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Originally posted by WorkingClassMan
It's nice to have a zoo guy chime in but I think u missed my point & I'm not sure I agree.
Point was it is unusual for Aus to never have had a big cat & I can't remember the exact way it was put but something like we are the only sub Saharan continent not to.
You can almost swim to Indonesia from Australia & the common theory is there was a land bridge many moons ago, now indo has tigers, leopards & other jungle cats with all the marsupials here a cat would of thrived & had very few predators.
Why isn't a Tassie tiger a carnivore, I was taught it was the largest marsupial carnivore?
Australia possesses a unique assemblage of mammal species, of which over 80% are endemic.
This high level of endemism is a result of Australia's long period of isolation from other continents, since its separation from Gondwana about 40 million years ago. From that time until about 15 - 20 million years ago, when Australia moved closer to South-East Asia, Australian mammals were evolving independently from those in the rest of the world.
Originally posted by BASSPLYR
One thing I can tell you about pumas, cougars and bobcats is that you rarely if ever see them. And, if you do you see them for no more than a second or so as it darts off to hide. I live in Los Angeles. We have a mountain range running right through the city. There are several mountain lions and bob cats in them. Right near peoples back yards if they live up in the hills. They are seen every once and a while, and their bodies are almost never found once they are dead. You will once in a blue moon find tracks but almost never any scat. There is very little evidence they are there. But every once and a while one wonders down into the city proper and gets shot or relocated reminding us that they are indeed up in them hills. If you were to tell someone who doesn't know any better they would not believe that lions live right beyond their backyard in the hills.
Pumas,Cougars Mountain Lions whatever you want to call them are solitary animals. they are almost never near another one. They have to stay spread out over a large geographical area with each cat having their own territories so as to not infringe on the the others food resources. SO there is only one of them around at any time, never in pairs unless they are mating. So spotting them is difficult and rare.
THe point being is that their could easily be wild large cats living in the outskirts of Victoria, and elsewhere in australia. Theres plenty for a population to eat. See no reason why they wouldn't do well. They are in general harmless and don't attack too often. SO they are no more dangerous than bears.
Originally posted by BASSPLYR
I personally believe you have large cats, probably panthers or pumas in that area of Victoria.
What's your take on the Tamnanian Tiger? I also believe that they are not completely extinct, endangered but not extinct. Seems to me that even though Tasmania is small there is still plenty of room for those Thylo's to go about their business unobserved. They've only been extinct for 100 years, thats not too long. Bet there are a few the hunters missed that keep a low profile way out in the bush trying to make a population comeback. At least I hope so.