Thread: Big Cats, myth or real ?

Just because at the present time there are not evidence it does not mean that there are not there.
Remember the case of the presumed ( by the experts ) extinct Cuban solenodon (Solenodon cubanus).
Farmers saw it but not one believe them, then one of them was spotted in 2003 in the mountainous Alejandro de Humboldt National Park.

Originally Posted by 101 Ron

Not Myth...........my self and two other blokes , while spot lighting for rabbits got a good look at one many years ago.
Very long tail and the movement of the animal was very distinctive.
No wild moggie grows to the size of a Labador.

I too spotted one near Elands NSW on the way to get my 88vm only a quick glimps BUT I know what I saw.

Just as you say VERY distinctive unlike anything else the fella I saw was JET black! and a very LONG tail.

Could not belive my eyes I figured myth but now ya just gotta be lucky

Vm_m

Originally Posted by isuzurover

There is a difference between having an open mind and being gullible - or jumping to the wrong conclsions because you "want to believe".

I believe it is likely there is life somewhere (else) in the galaxy. Doesn't mean I believe any of the tens of thousands of people who have "seen" aliens (often in groups)... However if they were to produce real evidence...

These days there are ever increasing numbers of people travelling the bush with more (and better) cameras... You would think there would be some hard evidence by now...?

You make a lot of claims - and draw tenuous conclusions - based on trips to the zoo and assumptions on how you think a "super" (your word) feral cat would look and behave... I have to ask - why didn't you shoot it and bring it back if you were out shooting and had a look at it for so long???

Just like the OP - took a photo of what appears to be a cat skull with no size reference and conveniently left it where it was - anyone gone back???

I post this knowing some flak would come at me somewhere.
20 years ago I didnt carry a camera whisle spot lighting at night time.
My self and friends dont shoot things if we dont know what it is, and we were carrying .22s for rabbits.........not that much good on bigger stuff.
The other point is we were just stuned.....we were looking at ourselves afterwards.......did we really see that ?
The truth is not tenuous or what was observed.
I dont vist the Zoo much.
The point I was making what I had seen was no way a feral cat.
What I do find very interesting some other descritions of sightings posted on this site........the way it moves, the very long tail and all black.
I would very , very much like to see that animal again and get the so called proof if only to stop the closed minds.
If I had not seen it I would say , tall story.
My story is truth and because of that is very hard to find fault with even if people want to over the internet.

Originally Posted by VM_Motori

...

Also for the true believers, here is an alien sightings map.

Originally Posted by 101 Ron

I post this knowing some flak would come at me somewhere.
20 years ago I didnt carry a camera whisle spot lighting at night time.
My self and friends dont shoot things if we dont know what it is, and we were carrying .22s for rabbits.........not that much good on bigger stuff.
The other point is we were just stuned.....we were looking at ourselves afterwards.......did we really see that ?
The truth is not tenuous or what was observed.
I dont vist the Zoo much.
The point I was making what I had seen was no way a feral cat.
What I do find very interesting some other descritions of sightings posted on this site........the way it moves, the very long tail and all black.
I would very , very much like to see that animal again and get the so called proof if only to stop the closed minds.
If I had not seen it I would say , tall story.
My story is truth and because of that is very hard to find fault with even if people want to over the internet.

Ron, I am sorry that you think I have a closed mind for not believing your story.

I believe I have an open mind, but as a trained scientist I am highly sceptical if someone comes and tells me something without proof.

I will reiterate what I said (or implied) - how do you know that a feral cat cannot be large, all black, have a long tail and move like a "big cat"???
That seems to really be what you are basing this on...

There is a well known theory called "convergent evolution" - which has proven that there is an optimum jaw for carvivores to have, and from several starting completely different starting points, they all evolved to have similar jaws...

While that happens over a long period, there is nothing to say that feral cats which have been breeding in the bush for over 200 years -probably at least 50 generations by now - can't have reverted back somewhat in appearance and traits. The cat family has far fewer genetic differences than dogs do.

Originally Posted by isuzurover

Also for the true believers, here is an alien sightings map.

Do we need to start a new thread......Aliens do they exist ?
I dont want to go there and the thread would most likely get closed down, because of the lack of proof and the pros and cons etc with the fighting between.
But then again if I was a inteligent life form which was able to travel the distance of many light years in a space ship would they want to meet a much lower form of life ( the human race) ??? and that could be the reason why we dont see aliens every day and the proof they exist .
No I have never seen green men unless I have been drinking too much Bundy.
The most brillant minds from time to time in history get caught out.
Humble silly person for trusting MK1 eye ball.

Hasn't the UHF thread been started and closed down, sometime just before I arrived?
You can't say UFOs don't exist, as a UFO is just something flying that can't be identified
Am I skeptical about green men, tigers in Africa, large wooden badgers? Yep.
But, I also accept the fact that it's possible they exist
I mean hey, I've never seen a Land Rover that doesn't leak oil.
But I'm sure they're out there somewhere

The enormous number of reasonably reliable witness over more than a century really cannot be dismissed.

So, what if the Marsupial Lion (that had a number of different members in its family - the Thylacoleonidae) has a surviving nocturnal descendant?

Supposedly these animals have been extinct since the megafauna that they preyed on became extinct. If we believe the current bumff that was brought about by climate change or maybe their environment being changed by the use of burning by pre-aboriginals in the last thirty thousand or so years. Disputed aboriginal rock paintings in the Kimberley "may" show a marsupial lion rather than the easier explanation that it is a mainland Thylacine (recognisable as a Tasmanian Tiger) that is also reasonably reliably believed to be extinct in Tasmania now.

That might explain this animals presence rather than ideas that they are escaped panthers or puma, descendants of chinese cats brought in the goldrush, cats reverting to their pre-domestic ancestry or American military mascots left behind.

Bob

Tasmanian Tiger remains are somewhat common inside caves on the Nullabor and all the way up through the NT. I can't remember the exact dates and don't have the journal article in front of me, but by memory carbon dating placed them around 3,500 years old. Easily recent enough for cave paintings to be depicted and survive. The Marsupial Lion remains in the same caves are dated at between 500,000 and 780,000 years old.

My Uncle is a mango farmer near Gympie and reckons he's seen a big black cat with a long tail a couple of times but for some reason the police often fly over looking for illegal crops, so it could have just as easily been a giant penguin, chinese dragon or batman.