Big Cats

[Spider]

Just received the lastest SSAA mag and it has an article on big cats in Australia, main suspect is Puma. They go on about some of the sightings and signs they have found, scat, prints, claw marks in trees and the like. They are wanting to hear from any hunters who have come accross any sign in the bush that could be left by big cats. Just wondering if any of the members have seen or come accross strangies in the bush. This could be the start of our own "you are now entering the Twilight Zone".

[dero]

Yeah well, been needing to talk about this for a while. Seriosly though did see the longest blackest tail disappearing off the road one evening. Could have been a huge feral 'cause have seen some pearlers years ago, but the local cockie reckons he has seen it sitting on the roadside. There is some much Lantana there a tribe of amazons could be living in it and no-one would know.
dero

[woody]

I have never "seen" one.

I believe I've heard one, not pleasant, with a half hour walk back to the car in the dark.

Nothing like a big cat scream, at dusk, to make the hair stand up on the back of the neck.

Can anyone tell me what sort of animal eats a sheep, from the stomach in, leaving a clean skin, flesh side up, feet and head attached.

Feet head and skin, nothing else left.

Plus, the local farmers are believers. Mt Cole area, Victoria.

I'm 99% sure that I believe in big cats are in Australia.

[Glenn]

I saw a cat at Tara western Queensland 1972, I was only 10 meters from it so I had a very good look at it and it looked just like an American Lynx. It had the tuffs of dark hair on the tips of the ears, short tail, he was grey and had dark blotches and spots on his body. He was big, would have been 22 to 24 inches at the shoulder, I happend to walk up on him in very thick country while he was feeding on a sheep so I had a good look at him. I told the property owner about the cat and he said that he had shot similar cats there over the years, he said that he thought that they were throw backs to their origional blood lines...Glenn...

[Kane]

Can anyone tell me what sort of animal eats a sheep, from the stomach in, leaving a clean skin, flesh side up, feet and head attached.

Feet head and skin, nothing else left.
Mate, I know that on my uncle's farm foxes do that to Lambs (and I think sheep) so they can get right to the good stuff like all the main organs.

I reckon that there is something out there as there is too many reports for it to be just a myth.

[Glenn]

Can anyone tell me what sort of animal eats a sheep, from the stomach in, leaving a clean skin, flesh side up, feet and head attached.

I have seen this once myself. It was at Longreach, my brother and I passed a ewe down but still alive one evening and in the morning we hunted back through this area. We found what was left of the ewe and it was just as Woody said, it was all eaten but the skin and wool head and feet were still intact, the flesh side was up and as clean as a whistle. We just thought pigs but pigs normally rip the sheep to bits and there should have been wool everywhere...Glenn...

[tracker]

The NSW dept of Agriculture has a whole file on these "Big Cats". The Sun Herald back in 2003 used a Freedom of Information request to get hold of it.
Basically they think there are big cats in the bush. The witnesses are credible and the physical evidence has been assessed <secretly> by big cat experts and pronounced to be real.

I was a total sceptic on this stuff but after reading about this I'm now convinced.

I hope to see one in the bush one day.


http://www.internetezy.com.au/~mj129/herald_article_2_11_2003.html

http://www.internetezy.com.au/~mj129/cat_attack_2003.html

Mick

[Piggy]

I have a friend who claims to have seen one in the dalesford area, a farmer next to where i was sighted was missing an alpaca and the high fence was bowed in-between posts where they beleive it was dragged out and a carcus was found nearby in a similar state as others here have described. The sighting, fence and carcass were all found in a 24hr period.

[Skip]

Wellll...Locals roun ere, they shaaay. More's a bear than a caaat. One feller, can't raghtly membr hish naaym though. Big as a bear imsef they shay, nealy caught the creature once. Shaat it with a buffalo gun, sho they shaay. But the creature jus gud up an trottaad off laak nuttin waas up. Sho they shaay.

[HOOD]

Good one Skip.

My ex grew up around Waricknabeal (spelling), Hoarsham, area and there have been heaps of sightings of a big cat (puma, mountain lion) in the area around the Grampians. Her father had sheep taken from one paddock to another a couple hundred meters away and no drag marks or holes in fences, so it could only have been a big animale to carry it that far and tehn ate most of it.

Hood 8)

[Glenn]

The Queenalsnd Panther has been around forever. My father use to talk of the panther up around the Cairns area before the war. There was a panther type creature that was seen around Muckadilla near Roma and often a couple were seen at the same time. Up in the hinterland behind the Gold Coast was another area there were sightings and stock killed. I read years ago about the marsuipal lion that sicenitist though might have been related to the animal that people were seeing today. They seem to pop up from time to time and then you don't hear anything again.

[HOOD]

I was always told that the Yanks bought out the puma/mountain lions as mascots during the wars and then released them when they left.

Hood 8)

[Glenn]

That's an old story as well, but according to folk lore it must have happened in several places around the country. Another favorite story is a circus truck carring panthers rolled over and escaped, but again that must have happened many times. If these animals do exist and one can be shot and be identified we might never know what they really are. Bit like the yowies and little poeple, I have a story about one of them...Glenn...

[Bowmancam]

Never seen a big cat, but i spend most weekends chasing alittle pussy :wink:

Ive heard all the stories and just wonder if enough of these cats are out there to breed to keep this myth going and growing... not saying i dont believe as ive got a mate who tells me he's seen one and the truth in his eyes is hard to dispute... it just amazes me that the stories always follow by "i normaly have a gun with me but this day ..."
When there's one on the deck i'll jump aboard but i find it hard to believe that not 1 has ever been captured or killed.

Cheers, Cam

I want to believe ...

[Carl_SlayR]

twenty-four men go in, only sixteen come out Chiefy ....

[Wareagle]

You guys are scaring me, I think I'll take a 30-30 down my back when I next go bow hunting.
I can remember when I was a teenager [43yrs ago] living in N.S.W.the New England Tiger was a big thing,they even had pro. big game hunters looking for it.

[ricochet]

I have been to a fellas property near Euroa here in Victoria, this fella is right into the big cat saga,he has shown me plaster casts of prints he has collected over the years,also photos of the prints and all this info has been logged by him showing all the areas he has collected these prints from,he tells me he has chased cats in the Merton-strathbogie areas and is very convincing in his theory on these cats,he has told me that he has had them stalk him whilst he is out hunting,so i will keep an open mind regarding all this,as one of my views is that there should have been a carcass collected by now of one of these cats,as there should be deaths of these animals in the wild.
Anyway it keeps the so called myth going

Rick

[Pete]

well i for one know that if i saw a big cat that was a panther or puma, and not just a big moggy, i probalbly wouldn't shoot it. and if i did, there would be very few people i would show it too. You could imagine if it was proved that there was big wild cats in the aussie bush, every redneck and his gun, or bow would be out to get one.

[bowriver]

Well said Pete, i've heard alot of stories about these cats some of them quite close to urban areas. Cant say one way or the other...there is alot of evidence and witnesses to support the theory. Besides its more fun to think the bush might hold these creatures...dont suppose anyone else in in the yowie boat? The hairy man...Aussie cousin of the bigfoot? Dont think im crazy but im not entirely sure they dont exist...alot of stories and evidence to support that too...

Cheers Paul

[Reece]

Random fact: The worlds leading expert in cryptozoology is Australian.

Here's a link about cats and a few other things... http://www.strangenation.com.au/Articles/cryptoarticles.htm

[Glenn]

Paul I'm sure that there are yowies and aborigionals talk about little people as well. In 1970 I was pig shooting in the Yeralbon area and in the evening my mate and I had an encounter with what we beleive to be a little person, it was very scary and something we have never forgotten. 30 years later I was renovating houses in Boggabilla and Charlie an aborigional elder came to the house I was renovating and after 10 minutes he said to me that I had had an encounter with a little person and he wanted me to tell him about it, talk about wierd, he just talked about them as if they have aways been a part of the bush...Glenn...

[bowriver]

I know what you mean about scarey! There seems to be a "feeling" You get...kind've like a chill or eerieness. There is also a site www.yowiehunters.com very interesting. Alot of people that have reported encountering these creatures also report the strange feeling they got before they saw it...like they knew it was there before seeing it. Very creepy when you consider the size people report these things as 8 foot plus! Dont think i'd wanna cross paths with one. If i did i definatly wouldnt wanna p**s it off!

[HOOD]

I saw an artical in one of the hunting mags (a rifle mag I think) the other day can't remember which one though. It had pics of paw castings and all from a big cat. I can also remember back about 4-5 yrs ago someone caught a big cat on film in the Grampians I think, it was on the news as well.

Hood 8)

[Corey]

There was a doco made a few few years ago about tthe puma sittings in western vic around the grampions and the black range area. In this there was discutions with people claiming to have seen a puma.
One elderly lady recalled many years ago the army driving through her familys property near Hamalton and releasing 2 PUMAs bellived to be mascots.One fellow on the doco i used to work with has had numerous sittings as he spends a great deal of his spear time in the bush hunting for this cat armed only with a camera.Old mate has many plaster casts prints also that he has collected.My father has also seen a PUMA on our property in the black rangers some years ago.When was a young fella i recall a conversation between my father and old mate from down the road , he recaled he was checking his rabbit traps on his fence line many years ago when a bloody big cat (PUMA) got up out of the bracken with his trap on its foot and took of up into the hills. He went to FOREST AN LANDS they told him that there was a litter born in a hay shed not far from his place (his hay shed) not long earlya and unless he wanted every drop kick with gun an mutt on his place shooting up an malling his stock to keep his mouth shut.The authoritys deny such animal exsist but it is illegal to shoot one?Old mate the PUMA hunter not long back was out bush when the rangers pulled up, being well known to then they asked if he"d seen anything latly ,when he told them of a fellows resent sitting on the other side of the Grampians the ranger went to his truck pulled out a map an marked the locatoin with a pen.They know its out there but for obvious resons they chooze to deny it.I think the doco was ABC its a very interesting watch, THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE ???

[Krusty]

Go to the BLACK PANTHER HOTEL in Warilda...a mate whom i beleive is not a bulls#%ter saw a large cat stalking the same patch of rabbits he was ,didnt sound like a little moggie..

[Krusty]

QUESTION--would you slip an arrow into it and put all the sceptics minds at ease?

[Puk]

Do you remember this story from last year?

http://abc.net.au/news/australia/vic/gippsland/200511/s1518331.htm

This precedent will , i believe, clear up many of the sightings. A friend of mine shot one similar, jet black, with pure yellow eyes, and paws bigger than his hands.

Panther or not, over a metre of cat is not my idea of fun on a dark night.

Puk 8)

[Puk]

Oh yeh,
Another farmer friend of mine used to work on the "dog fence" over near Whyalla, and he told me about the many cats he has seen that people had shot and hung on the fence at different times that had the tips of their tails level with his head (at about 6 foot), and their front paws touching the ground.

Rotten Ferals...... :evil:

Good thing us bowhunters are here to try to redress the balance that stupid humans have caused in the first place. Makes you proud to be one of Australia's feral pest management volunteers. :D
Puk. 8)

[bear]

QUESTION--would you slip an arrow into it and put all the sceptics minds at ease?

wouldn't hesitate :twisted: I would nail it with out a second thought :twisted:

BEAR

[aussiehunter]

mate if i saw a big puma i reckon i would take him.have him mounted the works..id want to be sure of a good kill.
.prob wouldnt tell anyone where i got him though :D

now if i saw a yowie different story,i wouldnt shoot him,hopefully i could video him,but again id doubt id tell anyone where... :D

[ed]

now 30 years ago as teenager I had two nicknames, yowie and saschwatch - long haired beanpole I was too :)

Seriously though, even if there are no "real" big cats in Australia, given time the ferals will likely get bigger. Not so much because of the game but because of how they fight each other.
North of Adelaide a mate who owns property stated that he had shot what was obviously a moggy that measured nearly five feet nose to tail. Now who cares if it is a moggy or a puma at that size?

[Corey]

Last year some time when there was some film taken of a big cat (PUMA) near Mudgy and eyred on TV my father told me that a hunting shop owner down Melbourn somewhere has put up $10,000 for the first bloke/broad to take one with a bow.

[Owen]

i heard the same thing, i think the bloke was from Gippsland, vic