New Zealand Mystery Animal Photo

Looking at the photo again, I would say it is bigger than the average housecat. What does anyone else think?

As i mentioned before, house cats can be pretty big and when these large cats go feral they tend to increase in their size again.
The world record for a house cat goes to a german cat at 65 pounds.
Big cats
The fourth photo in that link is my favourite.
Im not saying there is no possibility it could be an escaped Mountain Lion or something or that those types of animals dont exist outside of their natural habitats or zoo's, all im saying is it is far more likely to be Felis Catus.

[edit on 16-4-2009 by pazcat]

New Zealander here...

The case sounds familiar might have had a mention on the local news, We had a similar one a good 10 years or so ago but if I remember the video of it was of a black feline.

To me it looks like a large male ginger colored tom hunkered down in the grass.

Ive owned alot of Cats (i own 9 currently, 4 of which where rescued feral kittens) and while people have mentioned they get bigger when they go feral I have to say this is wrong, what id say it is, is that intact un neutered male toms, feral or otherwise are noticeably larger than their neutered counterparts. They put on larger muscle mass and wild cats also depending on the season can grow a rather thick coat of fur.

We have a cat that has possible maincoon or Norwegian ancestry (shes got the coat and coloring) and she grows a very thick coat during the winter which we sheds at the start of summer (the difference is quite funny looking going from fluffy to noticably balder, especially the neck and cheeks region)

Although i have seen some real big cats on occasion. One of our tabby males currently is quite a large cat standing just above a foot at the shoulder, but ive seen males get to a good foot and a half once or twice (friends cat as a kid was a real monster and we lived next door to a cat who was rightly called Chewbaca... he was not only tall but fat)

Looking at those tourists pic id definitely say the coloring is interesting, although given the direction of the sun a light ginger cat can get real tawny in color, we had a part Abyssinian female that was a very light red cream color. If it was 200m's away then its definitely large but cant tell looking at the photo, pitty they dont have any unzoomed pics of it with more noticeable terrain features to judge scale. Either case its deffinetly a large cat.

Id hazard to say its just a typical tom however, although the black cat that was film a decade ago was definitely something a little more exotic.

We get these large cat sightings every 4 or so years here, most people dont give it a second glance. Alot of people dont see feral cats all that much (their there but good at avoiding humans) and are to used to seeing domesticated cats so when they see a cat outside the habitats they normally associate them with they go 'Ooo strange beast!'.

Sure wish they wouldnt kill feral cats, its not their fault their dumped by uncaring people (only 3 days ago my brother rescued a little tabby kitten that had been dumped down a long drop toilet at a local beach... so a new addition to the family)... better to capture, neuter, then release, and they arent as big an impact on the native wildlife as alot of people seem to think.

I personally like the Moose sightings we have down in Fiordland, even with hunting cam footage of them people still say 'bollocks' .

reply to post by TheOmen





I have been looking at the pic for a few minutes I even loaded it up in photoshop to enlarge it, I cant tell anything and going by the description alone doesn't really help much. That could be anything, the picture is so low quality I could be looking at a dog for all I know.

Sorry buddy

[edit on 16-4-2009 by SLAYER69]

reply to post by SLAYER69


Haha

No worries, but thanks for your efforts!

I know the quality is terrible, and the fact that it's tourist's that captured it could be merely a case of mistaken identity...

reply to post by BigfootNZ


Wow, thanks for that. You are who I was looking for I guess

So it could just be a male house cat? I've never seen one as big as what you say! Still, I enjoy reading about these things and hope to bring alot more like this to ats.

Hi man! Are there Foxes in NZ? See how the animal seems to have its head down, maybe on to a scent? I must agree with other posts that its fairly impossible to tell what it is, with the low image quality.
We've got loads of Foxes here, I think originally they were introduced to control the rabbit problem, and then became a problem themselves.
As for the big cat theory- as another comment said; we've got loads of large feral cats here.
As a boy my grandfather would take me hunting in the southern highlands of NSW. One time we shot a large feral cat that was as big as mid-sized dog.
Then of course in western Sydney we occasionally get reports of people siting a Panther-like cat.
There is one wildlife park, ( closed for business in the 1980's) that as far as I know still has lions living on that particular plot of land in Mulgoa. Up to a few years ago one could still hear the roaring at feeding time (on sunset) from my sisters house at Penrith.
Is it possible that these animals can escape; yes. Is it possible for them to mate with other feral cats in the areas creating hybrids; I'm not sure- but I doubt it.

Originally posted by KRISKALI777
Hi man! Are there Foxes in NZ? See how the animal seems to have its head down, maybe on to a scent? I must agree with other posts that its fairly impossible to tell what it is, with the low image quality.

No Fox's in NZ as far as im aware (we have wallabies, moose), then again while our bio security borders are some of the strongest in the world we do get alot of things on occasion escaping local zoo's or turning up out of no where (we've had the odd snake scare which usually comes about from finding a snake skin or a half frozen or dead snake in an imported car frame and dead or dying sea snakes washed up on beachs)

From what i see in that image its a cat of some kind, im not to familiar with Dogs although ive lived (current neighbours owns a dog) next to a number of neighbors with them and my grandfather had 2. I say this because to me the animal is laying down on its stomach in typical cat fashion, and with cats the back legs and their knees tend to stick up very noticably in that position where the knee is almost above the hip and spine (noticable on cats with very sleek fur, not so much with long hairs) not sure if dogs back legs and knees do similar things.

My only 'hrmm' is the head or what looks like the head (the head could be hidden by the grass) since in the photo it does appear sort of cougarish or lynx like in that you can see what appears to be a very pointed black lined ear and a rather small head compared to the body . This could just be a well place blade of tussock or grass and a trick of the light or angle/body posture.

I still say its a normal cat, but who knows if there was an unzoomed/croped photo of it distance and size comparsions could be done alot easier. I live near a farm and my 3 neutered male toms are often walking off over the fields, and ive often watched them and other cats doing their thing at up to a good 200-300 foot distance and they often look pretty small nothing to make you go wow its a lion or panther, although their is a black cat ive watch occasional in early the morning that walks by one of the farm houses and given the distance (at least 200 feet) was to my eye quite large but still a easily recognisable as a typical domestic cat.

not related to cat sightings but still holding out for a another mero sighting coming along again .

www.bigfootencounters.com...

Haven't had one for a good 15 years or so, although the way the news covered the last one they made it out like an april fools joke, not sure of the date of the sighting but could have been just a laugh to drum up tourism. Although I do believe they existed at one time pre European arrival since the Maori say they did.

Guess we have the odd moa sighting as well to tide over the New Zealand cryptos.

Interestingly there's and odd bird around where I live that ive heard on occasion late at night, it often flies over or near our house and the surrounding farms and gives off a real throaty croak of a call in flight (sort of a Croooooooa lasts about 2 seconds), sounds a good 100 foot up its always going in the same direction and the call is always while its in flight, apart from the morpork owl, Ive heard very few if any night birds in my area. The morpork is far to small and doesnt call when flying from what ive experienced. Could be a crane of some sort heading inland for the night but why it would do so during the night between 9-11pm is a little odd, most birds are well asleep by then, and often its heading OUT to the sea as well (there are a few small farming lakes around here so it could be part of its habitat for a crane).

[edit on 18-4-2009 by BigfootNZ]

reply to post by TheOmen


LOL that simply looks like a feral pig to me, or maybe a feral deer. I'm not sure if you have feral deer in NZ but we do here in OZ.

Edit: Come to think of it, it looks a lot like a sheep. Not uncommon in NZ.

[edit on 19/4/2009 by just_julie]

Do the Maori have anything on this creature? If not it might be that it was released there, intentionally or otherwise.

Hello from Christchurch Canterbury!

Yes the place where the rumoured Canterbury Panther stalks the land. Well to be fair theres no counter evidence for this not to be a big cat. If anything it very well could be. Now north of Auckland is Zion Wildlife gardens, a big cat sanctuary. The sanctuary is over crowded, and has some problems at the moment.

First of all the amount of Cats there has increased alot, creating funding problems and the owner, Craig Busch, has been accused of violence. Now basically that doesnt matter but simply the problem can be solved by getting rid of some cats right? Just a theory

To me it looks like a sheep yet in another aspect it looks like a lion. I think most of us want to believe its a lion yet realistically its more likely a sheep. I mean New Zealand is known for its sheep! It very could be a lion, just dont get ya hopes up.

Semoro
Deny ignorance

looks like a hyena to me.

Recently this year there have been more sightings of a mysterious big cat down the South.Is.
I believe that sometimes when celebrity's move to a permanent residence in New Zealand that some of them bring their exotic pets. Celine Dion was such a celebrity. she had a Black Panther, Tiger, and other such large felines. The recent sightings during this mid-year may have been one of those pets... Its was large, black, panther-like, and like many unknown cryptid sightings was from a distance. There were many eye-witness accounts in the area of that large black unknown cat. But i think that maybe one of Celine Dion's exotics escaped into the Canterbury wilderness.
Maybe this is the baseline for many unknown animals that are spotted where it seems they dont fit in.

The first time I looked at this a couple of days ago, I had no clue what it was. It did look a bit feline. Now that I just pulled it up and checked it out again, the first thing I saw in the picture was a deer. I know the tail isn't right, but the image is just so far away and out of focus. It is hard to distinguish features.

reply to post by just_julie


HEAPS of wild boar and HEAPS of deer (red, fallow, sika, moose, rusa, roe, & white-tailed)
Best hunting in the world kuzz.

whats new zealand most common for,

Baaaaaaaa, Sheep of course.

reply to post by redgy


yup, thats why our lambs are the best...

Originally posted by redgy
whats new zealand most common for,

Baaaaaaaa, Sheep of course.

Yes... and for Rutherford splitting the atom, and for designing the hummer for the americans. Let's not forget how many scientists we have working at Hedron. We created the Pavlova. The super computer for monitoring the internet 'Echelon' is housed here. I could go on and on...

Almost looks like a fox in my opinion, but from that shot i can't really gather the idea of its size.

Edit

If it was really in New Zealand, wouldn't there be a man with his pants down behind it?

j/k

Originally posted by JamesGC
Almost looks like a fox in my opinion, but from that shot i can't really gather the idea of its size.

Edit

If it was really in New Zealand, wouldn't there be a man with his pants down behind it?

j/k

edit on 26-9-2011 by JamesGC because: (no reason given)

Oh that's so funny... are you too embarrassed to put your location in your profile?