Thread: Black Panthers

I've seen a few fairly nasty big ferals on my property. I remember the first time I saw our 'black panther' I would have been around 6 or so. Playing with my brother. I decided to climb a tree to get away from it...I was so smart eh? Not much has changed. I've only seen that one a few times since, in the beam of headlights and whatnot when I come home late at night. Being black, makes it hard to hunt, but from time to time you find the 'gutted' remains of something furry beside the driveway. Being that I was six, made the thing appear huge...I'm pretty sure it aint that big though!

So sadly I cant quite lay claim to a panther. I can say that ferals on the whole, seem larger. Even so they still explode the same !

Amshaw,
Is your avatar a picture of you on this camp.
Only kidding. I dont doubt people are seeing things but whether or not they are panthers/jaguars/tigers aor whatever who is to say.
Off to the local watering hole to talk to my mate the Bunyip!!

Originally Posted by twitchy

Well Amshaw, you'd be suprised at what the rangers can tell you in the Blue mountains but wont make public....................... I'll leave it at that.

Now Clarkie!!! I'd hate to be the one that let the truth get in the way of a good story.........BUT!!!

Originally Posted by sclarke

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

1. What i know from talking to Bruce and seeing plaster casts of paw prints and fur samples and photo's.
I have seen prints but never taken a cast.

2. 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.
We have pet sheep but never tie them up and it's too windy for a cloths line, I should also note I wish had 1000acres

3. 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.
Mmmmmm never owned a Troopy

4. 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.
Never had one in the sights to shoot at, but if I ever do I will

5. 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...
Yes something was killing sheep and eating about 15kilo's in one feed, no I found a smelly turd and sent it to the Melb Zoo, no, nobody from the Zoo ever camped here

6. 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.
I liked that bit, truth is, there was black leopard hair in the scat and it was later ID'd by DNA to confirm it was not hair from any leopard in a zoo as DNA did not match other samples
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.

Like I said a good yarn but not quite the truth. I will say I would not go out into the bush at night without a decent sized gun and I am wary of going to far during the day. I have never seen what I would confirm is a Big Cat but I know they are there and enough of them to breed on



Signed
Thatwasme

If anyone got the SMH / Age Good Weekend, (1/9/7),
there's a great story about 'Tim the Yowie Man'.

I've seen a feral pig the size of decent poddy calf, probably bigger, tusks 'n' teeth etc, scary when I was going for a trail ride on my trusty SL125 on a property east of Tamworth....

Haven't ever seen the cat, but I ran into a few guys at Colo some years ago - who swore blind they'd encountered a Yowie... never seen a bunch of tuff guys look soo scared, they were as white as a 'ghost'?

You guys know of the 'screaming woman bird'?
The most bizarre sound in the bush (and sometimes) around this neck of the woods...

GQ

And there are the red-faced pollies that infest the halls of Canberra. Known to be difficult to draw a bead on or to trap.

Yeah Brian, but they're easy to locate.
I often feel their hands in my wallet...

Mysteriously, one of them extracts many $$$ every week.

My kids would make good pollies, working on that theory...

Hey Numptys Missus, what's a 'Necrobundies'?

Is this a consumed bottle of local rum?

GQ

Sounds like a derivative of dead marines

The post lives again, now in reply to clarkies story , 'that was me' is bruce dupe.

if so intersting how the tale is told and it was only first hand, not second or third.
I still want to know more about the rangers stories in the blue mountains., twitchy didn't elaborate saying enough said doesn't quite cut it.
Lets face it its not an item of national security, it won't affect apec nor the running of the lucas heights reactor, so why not tell people.

what do you think? lets establish some truth not whispers.


john