No myth-taking what he saw - it was a big cat!

Weeks after the government declared the Blue Mountains big cat file closed, a Sydney father has spoken of a terrifying encounter with a panther-like creature outside his Riverstone, NSW home.

Peter Russell told NSW Police he feared for his life after being stalked by a large, ''completely foreign'' feline predator at Riverstone, on the fringes of dense national park bushland.

It has been sighted at least 12 times in the Riverstone area in recent years.

On December 5, Mr Russell went to investigate why his neighbour's dogs were acting ''so distressed''.
He said, as he looked along the path that led up the street, a very large, broad, cat-like creature ran straight for him.

''This was definitely no dog,'' he said. ''It had a low rumbling growl. It was between knee and hip height, extremely stocky and very fast. I spun on my heel and ran back towards the house. I didn't know that I was going to make it to the door.

''My mind was completely thrown by what I had just witnessed. I thought I was a goner.''

Mr Russell made it safely inside and called Riverstone police.

''The officer laughed and I acknowledged her reaction was understandable,'' he said. ''But I also explained that if some poor kid ends up being taken, and I hadn't called, I would be left devastated.''

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/blue-mountains-panther-spotted-again-20131214-2ze1p.html#ixzz2nUgwK3zd

New report into big cats in NSW

Here's a scoop for you all - the new report into big cats in NSW. Are they or aren't they? Well let's employ someone who knows nothing about big cats and is living in NZ to look at all the old reports...again. Sigh. We don't have much energy to throw at this right now as our community in the Blue Mtns is battling bushfires. But please read and share your thoughts below...

Blue Mountains Panther Walk

Save the date!

On October 5, Australian Big Cats: An Unnatural History of Panthers authors Rebecca and Mike are hosting a Blue Mountains Panther Walk during the annual Festival of Walking in the Blue Mountains of NSW.

It’s one of Australia’s greatest wildlife mysteries – do ‘big cats’ really roam the bush? Sightings of black panthers have been made all over Australia, many of which have taken place in the Blue Mountains.

Join the authors of Australian Big Cats: An Unnatural History of Panthers and hear about some compelling local sightings, see casts taken of suspected ‘big cat’ prints, look at some of the best photos taken of monster moggies, and find out what might be behind these stories.

Are you brave enough to join the hunt?

Come join us for a walk and a talk.

Register here: http://festivalofwalking.com/events/blue-mountains-panther-bushwalk-in-search-of-big-cats/

Seen a big cat? Tell us about it!

Is this the sound of a Yowie walking?

In 2010 a mystery animal researcher ventured into a bush location in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. For several minutes he recorded the sound of something walking nearby and throwing what were possibly rocks towards him.

Another researcher, 'Bluegem', who has a background in sound engineering, managed to dampen the man's voice and footsteps so that the other sounds could be more clearly heard.

Thank you to both gentlemen for sharing this audio with us. What do you think, readers?

Have a listen here:

Yowie looked like 'big black person'

"The trees...sounded like they were exploding, rather than being knocked over..." according to this witness, whose Blue Mountains yowie encounter left him shocked and shaken.

Yowie? We don't think so...

Previous analysis by the CFZ's Mike Williams has shown that this image is in fact of a possum on top of a rock! Note the thermal signature of the 'yowie' is the same as the surrounding trees and the rock - mystery solved!

In the wake of a visiting US television show, which claims to have recorded evidence of a yowie bellowing in remote bushland, Australia seems to be in the grip of 'yowiemania' - or at least our media outlets do.

Secret state government files have revealed a yowie man was recently sighted in the Blue Mountains, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The case emerged among almost 60 suspected panther, leopard and big cat sightings from the past decade sitting in the bowels of the government archives and obtained under freedom of information laws.

But just for the record, these reports haven't been sitting in the bowels of anywhere for a decade - they were liberated at least eight years ago and have since been published in Australian Big Cats: An Unnatural History of Panthers, a massive tome that dedicates more than 430 pages to exploring the phenomenon.

After an overseas TV crew last week claimed it had recorded audio of a yowie man in a remote region on the NSW-Queensland border, documents show the Australian version of Bigfoot was also allegedly sighted last year far closer to metropolitan areas at Springwood, west of Sydney.

In an email to National Parks and Wildlife Service rangers, the witness said he had filmed the creature in March last year and taken photos of footprints. He even drew the yowie man's head, pecs, arms and feet on the picture to make it clearer.

"I have had a seven-year history with this creature," the witness wrote.Canberra crypto-naturalist Tim The Yowie Man, who claims to have seen a yowie in the Brindabella Ranges in 1994, said he was interested in the latest sighting.

"The Blue Mountains has been a common spot for big cats, obviously, but it is not unusual for yowies either," he said. "I have no doubt people believe they are seeing something unusual but many can be cases of mistaken identity."

The NSW Environment Department declined to comment last week. Three years after a government study found there was no evidence of the Blue Mountains Panther - aka the Hawkesbury Big Cat and the Penrith Panther - rangers are still receiving sightings of the creatures.

In an unsolved attack last summer, a Bilpin family's pet alpaca was mauled to death by a suspected big cat that later gutted a kangaroo.

"'Big cat' kill report," Hawkesbury area ranger David Monahan wrote in an email to his boss a few days after the attack.

"Victim was a large alpaca, head crushed, 7cm puncture wounds in skull, adult animal, hairs left on wire fence to be brought in today."

In June 2010, a witness claimed to have seen a cat the size of a german shepherd with yellow eyes beside a "roo on side of the road with head missing", a report said.

On July 13 last year, a man wrote to another ranger after spotting "the panther" on a trip home from Singleton a few days earlier.

There are 400-odd claimed big cat cases in recent decades.

And the rest!

Wolgan Valley's Albino wallaroos

A rare albino wallaroo has been delighting staff and visitors at the Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.

"We've had sightings of one mature albino wallaroo on the property since opening 18 months ago, but to have two more spotted on the property is incredibly rare and exciting for us and our guests," the resort's general manager Joost Heymeijer said.

The resort's field guides have noticed the albino wallaroos are more timid and less trusting of humans than their grey brothers and sisters, and wait until it is darker to come out to feed.

The education program co-ordinator at Featherdale Wildlife Park in Doonside, Peter Spradbrow, said albinism is a rare condition where the skin, hair and eyes lack the pigment that gives them colour.

It is observed across many animal species, but in the wild it is difficult for an albino creature to reach adulthood.

For more examples of albino macropods, check out earlier CFZ posts.

Panther stalks Blue Mountains

Panther-like big cats here in the Blue Mountains? Surely not! Yet a string of people over the years insist they've seen or heard one.

Digging into their stories proved intriguing for writer/photographer Michael Williams and journalist Rebecca Lang, who recently published their book Australian Big Cats – An Unnatural History of Panthers.

They report that big cat sightings are a problem in many rural areas around Australia with substantial stock losses in some; they describe their book as "a meaty compendium of sightings, killing sprees, narrow escapes, myths and mysteries that have come to form an intriguing chapter of Australian folklore."

http://www.bloogle.com.au/whistler/panther.php

Dingo purity aided by wild dog explosion

The Australian Dingo Conservation Association (ACDA) runs a 92-ha compound housing 31 pure, breeding dingoes on Colong station in the Blue Mountains National Park.

"We try hard to maintain genetic purity, so we even separate our breeding packs into sub-types, like mountain, desert and tropical dingoes," says ADCA vice-president Gavan McDowell. The association's aim is to breed a number of pure dingoes that can be released into the wild to recolonise areas cleared of feral dogs. Unfortunately, since dingoes are themselves declared animals, or pests, in most states, releasing them for recolonisation is currently illegal.

Some scientists, however, cautiously suggest the wild dog boom we have created may actually be the dingo's salvation.

"People don't always realise that a lot of hybrid dogs means a lot of pure-bred dingoes too, simply because of the numbers," says Guy Ballard, a dingo researcher with the Invasive Animals Co-operative Research Centre.

"It's impossible to prove, but I suspect there are actually more pure-bred dingoes around today than at any other time in history." Ballard's team runs several dingo-tagging projects throughout northeastern NSW, and he says that no matter where he and his fellow researchers go, they always trap some good (pure) dingoes. That's why he is uncertain of the need for breeding facilities such as that of the ADCA.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/predator-explosion-dogs-the-bush/story-e6frg6z6-1225889672128