NSW big cat report says 'matter closed'

A doctor, dentist, solicitor, clergyman and Qantas pilot have all seen it, as have numerous Rural Fire Service volunteers and an officer from the Department of Agriculture. A NSW detective spoke of how he watched the beast, from barely 50 metres away, for more than a minute. And like most others, he is "convinced" it was a black panther.

Rumours have circulated for decades about a colony of "Big cats" roaming Sydney's western fringes and beyond. But today, a report commissioned by the State Government has concluded that the many hundreds who have seen the panther are wrong.


Ms Coffey said of the report: "We continue to be treated like fringe-dwelling idiots. This is an insult to everyone who has seen the creature."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/the-matter-is-closed-new-report-into-blue-mountains-big-cat-20131018-2vs6v.html#ixzz2i6oJqaeG

Interestingly, like many state government 'big cat' reports before it, the book Australian Big Cats: An Unnatural History of Panthers was used as a resource!

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...

Hawkesbury alpaca taken by big cat?

A Bilpin family believe their pet alpaca was mauled to death last week by a big black cat, according to the Hawkesbury Gazette.

On the morning of Friday, November 4, at about 3am, the Bells Line of Road property owners John and Amanda (surnames withheld by request) were woken by their dog which was barking hysterically.

John said when he went outside to see what was going on he could see ‘Jabaru’ the alpaca, but when the family left to drop the kids off to school they made the gruesome discovery.

“At first we thought it may have been wild dogs that got through the fence and ripped him apart but when we walked around and saw the foot-prints and teeth marks we knew no dogs could do that. It was too neat an attack,” John said.

With concerns about what had actually killed the loved family pet, John and Amanda contacted Grose Vale’s Chris Coffey who has been maintaining a database of sightings of big cats, and she confirmed their doubts that it was not a dog attack. “It was definitely not a dog attack, it was a cat,” she said.

“I knew straight away when I saw the paw print and photos that it was absolutely a big cat and I have every reason to believe this.

“I have seen too much of it and I know the difference between a dog attack and a cat attack.

“When a dog attacks it’s scattered, but when a big cat attacks it’s very clean.”

The pictures and pawprints have since been analysed by experts who have also verified it to be a big cat attack. “There’s nothing else out there that could do something like this,” Mrs Coffey said. “There were four canine (long-pointed teeth as opposed to the teeth of a dog) teeth marks on the alpaca about 7cm wide – two on the top of the head and two below the jaw.”

Trap is set for Hawkesbury's big cat

THERE are panther sightings all the time, but people are too scared of ridicule to tell people about it, a Grose Vale resident told the Hawkesbury Gazette this week.

Chris Coffey has been tracking black panther sightings in the district for 13 years, and is frustrated by people’s reluctance to divulge their experiences when they have seen big black cats.

“I was in the post office the other day and there was a man there who knew of three people who’d seen one (a big black cat) and there was a girl who happened to be in the post office at the same time who said her dad had seen one,” Ms Coffey said.

Collecting evidence of panthers in the Hawkesbury over many years, Ms Coffey has had a panther trap built.

She said they had a big cat in there one night but the trap was too small and it managed to back its way out – with the roadkill wallaby used as bait.

“We extended it so now it’s much larger,” she said. “We also have three heat-activated cameras.”

She is asking any resident who has seen a big black cat to contact Hawkesbury City Council, which keeps a register of sightings, or the Gazette, or her.

She also asked that if anyone has seen a panther on their property and would be happy for the trap and cameras to be put on their land, she may finally be able to prove that there are panthers in the Hawkesbury.

She said sightings were not just at dusk and dawn – people were seeing them at all times of the day and she wanted people to realise what danger their children could be in near the bush.

***Coincidentally, Chris Coffey wrote the foreword for Australian Big Cats: An Unnatural History of Panthers!

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.