Thread: the Australian black Panther

Most of the so called sightings with photographic evidence always seem to have very out of focus, blurry pictures. I can't image people with cameras can take so many bad shots especially since they have time to take snaps, surely they would have time to focus?.
And as these animals stalk prey, how come no person has been attacked by one.
I haven't seen any in my neck of the woods, probably as the panthers are on the bottom of the food chain here, we have lots of Yowies and bigfoots keeping them away

If the target, in this case a cat, is about 100 mts plus and the shot is taken with a standar lens with bad natural light by the time that the image is enlarged the quality of the image will be bad.
I do not believe that all the people that took the shots have a expensive camera or software to correst the image.
If the light is not good then the autofocus on the camera will not work well or not at all.
I am not saying the the large cats exsist or not just trying to put my argument as a nature photographer that taken good shots of wild life it is not that easy.
Cheers

Last night while I was walking back to my camp in the rainforest near Cooktown a jet black "cat" leapt out of a tree beside the roadway and scurried up the road. I was able to run after it for a bit to get a reasonable look at it. I have a high power torch and the best description I can give is the size was a bit bigger than that of a very large domestic cat. It was so jet black, the blackest I have ever seen a cat. I ran from me quickly but not in too much of a hurry, so it was not showing signs of any more fear than any animal that runs away from humans. It may have been a wild domestic cat, but it was not domestic cat looking at all.

An old post, but yes, these sorts of rumours keep popping up don't they.
I've taken an interest in the issue, & I've heard all sorts of stories...they are decended from animals bought in during WW11 by U.S. soldiers etc etc.
I would like to believe that there are Pumas running around in the Bush, but I don't. There haas been no credible/ positive evidence of anything ..ever.....so for nothing to have been found in nearly 100 years, I say....they are not there.
Cheers, Pickles.

Maybe the sightings are a wild version of a Maine Coon, or a similar giant domestic cat breed that have a fox like tail?

They can get to 30kgs +, and the wild ones can get quite scruffy.

I have held a 28kg domestic cat, not over weight just a massive breed.

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine_Coon"]Maine Coon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

Jeez do not know whether what I saw was a large cat or puma/leopard ,but I saw it come out of the scrub, it didn't run , but it wasn't walking either ,it was more of a bounding ,I'm not in a hurry action
Now I own a black lab for about 14years now , and have hunted him quite extensively and I am quite used to him poking out from the foliage , this cat would be the same height ,roughly 18"at the shoulder about the same length ,may have been longer in the body , but it was the tail that got my attention it was roughly two thirds its length , I actually thought it was a couple of walkers out and about with a lab in tow ,so I slowed down, was only going slow to start with expecting to see someone out walking with their hound ,then this cat bounded off to the left and was gone . That's when I thought I've just seen one of those big cats , which by the way I never really believed in , but there ya go seeing is believing
Do not believe that the big cats are pumas or such , but I have shot the odd feral cat and this blighter was a fair size , but it didn't run like feral s run it loped along if that make sense
My two cents worth , I never believed the stories and I am over 50 ,but now I do not disbelieve them now either , as they seeing is believing
Cheers all. Graham

Here we go again, every time a person claims to have seen one of these cats,they never have a camera and those that take "genuine" photos are so out of focus and indistinguishable that the pics are useless. Now lets get fair dinkum here, show me , don't tell me. It's exactly the same as flying saucer photos and the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot and the Yowie...not one verifiable shred of evidence....not one....did I say not one....?

About 4 years ago I was walking in the sand dunes in Hayle Cornwall with my elderly mum and I saw one, dead set it was a big cat and there is NOT a feral cat problem there! No other sightings reported in the area but I know what I saw.