History Channel in Search of British Big Cats

The History Channel will be in search for evidence of British Big Cats as part of their 'Monster Quest' series, and will be filming at the end of March, beginning of April.
The search is on for the evidence, video footage, casts, photographs recordings, eye-witness accounts.
Have you seen a big cat in the British countryside, more importantly have you any evidence?
A search for a suitable location, on land with frequent sightings is also being sought for two nights filming. Big Cats in Britain press release.
Can you help. Big cats are reported everyday from somewhere in Britain, yet the hard evidence to support these black cats is virtually non-existent. People are obviously seeing something, but what. Can you help clear up the mystery?
Mark Fraser is collating the evidence, please contact him on 07940 016972, or email at bigcatsinbritain@btinternet.com or visit the website at www.bigcatsinbritain.org
Big Cats in Britain (BCIB) is the only group in Britain dedicated on a daily basis to finding out the answers to the big cat mystery. We have a core of experts that we can call upon, including scientists, zoologists, professional trackers, and police officers.
There is no such thing as a black puma, and black leopards are relatively rare in their country of origin. People in the UK are seeing something, but what? We need that evidence.

Haweksbury Gazette Big cat report

Some new big cats reports from the Hawkesbury area are here.

new thylacine report

MICHAEL STEDMAN

February 10, 2008 12:00am

TASMANIAN tiger sighting in Victoria has reignited the theory that the species may have been introduced to the mainland before it became extinct in this state.
Victorian farmer Harry Cook owns a property bordering the Otway Ranges south of Melbourne.Late last year he was with a mate inspecting crop damage caused by rabbits when they spotted three wedge-tailed eagles circling the paddock.
"They were circling over an animal -- we got within 12 foot of it. It was about the size of a large dog with a very long tail that was sticking straight up in the air as if it was fending off the wedgies," Mr Cook said.
"There were white stripes on its chest and it had a boofy head with round ears and the side of the muzzle was white."
He copped a lot of flak for reporting the peculiar sight, but not because no one believed him.
"Farmers around here told me I had broken the code of silence -- that they had seen things too, but as soon as it is reported all the townies come with their rifles trying to shoot it."
Mr Cook is not alone in experiencing such a sighting.
A former engineer, who did not want to be named, said he saw a dog-like animal in his headlights near Torquay in May 2006.
He described it in minute detail, from its slender body and fluid movements to the prison bar "salt and pepper" coloured stripes on its flanks.
"I can guarantee you there is a feral animal of some sort out there with short hair and stripes on the side; if someone says that description matches a tiger than I would say it is a tiger," he said.
Amateur researcher (name removed)has logged eight recent sightings near Geelong, in a triangle between Anglesea, Torquay and Freshwater Creek.
In November 1998 he videotaped what he claims was a thylacine in East Gippsland. The grainy footage can be found on YouTube.
Mr (name removed) has a theory that tigers were introduced to Wilsons Promontory between 1910 and 1915.During that time the park's committee of management had a policy of stocking the national park with endangered species including kangaroos, tiger quolls and birds.
"The timing is interesting because there are no records of tiger sightings until after 1912," Mr (name removed) said.
"The tiger still had a reputation as a stock killer so the last thing the committee would want to do is publicise it for fear farmers would go and shoot them, so that could be one reason why it was kept quiet."
Local wildlife biologist and thylacine guru Nick Mooney had heard the theory before and said it didn't wash.
"There is no evidence whatsoever beyond a vague conspiracy. There were some animals released at Wilsons Promontory but tigers were not on the list," he said.
He and other independent experts have examined Mr (name removed) footage and believe it to be a mangy fox carrying a rabbit. Most mainland sightings could similarly be dismissed as stray dogs, foxes or even illusions, because the last fossil record of thylacines on mainland Australia date back to 1000 years before white settlement.
But Mr Mooney, who works in the Tasmanian Government's wildlife management branch, is by no means a sceptic about the tiger's continued existence: "I have always said it is possible -- not probable, but possible."
He still receives at least two "credible" Tasmanian sightings a year.
"I got a call the other day from two shooters near Cradle Mountain who had to have seen a thylacine, or they are lying," Mr Mooney said.
"They were probably spotlighting illegally so there doesn't appear to be a motive for them to lie.
"The location was perfect and their description faultless."

Bendigo big cat sighted

HARCOURT’S big cat mystery gained pace at the weekend as dry weather and freeway construction were believed to have flushed the elusive feline out of hiding.

An eyewitnesses siting on Sunday and unexplained paw prints discovered beside a farm dam have added credence to the belief a large wild cat may be stalking the area.

Coliban Water bailiff Dennis Clapham spotted the large animal while on his way to turn on channel water for Harcourt Valley Vineyards shortly before 7 am on Sunday.

‘‘I was driving up Milford Road when I saw this big black cat as it was just emerging from the long grass,’’ Mr Clapham said.

‘‘I saw it and it saw me, then it took off like a scalded cat.’’

Mr Clapham said from a distance of less than 100 metres he estimated the animal to be about 60 cm high and with a body length of up to a metre that moved with a distinctly feline quality.

‘‘I was a bit sceptical to start with, but the more you listen to people around here, and hear anecdotally of mauled sheep or kangaroos chomped in half and dragged halfway up trees, it makes you wonder what the hell it is.’’

He added: ‘‘If feral cats can get that big, then I’m scared.’’

Harcourt Valley Vineyards owner Kye Livingstone said his brother had first sighted the paw prints at the dam’s edge on the weekend, but had suspected them of being a neighbour’s dog.

But, he said his neighbour’s dogs tended to wander off together and the single set of prints, each measuring eight centimetres across, indicated something much larger.

‘‘I didn’t believe it to begin with, but whatever it is, this is something a fair bit bigger than my pup,’’ he said.

Mr Livingstone said the paw prints added to many local stories, and he would like to see a register made of the collected evidence of something living in the area.

‘‘At this time of year when we are irrigating, the water goes down quickly leaving the mud exposed,’’ he said.

‘‘It would take quite a bit of weight to push down into that mud.’’ Mr Livingstone said roadworks in the valley appeared to be bringing the animal further out of the bush.

He said the Calder Freeway route had eliminated some of the small farms and dams at the rear of this property, and could mean the animal was coming further out in search of water.

‘‘The thing is there is probably plenty of food about with roos and rabbits, but it is water which is the problem.’’ One Harcourt resident who moved as the freeway came through, Michael Warrend said he suspected his dog encountered the cat on his former property, which adjoined the bush of the Castlemaine Diggings National Park.

‘‘My small blue heeler cross will get a hold of a snake and go after anything, but one day he chased something down the water race,’’ he said.

‘‘But he came bolting back and went and sat in his kennels for two days.’’ Mr Warren believes the animal could be the descendant of a released wildcat, or the product of 20 to 30 generations of interbreeding and adaptation of feral cats, capable of producing an animal of this size.

‘‘Whatever it is, it is big,’’ he said.

http://bendigo.yourguide.com.au/articles/1157340.html?src=topstories

On the Track of Unknown Animals - Episode 4

It's time for the latest instalment of On the Track of Unknown Animals - Episode 4, hosted by CFZ Director Jon Downes.

Otways big cat sighting

A LORNE man, Simon Raik-Allen, in Otway forest after having seen a puma-like cat near Erskine Falls on Erskine Falls Road at 5.30am. He estimated the cat, with long looping tail, was about 1.5 metres long and half a metre high.
http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2008/01/01/10143_news.html

CFZ Oz Team

Strange animal sighting in Victoria

More Strange Animal Sightings (Dec 12 Geelong Advertiser)

by Britt Smith

VICTORIA: Harry Cook yesterday told of having watched the mysterious four-legged creature on Friday at 4pm while showing a friend his property.

``We looked into the valley and this strange animal was standing there, with three wedge-tail eagles circling above. It had a dirty grey coat with white stripes on its rib area. I thought, God, it's strange,'' he said.

``When it saw us it went into a crouching run and took off into the creek.''

Mr Cook said the animal was about 1m tall with a small head, long legs and a slim build. He said the tail was upright and hairless, unlike anything he had seen before.

``What I saw wasn't a fox, foxes don't stand that tall. It's a new kid on the block, I suppose,'' he said.

Liz Wylie also reported seeing a similar creature on her nearby property in Modewarre.

The mum-of-three yesterday said she saw a striped animal three months ago casually walk past her horse being held in a paddock.

``I know what foxes look like and I know what wild dogs look like. This wasn't either of those,'' she said.

Big cat researcher Simon Townsend said anything was possible but the animal was most likely a mangy fox.

``If it's showing stripes it may be suffering from problems with its coat,'' he said.

http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2007/12/12/9642_news.html

CFZ OZ Team

Tarra-Bulga - It's a Hoax!

As far as yowie sighting cases go, the Tarra-Bulga case, on the face of it, was a compelling one.

On April 23, 2006, at least six people heard strange 'bellowing' sounds and saw what they described to Parks officials as a 'big ape' at Corrigan's Suspension Bridge in Tarra-Bulga National Park.

Crypto sleuths Paul Cropper and Tony Healy began to do some digging and tracked down witness Mike Skelton.

He provided a detailed description of the creature that helped to put the sighting into perspective - it appears that Mr Skelton most likely saw someone in a 'Chewbacca' suit (a creature featured in the famous Star Wars movie trilogy).

A field site visit by Cropper and friend James Reid sealed the trio's suspicions that the sighting was actually a hoax.

For the detailed story, visit Cropper and Healy's website The Yowie File.

What do the veteran cryptozoology researchers, and authors of the new book 'The Yowie: In Search of Australia's Bigfoot', think of the hoax? "Clearly someone went to a lot of trouble to hoax this...Possibly this is a clear message never to even take multiple witness cases at face value".

This case could easily have been added to the annals of Australian cryptozoology as a bona fide mystery if someone had not bothered to do a little digging. 

CFZ Oz Team

The Truth About Australian Snakes

Ho ho ho - it's almost time for Christmas.

So let's 'cut the crap', as Neville Burns' informative DVD about Australian snakes proclaims, and introduce you to the ultimate herpetological stocking stuffer.

This is one heart-pumping mini-doco! A few of the CFZers have known Neville (and his snakes) for quite some time.

He's a well-known Australian herpetologist and bushman of many years standing, and has rubbed shoulders with everyone who's anyone in the reptile world, including the renowned Irwin clan of Steve/Australia Zoo fame.

There isn't anything Neville doesn't know about our scaly friends, and the advice he shares in this DVD could save a life.

Buy the DVD from Strictly Reptiles.

CFZ OZ Team

Tasmanian Tiger Museum

Some CFZers have just returned from Tasmania, and the pickings are slim in that part of the world as far as exhibits of the legendary Tasmanian Tiger go.
The Tasmanian Museum and Art gallery narrowly beats the Cascade Brewery's display (they have a fake model in a glass box behind the bar) with its frankly pathetic exhibition of all things Thylacine. There were more tiger-related objects in the gift shop than there were in the natural history portion of the museum. Very disappointing.
You'd think, being such a drawcard, the Tiger might get a bit more prominence.
Here's what ~was~ on offer (not the 'real deal', but crappy reproductions, which we can understand...but the pup in the jar isn't even realistic when seen firsthand):