Thread: Big Cats, myth or real ?

The importation of Savannah Cats into Australia is currently prohibited.

..Thank goodness for that!


JC

Originally Posted by KarlB

The importation of Savannah Cats into Australia is currently prohibited.

Bugger... Just thinking I should go out and get one. It would take care of next doors yappy dog...

NO MYTH
I know what I had seen that night about 20 years ago.
Three of us were spot lighting for rabbits in dense wet forest country.
There is a clearing which the rabbits usually feed at night because of the good grass.
Just to one side of the clearing is a old grey log( its still there today)
As we drive up quietly in a small shooting buggy we caught on top of the log a black cat.
The cat was facing the spot were the rabbits are and was obivously using the log as a high point to observe and to punce from.
It eyes showed up large and yellow/green in the spot light.
Its tail was long and thin with a lenght of almost the same as its body.
It sayed a very short time.
When it decided to go.........it was so quick it just disappeared.
Its movements was extremely cat like and very different from any thing you normally find in the bush.
The log it was on is a known size........it was a size of a Labrador dog, no miss take.
Wild or nor no demistic cat would get near if for size or its tail lenght.
I know what I had seen that night in good detail and 2 other people were with me.
I was left with the impression that animal because of the way it moved would appear and disappear as it wished and therefore would be extremely hard to find or track............like nothing else in the aussie bush.
Since that time I have tried to figure out what it was..............a black Puma is a match for colour and size.
Strangely enough the general area has a old story of black panthers
The spot I had seen the cat ( Puma) is not well visted by people or disturbed much at all.
I have not seen it again and the make up of the animals in the area has now changed a bit though the rabbits disappearing because of colleases (spelling) virous.
Since the rabbits disappeared I have not seen one Eastern Quoll or fox in the area.

Originally Posted by 101 Ron

NO MYTH
I know what I had seen that night about 20 years ago.
Three of us were spot lighting for rabbits in dense wet forest country.
There is a clearing which the rabbits usually feed at night because of the good grass.
Just to one side of the clearing is a old grey log( its still there today)
As we drive up quietly in a small shooting buggy we caught on top of the log a black cat.
The cat was facing the spot were the rabbits are and was obivouslyusing the log as a high point to observe and to punce from.
It eyes showed up large and green in the spot light.
Its tail was long and thin with a lenght of almost the same as its body.
It sayed a very short time.
When it decided to go.........it was so quick it just dieappeared.
Its movements was extremely cat like and very different from any thing you normally find in the bush.
The log it was on is a known size........it was a size of a Labrador dog, no miss take.
Wild or nor no demistic would get near if for size or its tail lenght.
I know what I had seen that night in good detail and 2 other people were with me.

Thanks for that Ron, that is the best account I've heard. Every other account was 'A friend of mine' or 'my neighbour' or 'my Dads mate' sort of stories that you can never put any credit on.

Cheers - Gav

Apparently Cheetahs make great pets also.
I visited a conservation park in ZA and Byron was the "diplomat' cat.
He just loved being petted and purred up a storm.
I am told by a good friend who is more familiar with Zim and Za than I am that many farmers have them as pets.
I recall seeing some older cubs being fed and they looked very fierce opening their mouths but the result was a pussycat style meow.

Bit heavy as a lap cat and a dog wouldn't want to upset them too much as even a greyhound would not escape a female at 110Kmh. Males only can do 80.
Regards Philip A

We have also seen a decent sized black feral,-or something else-, cat. The family and I were exploring about when we first got to Tas, near Huonville we drove up a side 'track' along the upper side of a gully, that terminated at a private gateway. We turned around and started back down the track only to see a huge black cat walking nonchalantly across the side of a paddock hill opposite us across the gully. It was sauntering along like it KNEW it had no predators, it was so big. I would say at the distance we were from it (About 150m) it was at least 40 cm at the shoulder, and its tail was almost as long as the body. It stopped and looked over at us when I stopped and switched off the vehicle, then carried on up the hill. This was about 1 pm, clear weather and we were just astonished at its size and fearless attitude.

Heaven help the wildlife around there

JC

Stories about these "large cats" have been around for over a hundred years. There must be something in them.

The Tantanoola Tiger turned out to be an Assyrian Wolf when it was eventually shot.

See:
Tantanoola tiger

Tantanoola, South Australia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And a later sighting near Horsham on what is now Malcolm Fraser's Nareen property:
15 Dec 1908 - TANTANOOLA TIGER.

The Emmaville Panther is another famous "Big Cat".

One of my ancestors nearby at Deepwater had such an animal in their station house and it prowled into a room where the family were sitting and panicked. It jumped through a window to make its escape. This was years prior to the first sighting in this compilation of sightings and 60 years before the "Emmaville" sightings.

The Emmaville Panther

The mystery of the Emmaville black panther | Glen Innes Examiner

Emmaville, New South Wales - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There is a new book -Australian Big Cats
Info here:

Australian Big Cats

And the classic book on the Western Australian sightings - Savage Shadow - is back in print:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KYo6rgrk7T...vageShadow.png

With more cameras in phones out there in the bush some good stills or movies should eventually turn up - if the phantoms exist.

Bob