Black Puma/Panther sightings in Vic - the hunt is on

[Black Diamond]

With new sightings of these Big Black Puma like cats that destroy crops, livestock and animals the hunt is on.
http://m.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/hunt-for-big-cats-including-cougars-panthers-or-pumas-in-victoria-begins-after-decades-of-reported-sightings/story-e6frf7kx-1226455280709

Growing up in Gippsland Vic I always heard stories of sightings but never came across one myself. Probably the most convincing story for me was a few mates sighting one just out of Sale. Whatever they are they seem to be quiet elusive and I reckon it would a pretty nervous moment running into one whilst camping or touring, and some of the regular sighting spots are quiet popular. Probably a good reason to pack a gun

Any swaggers out there spotted one in their travels or know anyone who has? Would love to hear about it. Wouldn't like one jumping on me while in the swag

BD

[GGV8Cruza]

I have had one run in with something along these lines and it was up in Yeoval on a friends property. Big, black, low to the ground and very fast, still sends shivers down my spine.

GG

[@fnq4now]

I have video footage I took of 1 in The Grampians about 12 years ago. It was stalking some roo's. As it was so long ago, and with an old video camera fully zoomed in, the footage is very average. You get the general idea though.

[fuji]

Yep it was probably a big black feral cat, have you seen the size of those things? Theyre huge!!! I would hate to come across a feral cal let alone a panther.

[D4D]

I've seen one in Narby, like wyno suggested it was probably a feral cat but the mystery of the panther is out there.

[flamingo]

  Ive been out the back of Eildon for 40 yrs ive seen a couple of big ferral cats! Dunno bout panthers tho, Who knows they might be there, Good how the Govt found money to look for them but cant find money to open up all of the new Childrens hospital!!  Phil

[fishfinder]

I am sure I saw a panther  taking down a zebra just out of Pakenham in the 70's but my mate said it was more likely a wild dog

[Bird]

Good how the Govt found money to look for them but cant find money to open up all of the new Childrens hospital!!  Phil

x billiontrillonteen's.....

[dazzler]

Here Puss Puss Puss.      Nice Puss.

[nuthermug]

I thought I seen one but it turned out to be a cow

[DiverBob]

Back in the mid 80's, my unit was sent to assist with the bush fires in central Vic....

I'm not saying what we saw was a panther or a puma, but it was definitely a bloody big cat.

Because I wasn't alone, I had plenty of people to discuss it with, and kick around possible explanations. Further, all but one of us was a soldier, the other was CFA, so we were all trained to spot things out bush (shape, shine, shadow, sound, spacing, movement).

Backlighting makes things look black, and so can soot from fires, so color is arguably indeterminate, but felines move differently from canines (bovines, porcines, equines, etc) and what we all saw was definitely feline by absolute consensus.

Size was the only point of contention. Because range is normally estimated as a function of known height of a seen object (man = 2m, thus if man appears to be x tall, then man is y distant), range estimates varied based on what people thought they were seeing. Even so, the smallest estimate of the animal's size was about the size of a Labrador. Most of us put it's overall length at about 2m.

Keep in mind, we spend a lot of time out bush, and we see a lot of ferral exotics, and even the most skeptical of us acknowledged he'd seen the largest ferral cat he'd ever seen....

[Wodewick]

Nearly 40 years ago my cousin and I spotted what we still believe to this day was a panther in the crater of Mt. Franklin.  Mt. Franklin these days is quite a nice camp site but in those days it was pretty rough and only used as a fire lookout. I grew up in Daylesford and we used to go up to the top at night to gather and have a few drinks.  It was about 11pm and we came around a sharp bend leading up to the fire tower, we caught it really clearly in the car headlights as it froze in the middle of the track for a couple of seconds. It was a lot bigger than any feral cat I've seen and seemed to be about the height of a labrador [ but not as fat ]. We had lots of trips out there at night after that looking for it, but never saw it again and hense we also stopped camping out there. Rod.

[Wodewick]

Interesting to note that Diver Bob and myself both  used a labrador as a size comparison. I hadnt seen Bobs post until after I submitted mine. Rod.

[Paul Mac]

Reminds me of an old saying I once heard......................

Man who dwinks too much see's too much 

[Ricklanga]

I am sure I saw a panther  taking down a zebra just out of Pakenham in the 70's but my mate said it was more likely a wild dog

Or possibly the Wild Turkey

--
Richard.

[xcvator]

That's not Kit-e on a bad day is it ? 

[Snow]

Mrs Snow and I had a very large black cat cross in front of us in the Abercrombie River NP about 2yr back. It was going flat out and it was using big loping strides and was the about size of medium sized dog. I shot one about this size out the back of Wyangla dam about 10 yrs back and we nailed a black one the same size about 5 yr before that. We measured that one at 5 ft from nose to tail tip. Didn't bother reporting it though. They are just great big mongrel cats is all.

[Kit_e_kat9]

Here Puss Puss Puss.      Nice Puss.

One Kit_e coming in from the wild as beconned.     Just remember to get me here quicker, you must bang on the side of a tin can with a spoon ... and keep in mind all branded tins make a different sound.  Works for most kats.   

That's not Kit-e on a bad day is it ? 

xcvator ... I'm actually a Lyons Lion ... so bigger, meaner, hairier (is that possible?), smarter (Really?  Victoria??    ) and hungrier ... and I usually bring my sisters with me.     LOL! 

I actually checked out the footage on that link and I have to say ... Domestic/Feral Kat ... the ears are too large and the legs too short to be a Puma / Panther IMO.  Bit hard to tell though as they couldn't keep the camera still, in focus or actually on the "kat" in question.  The one on the stump was way too small to be anything but your average everyday household Pussy.  Some feral kats do become quite large ... about the size of a Maine Coon Kat (8 - 10kg or double the size of a regular moggie for those who don't know).

Kit_e

[Jeepers Creepers]

That's nothing......

A dingo was spotted on the weekend in a toilet block at Happy Valley.
He'd managed to lift the lid on a drop toilet and was seen licking the insides of the drop pipe.

Rangers believe, that the incident appears to an isolated case. as they believe it was the same dingo that had bitten the drunk German tourist several times a month ago and was still trying to get the taste of a dropkick out of his mouth.

Honest..... 

[xcvator]

That's nothing......

A dingo was spotted on the weekend in a toilet block at Happy Valley.
He'd managed to lift the lid on a drop toilet and was seen licking the insides of the drop pipe.

Rangers believe, that the incident appears to an isolated case. as they believe it was the same dingo that had bitten the drunk German tourist several times a month ago and was still trying to get the taste of a dropkick out of his mouth.

Honest..... 

Luv it that's gold 

[bobnrob]

That's nothing......

A dingo was spotted on the weekend in a toilet block at Happy Valley.
He'd managed to lift the lid on a drop toilet and was seen licking the insides of the drop pipe.

Rangers believe, that the incident appears to an isolated case. as they believe it was the same dingo that had bitten the drunk German tourist several times a month ago and was still trying to get the taste of a dropkick out of his mouth.

Honest..... 

   


Mate of mine reckons he'd had to run off the road out behind us cause a big hairy bloke ran across the track in front of him.
Maybe that bloke has now moved to Vic, & it's his pet cat that was spotted!!!

[_Gecko_]

I have been out shooting feral cats so i know what they are like, but i have seen a large black thing that wasnt a cat out near Jinidvick VIC.
I did alot of study to find out what it was or where it came from.
The US army came over during the war and took along a mascot for thier teams.
Ramnging from puma's to panthers and such.
But when they got here a few of the teams got in trouble for bringing them over, so they warned the rest and the other teams dumped thier mascots in the bush so they would not be in trouble.
I feel somewhere there could be real BIG cats in our land as they were in every state of Aust.
Gecko

[xcvator]

and the urban myths go on and on and on and on...................

[DiverBob]

I've heard the US military mascot explanation a few times, particularly from military people.

What is now Victoria Park in Ballarat was a large US base during the 1939-45 war. Common wisdom has this base as the source of the mascot that was turned loose or escaped. It is also located in the geographical centre of the most common soghtings. However, it doesn't explain 70 years of sightings of an animal that only lives 10-15 years.

I have trouble believing that a puma bred with a ferral cat, so for this to be the source, either the unit turned loose a breeding pair, or two units had the same species of mascot of different sexes and they were both turned loose and they met up... What are the chances of that?

Now, assuming there was a breeding pair of pumas in the wild, they've been inbreeding for 70 years... With a new generation every five years, that's 14 generations of inbreeding to date. They'd be pretty messed up mutants, and no longer be recognizable as black pumas, even if they were still fertile.

[Hosko]

Geez, this is still going on?

I remember living in Lancefield as a kid growing up in the 80's there was a lot going on about the Panther.

One of the Dad's even took out his wing mirror of his Ute out back of Mt William after claiming to have seen one in it!! Shot it off!

Lived in Lancefield and between there and Kilmore, never saw a thing as a kid. All just stories.

My question would be how long if the yanks left them here, would they have lived for? Surely their are not two or more of the big cats floating around so they probably would have died off a while ago by now. Sounds more like a large feral cat than a Puma or Panther if there was anything.