Panther like creature stalks homes.

Australia doesnt have panthers, or any large cat species.

Or do we?

MYSTERIOUS panther-like creatures, long reported to be stalking the outskirts of Sydney, could be moving towards homes. With at least 19 sightings reported this year, big cat hunters believe they're becoming bolder as they search for food and mates. Cryptozoologist Rex Gilroy said the elusive creatures - usually reported as fleeting sightings at night, often on lonely country roads

Folks here report seeing black cats up to 1.8metres or 6 feet in length in urban areas.

Bushman Gavin Noakes found large paw prints bigger than a man's fist at 12cm to 15cm wide. The depth of the paw print suggested a heavy creature, in line with a number of recent sightings of a panther-like creature of about 30kg with a black-to-dark brown coat. "There's a migratory pattern in which they seem to come out of Grose Vale and penetrate out into the back of the Kenthurst scrub, moving back and forth," he said. "Two breeding populations of about half a dozen each have developed there." He believes they are distant relations of the extinct Thylacoleo carnifex owen, a marsupial lion that survived the Ice Age.

www.news.com.au...

Cheers

Mungo

Int3resting. I live in Canada, and in the west (british columbia), where i'm from, there are a lot of mountain lions (comparatively). They act in the exact way the animal is said to. Question is, how did it get there????
(escaped pet?, etc.???) Cats and bears live together in BC too, so just to give you an idea, everyone knows that cats pose a way bigger threat than bears....if you see it, it wants to eat you.

This story relates to the western outskirts of Sydney.

There have been rumours of another cat in another state believed to have escaped from a US army unit. Said to have been a mascot or the like.

But even so what would it have bred with so successfully?

I dont think I would like to cross paths with one.

" Here Kitty Kitty"

[edit on 26/12/2008 by mungodave]

Up to around 50 years ago it was legal for normal people in Australia to own exotic animals as pets.

Many rich Sydney socialites imported Panthers, Lynx and Tigers so they could be displayed as status symbols and accessories.

A law came in (I think the early 60s, but I can't be sure on the date) that outlawed these animals and required that owners hand them over to the government for destruction.

Many owners took the pets, who they had come to love, to the outskirts of Sydney and released them into the bush.

It is most likely the offspring of these animals, probably now hybridized with feral cats, that people are seeing.

Doesn't make it any less terrifying, I know. They have been seen as far north as Wauchope and Comboyne, close to where I live.

Glad to see the NSW Government is conducting an investigation.

[edit on 26-12-2008 by fooffstarr]

We always get these

Most the time turns out to be a large feral cat or something. I did see footage of an alleged "panther" in Tasmania. The guy reckons it was almost 2 meteres long....

Didnt look that big when he filmed in next to his car...

reply to post by OzWeatherman


Check out the photo in the Daily Telegraph today if you get the chance.

Sure doesn't look like a normal feral cat to me

reply to post by fooffstarr

.


Thanks for the info
I was in nappies in the early 60's. My Dad wasnt and he's still around, so
I'll see what he can recall and get back to you.

And you're right, doesn't look like any feral cat I've seen either.

And hi to you Oz, haven't seen you around for a while.

Happy New Year guys.

Mungo

the pavers the cat is walking on are only 190mm X 190mm that would make the cat around a meter long from the pic.

looks like a cross between an abyssinian and something else, feral cats can grow large and muscular and will get close to neighbourhoods during mating season looking for females, bush feral cats grow larger than city feral cats, some can almost get to almost double the size of your average house cat.

you have to remember that if there is talk around about something out of the ordinary, people will assume that the noise they just heard outside was the animal in question.

The answer to where could the panther come from lies with a number of slightly dodgy 'theme parks' that used to be in the area.

Safari Park Waragamba

The most notable of these is the Safari Park in Waragamba, western Sydney. A number of animals escaped over the years that it ran.

There is also an old farm about 20mins from my house in the same area calle Notre Dame. Apparently they illegally kept big cats and released them to escape prosecution. Do a google search on 'Notre Dame' and Mulgoa for more info...

[edit on 26/12/2008 by Sloth]