Dead Panther Pt II

Our recent 'dead panther' investigation gets another plug, this time from a rival local paper, the Hawkesbury Gazette, which also plugs a recent sighting in the area. To see footage of the 'dead panther' skull (and hear a rather dispirited Mike Williams commentary on yet another false alarm) go here. As you can see from the picture above, our initial excitement wasn't entirely unwarranted - it did look like a BIG cat!

A false alarm on panther find

Despite a Hills paper declaring panther remains were found at a South Maroota property, the experts have said it was only a large feral cat.The owner of the property said his three dogs had brought the mauled carcass to him on Sunday, November 28.

He buried the carcass due to the stink and to stop the dogs mauling it even further.

Mike Williams, co-author of Australian Big Cats: An Unnatural History of Panthers was contacted about the find and drove from west of Lithgow to examine whether the carcass was really a “panther”.

He said he told the Hills paper it was a “large Felis cattus”, the species name of a domestic cat but it was reported in the paper as a “big fearless cat”.

“I burnt rubber to get down there and used a shovel to dig it up,”

Mr Williams said.

“I would’ve moved about a tonne of earth.

“I finally found it, and it was rotten and liquefied.

“I saw the remains and I saw the skull, and I’ve gone ‘you’re joking’.

“There are panthers out there, but this was not one of them!

“However it was a very large feral cat, and they are interesting to me as well.”

Grose Vale panther expert Chris Coffey said if it had been a panther “it would’ve made my Christmas”!

“I would’ve paid for the DNA testing myself,” she said.

Mrs Coffey said the incident was typical of a common misunderstanding that people made about the panther.

“They’ve got to understand the enormity of the animal,” she said.

“It would be at least the size of a rottweiler, a German shepherd or a labrador.”

Mrs Coffey said there were several physical differences between a big cat and a feral cat.

She said a panther would be at least a metre in length, 40-50cm tall at the shoulder, have a tail that is two thirds as long as the body, have rounded ears where feral cats have pointed ears, and have its ears on the side of its skull. Feral cats have ears on top of their skulls.

Mrs Coffey said the last Hawkesbury sighting of a panther had been at Cabbage Tree Creek two weeks ago.

Dead 'panther' body found in northern Sydney

We heard on the grapevine yesterday that the body of a dead panther had been discovered in north-western Sydney, so we raced to the scene to exhume and examine the potential big cat.

Unfortunately, as most often happens, truth was a little less stranger than the fiction! Actually a lot less strange, as it turned out to be a domestic cat!

And in a classic communication breakdown with the media, a rather funny line appears in the news story below.

As you read, keep in mind CFZer Mike Williams told the reporter from the outset the cat was a 'big FELIS CATUS', not a 'big fearless cat'.

Has the Hills' big cat been found?

A PARTIALLY decomposed body of the mysterious “panther” has been found on a South Maroota property, reigniting speculation on the existence of a big cat roaming Hills bushland.

On November 28, Geoff Nowland’s three American staffies brought the dead panther to him, prompting him to call his mate Peter Spiteri to come over and have a look.

"When I looked at it, I could not tell what it was and it freaked me out a bit,” Mr Spiteri said.

“It definitely did not look like any dog or feral cat I have ever seen, especially with the fangs and teeth it has on it.”

Mr Spiteri said a week before the dogs found the dead panther, Mr Nowland’s puppy was mauled so badly it nearly had one of its legs amputated.

“The vet was very concerned and did not know what could have attacked the puppy so badly to cause it such severe injuries,” he said.

“I know there have been a lot of sightings of this panther out here, but it is pretty freaky to see it up close.”

The pair have buried the dead panther on Mr Nowland’s property because of the stink and to stop the dogs from getting at it.

Friend of the pair and Maraylya rally car driver Bruce Garland was the first to alert the Hills Shire Times to the images of the panther just before it was buried.

“There have been sightings of this panther out here for years and the other day it was sighted on the golf course at Riverside Oaks,” Mr Garland said.

“I think this panther was found on this property because it was either sick or it was protecting its own little ones. There definitely has to be more than one roaming around.”

Panther expert Mike Williams, who was involved in the famous 2005 dead panther shooting incident in Gippsland by a Victorian hunter, has lent his expertise to the Times to examine, measure and take samples from our dead animal.

Mr Williams and his partner Rebecca Lang launched their book Australian Big Cats: An Unnatural History of Panthers earlier this year.

Late yesterday, Mr Williams was digging up the animal’s body at the property to take measurements and samples.

“This would have been a very stocky muscular animal,” he said upon finding the two week old carcass.

“I would say it is a “big fearless cat” and in “big” I mean it is not your typical domestic animal, it has been crossed or mutated in some way.

“This is exciting and we definitly have something very interesting here. It could have done a lot of damage to the Australian wildlife.

“It would have been three to four times bigger then what we found, two weeks ago when it was buried.”