Big cat sighted in rural Victoria

Wikipedia - Patrick Giraud

Residents in the rural hamlets of Sea Lake and Nandaly are on alert after a local farmer claimed to have spotted (excuse the pun) a leopard on his property.

Sea Lake farmer Nic Harrison told The Guardian of his "frightening" Australian big cat experience which occured while he was spraying crops.

"I was spraying at the time on my first lap around the paddock, so I was concentrating on not hitting the fence and this huge cat just appeared," he said.

"It was actually hanging around the rabbit warren and then as soon as it saw the tractor it sort of slunk down to the ground and ran."

Mr Harrison claimed the cat disappeared into dense bushland adjacent to his property after he startled the animal.

He said he spotted the animal in broad daylight, about 2pm, at a distance of 20 to 30 metres.

Mr Harrison believed what he saw may have been a spotted leopard. He said there was no chance it could have been a regular feral cat, or fox.

"I've never seen one like it. It had spots like a leopard and it had a huge long tail. Its tail was as long as its body. I've never seen anything like it.

"As soon as I saw it I thought: 'This is too big not to say anything and not worry about."

More on the Warburton big cat

Dozens of residents have contacted the Knox Leader since, saying they have seen pumas or big cats in Dixons Creek, Gruyere, Gembrook, Emerald, Upwey and Silvan.

The sightings have fascinated Boronia resident and former member of Rare Fauna Research (now Australian Rare Fauna Research Association) Nick Costello, author of Big Cats in the Back Paddock.

He said during the 1980s the group investigated the big cat phenomenon in the Dandenong Ranges, with some 300 sightings recorded.

“Various members of our research team came into close contact with the animals at several times,” Mr Costello said.

He said he thought the felines were extinct because reports of big cat sightings had dwindled since the 1990s.

Now, Mr Costello said that was clearly not the case and he was delighted the animals were back in the spotlight. He saw the big cat many years ago and painted a picture of it.

“We were able to prove on paper that they were present in the Dandenongs at that time,” he said.

Healesville resident Naomi Wynd said last week she saw a black feline in Upper Ferntree Gully while driving with her sister along Old Belgrave Rd at dusk.

At first she thought it was a dog.

“I realised it was padding along and, as it turned and the light shone in its eyes, we both said, ‘Oh my God that’s not a dog’,” she said.

Though it was a few years back, Ms Wynd still clearly remembers watching the big cat run under a house.

“A neighbour said to us that a lady down the road complained the big cat would go underneath her house and grunt and scratch around down there,” Ms Wynd said.

Healesville farmer Ken Lang said he believed leopards and pumas lived in the area.

He said his neighbour complained he once found two dead lambs he believed had been savaged by big cats and left high up in the fork of a tree.

And a few years ago a big cat tried to pull down a pony in Badger Creek, leaving claw marks on its flanks.

The book Australian Big Cats: An Unnatural History of Panthers documents many Victorian big cat sightings going back more than 100 years.

Mystery goat killer - was it a big cat?

A quick visit to a mysterious pile of bones on Sydney's outskirts...a chilling discovery. Is it the killing ground of an Australian Big Cat?

Big cat sighting at Halls Gap, Victoria

A Halls Gap couple has renewed talk of big cats existing in the Grampians after a sighting earlier this year.

The couple, who wish to rename anonymous, saw the big cat on their way home to Halls Gap after dining at Barney's Tavern in Pomonal.

The sighting occurred during daylight savings in mid-March, with both having a clear view of the cat.

"We were driving home from Barneys at about 6.30pm and saw a figure 150 metres in the distance," they said.

"It was crossing the road near Grampians Vineyard with a rabbit in its mouth. We didn't know what it was at first, because it was the size of our Labrador. We thought at first it could have been a dog, but as we got closer, we realised it was a big cat."

The cat was reported to be about three feet tall.

"We pulled up about one and a half metres away from the cat so we could have a good look," the couple said.

"It took off into the bushes, but we could see it clearly, with the rabbit still in its mouth. It wasn't a small rabbit either.

"When it took off, it was bounding or galloping along. Our initial response was disbelief that we had seen a cat that big."

The couple phoned Big Cats Australia to report the sighting and the organisation agreed it would send out personnel to investigate.

Big Cats Australia advised they were aware big cats existed in the Grampians and were eager to take a look for themselves, as well as hear of any other sightings by residents.

"Initially they wanted us to take them to the extact spot we saw the big, but apparently they came up and had a look themselves and didn't contact us," the couple said.

"They know the cats are in the Grampians, they're just not sure what type of cat they are."

A similar sighting occurred earlier in the year with a resident stopping his vehicle after seeing an emu at full stretch running along a fenceline. When he looked behind the emu, he saw a big cat giving chase.

"I don't think he believed it at first, but he stopped the tractor, had a good look and it was definitely a big cat," the couple said.

The big cat sightings have certainly sparked talk once again and follow rumours of pumas existing in the Grampians.

VIC Govt stays true to big cat investigation promise

BIG cat researchers have welcomed the State Government's confirmation of a probe into sightings of the elusive creatures in the Otways.

State Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh has confirmed the Government's pre-election pledge for an investigation, saying there had been numerous unconfirmed sightings over the past decade.

Nationals Leader Peter Ryan made the big cats an election issue, promising to resolve the issue one way or another after continued reports of sightings.

The previous Labor Government refused such a probe, and Labor's environment minister Gavin Jennings said instead of searching for "non-existent big cats," the Nationals "should be out there searching for some real policies that protect the environment".

Mr Walsh said the State Government had committed to a "limited investigation" to determine once and for all whether there was any truth behind the sightings. Local big cat researcher Simon Townsend (pictured above), who has been investigating sightings in the eastern Otways for more than a decade, welcomed the probe, saying both he and colleague John Turner would be happy to help with any investigation.

Mr Townsend has visited dozens of Otways property owners who've described sightings and shown him photos of slain livestock that he said appeared to have been slain by large unidentified predators.

"We take this issue quite seriously," he said.

"We're not saying the animals are there, we're saying there's circumstances that suggest they are, and there's an awful lot of eye witnesses who need to be respected.

"If the Government's being proactive, they really need to be asking and involving people with some involvement in the issue."

Geelong Advertiser nature writer Trevor Pescott yesterday cast doubt on the probe.

"You can't prove that something doesn't exist, and that's what will come out of this," he said.

Mr Pescott said people had told him about big cat sightings, but he had never seen anything himself and while there were still continuing reports, no solid evidence had been produced.

"I'm still a bit dubious, although I'm not a person to say yes or no because sometimes unusual things turn up," he said.

Last month, an Anglesea woman Melva Stott wrote of seeing what she thought was a puma, but the animal appeared to be a black wallaby.

However Ms Stott said she had seen two pumas in different locations around Anglesea.

Australian Big Cats makes top 5, 10, 20!

Australian Big Cats: An Unnatural History of Panthers has made the Cryptomundo Top 20 Cryptozoology books of the year list as the best Cryptic Felid Book of the Year!

The list is an annual who's who of cryptozoology, and to be rated #4 is a noteworthy feat.

The authors (contributors to this blog, pictured above with witness Shane Foreman) would like to thank everyone who has bought and reviewed the book so far.

Keep your eyes peeled for their next project in 2011!

From the archives: A 'true' bunyip tale? (1909)

Black Panther cameos in Red Hill

Red Hill is the name of a new Australian thriller that has just hit local cinemas (and no doubt other parts of the world).

So what possible crypto reference could be contained in an antipodean western set in an Outback town with gun-slinging Australian policemen and escaped convicts hellbent on revenge?

Enter the black panther!

Ryan Kwanten's character is a city policeman looking for a quieter life in the country, but his move to Red Hill gets off to a strange start with reports of a mystery animal spooking horses and killing and eating cattle.

We won't say anymore about the film other than it looks like a decent action flick. This is also the first time since novelist Tim Winton's book In the Winter Dark was made into a film that we've seen a big cat reference hit the mainstream Down Under (forget the fact it has nothing to do with the main storyline!).

There is another Australian film project featuring our very own ABC - Gone Missing, from Idyllic Films - which is still seeking finance. You can watch the trailer below: