Wild Big Cats In Australia. . .

J

Jarkari

Well-Known Member
I'm sure I've seen this on here before but I just can't seem to find it. I just thought some might be interested in this sighting, wasn't very publicised but just iof anyones interested . . . feel free to move it if there is another thread about this. . .

The Geelong Advertiser
 
There have long been stories of Pumas in the Grampians in western Victoria - apparently one was kept as a mascot by American servicemen at a base there, and was subsequently set free when they closed the base.

There are always reports from farmers near the mountains of sheep being mauled by a large carnivore and large "cat like" footprints in the mud.

Perhaps it was holidaying down by the coast ? :D
 
Australia's just following on from similar reports from all over Europe, the UK, USA etc. Even NZ, where it is almost an impossibility for big cats to be living wild, has the same type of stories.
 
Chlidonias said:
Australia's just following on from similar reports from all over Europe, the UK, USA etc..
Click to expand...

so do you think we are just jumping on the bandwagon eh? regardless of whether i believe it or not - i think you'll find that there is a little bit more to it than simple copycat behavior..
 
that's not what I meant. Just that its a worldwide phenomenon, which is most popular in the UK. I have actually done a lot of reading over the years about ABCs and know a fair bit about it.
 
A successful Freedom of Information request has shown recently that the New South Wales government has been maintaining a secret file on sightings of a big cat in the outer north-western part of Sydney. (Secret, presumably, because they don't want to have to do anything about it until they have to.)

The file apparently details in excess of 190 sightings by witnesses classed as "reliable."
 
On the subject of cats - there are also a lot of feral cats around - I've seen large ones which are substantially bigger than your typical domestic cat - they survive and breed in urban areas and are known to be troublesome - especially to local wildlife.

I'm not talking about "strays", I'm talking about cats that are completely wild and survive and breed on their own. There was one report I saw on TV a couple of years back which showed footage of a larger than usual feral cat in one part of Australia (I don't remember where) - probably stood about 2 foot tall. Might have just been a once-off freak of nature, they only had footage of the one larger one.

We're not talking about "big" cats though, we're talking about larger than usual "little" cats.
 
There are a lot of people who believe there are big cats out there. I like to keep an open mind and would like to see some actual evidence.

A couple of years ago someone shot one. He claimed it was running at him when he shot it, and the head was blown to pieces. He threw the cacass in the creek to feed the eels. He kept the tail as it was very long and it was DNA tested. The reported tests said that it was a 97 % match to a domestic cat so was just a large feral cat. This result never seems to be questioned but I thought that our DNA was a 99% match to a Chimpanzee. ?? I would have thought they would want a 100% match if it was the same species.
 
feral cats are a big problem all over the world, from eating island fauna to hybridising with Scottish wildcats to spreading disease to Iriomote cats. Australia tends to produce some really big feral cats for some reason, more so than other places around the world. Other definite introduced wild cat populations include jaguarundis and ocelots in Florida.

The UK has exotic cats turning up regularly (or at least more regularly than they should!). Quite amazingly, representatives of almost a quarter of all the small cat species have turned up at one time or another in the wild in the UK, including lynxes, serval, caracal, jungle cat, leopard cat and ocelot.

The Dangerous Wild Animals Act of 1976 is generally offered as the best theory for big cats establishing in the wild in England (if they have, which really does seem unlikely, even though individual animals are certainly seen). However in Australia there doesn't seem to be any plausible excuse for big cats being out there (I don't give the 'puma mascot' theory any credit whatsoever). In NZ there is even less likelihood of wild big cats.
 
Plausible excuses for the existence of big cats on the loose in Australia? Well there are/were a few private animal collections around, such as Bullens at Wallacia, (and no-one seems to know what they hold there, or how many.)

I know for sure that a black leopard was recently in private ownership in the Windsor area, north-west of Sydney, owned by an animal trainer and used in commercials etc.

There was also a private zoo owned by a millionaire named Emmanuel Margolin at the foot of the Blue Mountains (a large estate called Notre Dame which was occasionally open to the public), and which had tigers and leopards. The zoo was regarded as substandard and Margolin, faced with ongoing criticism, stated that he would shoot the animals. This brought a great public outcry and didn't happen. I don't know what happened to the animals though. Maybe someone else does?

I'm not suggesting that any of these people would be careless enough to release big cats, or let them escape; I'm simply making the point that there are big cats out there in the community and not just in public zoos.
 
Funny, it is always a different animal than native one. In Australia people have crocodiles and see big cats. Where lynx is native, people see...

In Eastern Europe there are regular news of crocodiles escaping from circuses or traders. One was "offically proven" several years ago in Poland, and another "certain" last year from Ukraine.
 
There was apparently a 12 foot crocodile in a lake not far from where I live about 2 years ago and the UK was gripped with fear about sightings of great whites off our coast last summer...
 
Ara, I believe the Jaguars and togers from Notre dame were sent to Mogo after being rescued by Taronga staff and RSPCA. As for the cats, I reckon there's a good chance of them being out there. There are even photos on the net, I'll try and find them again, of a outer suburbs - sydney boy that was attacked by one of these things, suffering deep lacerations to the arms, so either he needs to see a melon doctor or there is something big out there. I'm interested to know what you guys think should happen if they ever prove, trap or shoot one of these animals, if you prove they are iut there you'll have hundreds of hunters, if you trap them, then what, let them go and face public persecution? Let me know.
 
This MAY be just an urban myth, but I read somewhere that suspected big cat scats (droppings) were found on a farm in the outer part of Sydney and were sent to the Govt. lab. for analysis. Result came back "dog droppings".
Someone got guaranteed leopard scats from Bullens and submitted them for analysis and was also told "dog."

Draw your own conclusions.
 
That is a true report they also went to bullens and got samples of leopard scat to put out in the bush to attract other possible leopards. this was done by a doco team though.
 
i remember when i was about 11 i was out yabbying at night with my family, we were at eynesbury, a property about 20,000 acres, just north of geelong. it was a clear night, so you could see clearly, and i heard growling at first i thought it was a koala, so i followed the sound, thats when i saw a huge animal, it was about 4 foot tall and about 2 meters long, it was a big cat. so i ran back to everyone, we came back the next day to check the yabbie net. i went back to where i saw the cat, there was a calf that had been disembowled, its head was missing.
 
I'm a believer. There are just too many sightings taking place.

Think about it. Domestic cats have taken to living feral in Australia like "ducks to water".
Why wouldn't big cats if they got the chance?
 
IF they were out there, it would be a very unhealthy population. If they happened to be released after the world wars buy batallions, then there would ahve only been 2 or 3. And for them to find each other and succesfulyl mate. Then they would have mated with their offspring, and it would be geneticaly unhealthy. And if it was a large population, we would ahve more evidence.

I to do beelive they are out tehre, but not in big numbers, and dying out. I do agree with what ara said in that they would cope very well in our environment, true, but there just isnt enough space for a large population to remain undiscovered.
 
i read a news report that said it was 11 -12 big cats that were released. I think there could be two separate populations, possibly one of pumas and one of leopards. I'd say leopards could be ex circus cats, and woul guess these are the ones that can be found in the nsw areas. and possibly the pumas in victoria. That's just my theory.
 
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