoria is "highly unlikely" a State Government ...

Big Cat Study inconclusive - ABC Goulburn Murray - Australian ...
The Victorian Government has ended a 'desktop study' into the existence of big cats in Victoria less than three months in.

Court fight over big cats owned by Tarzan actor
LOXAHATCHEE, Fla. (AP) - A court fight is under way in Palm Beach County over two tigers and a leopard that belong to a former Tarzan actor. The cats were ...

NEWSLINK: More on the controversial Australian Big Cat Study

The Australian Big Cat Study that Wasn't | Mysterious Universe
This week, the Victorian state government released its findings into an official investigation into whether Big Cats such as panthers, pumas and cougars are.

NEWSLINK: More on the Australian big cat debate

The Australian Big Cat Study that Wasn't | Mysterious Universe
By Andrew Nicholson
This week, the Victorian state government released its findings into an official investigation into whether Big Cats such as panthers, pumas and cougars are.

NEWSLINK: More on Australian big cat debate

Report finds big cats "highly unlikely''
Leader News
And the official conclusion is that big cats sighted over the years are large feral domestic cats, according to Victorian Agriculture and Food Security Minister Peter Walsh. He said his pre-election commitment to run a "desk'' study into whether big ...

8.30a Reloaded ABC SoutheastSA with Stan Thomson 20th Sept. 2012
ABC Online (blog)
Simon Townsend is known affectionately as the BIG CAT MAN. He has pursued evidence to prove that animal similar to leopard, cougar, wild cat, or panther is actively roaming our region , attacking livestock. Attempts to convince the Victorian Govt, have ...

NEWSLINKS: More on the Australian big cat debate

Big cat hunt declared over by Victorian Government due to lack of evidence
Herald Sun
Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh said the study, conducted in Melbourne offices on past evidence rather than in the field, said there was nothing to substantiate claims big cats existed in the state. "No big cat has ever been detected in a formal ...

Investigation: Big Cats existence 'highly unlikely'
3AW (blog)
@Hugh I agree with what you say about the film but I am inclined to believe more in the comment from @Kit Clarke, there is ... more; steve glen on Investigation: Big Cats existence ... Highly unlikely huh? My son, friend and myself all witnessed a big ...

Case closed on big cats in Victoria
Yahoo!7 News
A Victorian Government investigation has concluded it is "highly unlikely" there are wild big cats living in Victoria. The so-called desktop survey was conducted by two researchers from the Department of Primary Industries and the Department of ...

The second of these stories is particularly interesting because of the sighting reports in the comments section

SIGHTINGS: More Victoria big cats

Hunt goes on for big cat | Geelong, VIC, Australia
GEELONG region researcher Simon Townsend claims the Victorian Government has predictably whitewashed an independent report into existence of big cats ...