Thread: Black Panthers

Originally Posted by Defender=1st

Did anyone watch that thing on Today Tonight, Tonight abut the Black Panthers sightings ?? Do we think they exist ??(in Australia) i read somewhere (cant remember) apparently the only place they can think of them coming from was some American divison of the army was training in Australia and there Mascot was a black panther and when they pulled out of Australia they might have got released or escaped and have been breeding up since then ??
Regards Adrian

obviously a parthenogenic Black Panther as well, since an individual has bred up.

Originally Posted by Defender=1st

i wouldnt wanna go out after dark without my trusty 308 apparently there was an article about a bloke who shot one in the shooting mag and he left the carcass but took a photo

yep. when I bag my first Thylacine, I'll take a grainy pic with my trusty mobile and leave the carcass, it wouldnt be worth anything would it??

In 1965 I was in the middle of the Simpson Desert, waiting (by myself) on a claypan between sandhills for the weekly flight to arrive. I observed a large (looked to be about four feet long) black animal moving like a cat on the other side of the claypan. Equipping myself with the jack handle out of the Landcruiser, I cautiously approached closer to it to try and identify it (my first thoughts were that it was a large black dog). When I got halfway across the claypan, I suddenly realised that it was a lot closer than I thought, and a lot smaller. It was in fact, a normal domestic cat, and when I got about twenty feet from it, it bolted back over the sandhill. Its size was, in fact, an optical illusion. With nothing familiar to judge size and distance, it is easy for distance estimates to be way out until you get close enough for binocular vision to work. Remember this was against a background of featureless sand and a foreground of featureless claypan.

I wonder how many "black panther" sightings are similar?

John

Originally Posted by Ken

Dont forget Drop Bears and Hoop Snakes Very Dangerous Critters them

and you left off the notorious Lion Mice

Originally Posted by hiline

and you left off the notorious Lion Mice

Not to mention the Red-backed Kangarillas that frequent the south coast of NSW.

Feral cats will certainly turn and make a show of attacking (not sure if they actually would) and they can grow very large.

My son and I tree'd one a few months back, when it was still there the next day we asked the national parks rangers to rescue it. They were very helpful and rescued it later in the morning. Apparently it wouldn't come down from the tree so they had to encourage it with a 12 gauge


Martyn

Originally Posted by Defender=1st

Did anyone watch that thing on Today Tonight, Tonight abut the Black Panthers sightings ?? Do we think they exist ??(in Australia) i read somewhere (cant remember) apparently the only place they can think of them coming from was some American divison of the army was training in Australia and there Mascot was a black panther and when they pulled out of Australia they might have got released or escaped and have been breeding up since then ??
Regards Adrian

I have a book written in 1981 by an Australian journalist named David O'Reilly called Savage Shadow "The Search for the Australian Cougar"

The book tell the story of a division of American soldiers that bought their mascots with them to Australia during the second world war. The soldiers were stationed on the outskirts of Melbourne, well as the story goes the Americans had been in Australia for around 6 months when they were told that the Cougars would have to be destroyed.

A number of soldiers were ordered to take the cougar into the bush and shoot them. So the soldiers took the Cougar into the bush in the lower Dandanongs, but when it came time to shoot them they couldn't so they just let them go.

According to the book Panther sightings have occurred from the Southern parts of Western Australia and South Australia right into Victoria and NSW. In the Illawarra we have our own panthers that live around the Kangaroo Valley area west of Nowra, every year or so you hear stories from the local farmers about sighting of the cats and also of mysterious deaths of live stock.

Also cougars can vary in colour from a sandy brown to all most jet black depending on their surroundings. And by the way in 1981 there was a $20,000 reward for anyone who could catch one.

Originally Posted by twitchy

It was called the black Panther squadron, the bloody Yanks DID release a few Panthers into the wild up in the blue mountains as they couldn't take them home. More than one big cat got out of the wildlife park at the back of Sydney over the years as well(can't for the life of me remember the name).

The Lithgow Panther, been around for long time now.

Bullens Animal World, on the way to Camden; or the African Lion Safari at Wallacia, Twitchy.

The panthers have been on Aussie soil for millenia, they were (are) pets of yowies. (That's a bigfoot for our international readers).

Many years ago, I met three young blokes, bushwalking, at Colo River, (way west of the Putty Road), who were scared witless, swore blind they'd seen a yowie. Reckoned it was after them...

Obviously no one has ever thought about how to trap the black cat, a bunch of dudes with hunting dogs and guns would scare off anything.

Leave out a bowl of milk. (here, puss, puss, puss... works for my neighbour)

I'm so sad we don't get the august Today Tonight.....

GQ

Now you have done it...................
What to know FACTS????????
Call Bruce Dupe in Anglesea, Vic.

What i know from talking to Bruce and seeing plaster casts of paw prints and fur samples and photo's.

Years back, Bruce had a pet sheep tethered to his cloths line, i should note, Bruce has over 1000acres and breeds Marino's for Show.
Anyhow, his daughter was in the back yard, she was 8yo back then (now 21) she screamed out "DADDY" and bruce came out of the farm shed to see the sheep boucing off in a Big black "DOG's" mouth. Note, this was a house cut into a hill and you could not drive nor ride a bike up the slope.... ive tried his twin locked troopy, fun but aint cutting it...
Anyhow, bruce ran in and grabbed his gun, by then the "DOG" was at the bottom of the valley about 150m away, Scopes sighted on it and Bruce froze, it was not a dog, it was a big pussy cat. Like Horse from footrot flats.
Bruce never took that shot and it got away, he spoke to locals and they all laughed.... over the next few years the sightings became more common and horses and cattle were being killed.. Bruce was the main contact in tha area as he kept going on about it. One day while Bruce was walking on one of his smaller 2 Meg dams he spotted a pawprint, and next to it was a smaller one. he 1st thought it was a Large dog and small dog, he looked up the pattern of dog and cat paw prints to find it was a large cat, so he took a plaster cast of it.
About a year later he found a clump of smooth fur caught in a barbwire fence down the bottom of his paddock, he took the fur and sent it off with the plaster cast to Melb zoo, they forwarded it onto Dubbo zoo who took ages to get back, in that time Bruce lots alot of sheep, all the same way. Dragged to the ground and gutted. Cats kill different to Foxes and dogs. Dubbo rang him one day and asked where he got the samples from and they were there in a flash. The set up camp and found nothing.... they set up bait (lambs bleeting) Nope... only Foxes...
Eventually after a few weeks they got to see the "Kitty" take a sheep. it was broad daylight and it was at the bottom of one of the paddocks ajoining bush. They later found the remains and took photo's and measurments.
After all that they told Bruce what he has living there.
Black Leopard. The fur samples and plaster cast were Definatly a Leopard and not Panther. The plaster cast was an adult and Cub paw print.
The Dubbo Zoo have found enough proof over the past 10 years to state that the Wild cats are Black Leopards and they beleive Native to Australia.
Next cool part......
Aborigianals who have lived in the Otways and Grampians area have drawings of a large black cat that is big enough to kill a man.
So how long have they been here????
No the US Army did not bring any over, the claim is they brought over Puma's, but no Yank Ex Mil in the Otways region says they did.
If you want to know more, go down to Anglesea and Ask around, go to the local and ask some of them, after you by them a pint or 2 you might get some answers.
The locals dont want Cowboys running around shooting anything Black, its known there, but not advertised.

My 30c.