Official hunt for Australia's big cats has begun

Well, looks like the Australian authorities are beginning to realise the reality of their big cat situation.

Hunt for big cats begins

Melbourne-based big cats researcher Michael Moss said he had been telephoned by a DSE scientist wanting copies of his research and who asked him to keep the contact secret.

Though I think the desire of secrecy is little strange? I recall that famous Gippsland cat, which proved being actually a feral domestic cat, but it had grown huge in its size. I have seen myself very big domestic cats, the size of dogs, and I wonder if it is not pumas and such, but actually just cats who have reverted to a wild state over some generations, kind of like how domestic pigs will do this and rather quickly? They would be the apex predator, so size would be of an advantage to them.

The external image is of the Gippsland cat, in case someone is not familiar to it.

We get sightings of big cats here too.I'd never thought of the possibility of them being huge domesticated cats who have reverted to wild state over a few generations.

Legend has it that Airmen from the US brought cougars as mascots over here during WWII and released them into the bush. Whether it’s true or not is anyone’s guess. People swear to have seen huge cats with big, glaring yellow eyes around the bush, all over Victoria. Don’t know if they’re real, but it’d be nice if they were. As far as we know there has been no fatal attacks nor any reported mauling from any sort of a big cat.

I thought the big black crypto-cats were mainly in UK?

Hmmm.

I live in Gippsland in the Latrobe Valley Victoria Australia and these stories keep cropping up every so often and are invariably proven to be false. The 'Gippsland Cat' photo in the opening post was taken in such a way as to make it bigger than it actually was and, from memory, I believe the shooter burnt the carcass before it could be examined thoroughly.
Like the now extinct "Tasmanian Tiger" there are frequent sightings of "Puma's" but common sense should tell everyone that for animals such as these to exist there would have to be a colony of at least two dozen for them to continually breed and no such evidence of this has eventuated.
This will be yet another of those many 'tax-payer' funded white-elephant researches designed purely to substantiate the funding of a department dedicated to such fantasies controlled by the Minister for Funny Walks!
Waste of money imo.

I thought all were extinct?

reply to post by BlindBastards


Trust me, there is something out there that isn't just a large domestic cat. I've always wanted to make a thread about what I saw, but don't really need the ridicule, so I never bothered.

I was living in country Victoria in the early 90s and saw a large gold coloured cat on our property. I just happened to stumble across it sneaking out for a cigarette one night (I was about 16). It cleared a cyclone fence in one jump and was gone over the hill at the top of our property, which was about 500-600m away in a matter of seconds.

The closest I could come to describing it would be a mountain lion or a cougar, it was definetely white underneath and had black spots on its face, and a very long tail. Feral cat? Really big feral cat if so. We used to hunt the feral cats back then too, and I never shot or saw anything near to that big. I know science says they can't survive for long especially if they have been around since the 40s as people suggest, but there is plenty of game out there to eat for a big cat, and we discover new species every day, so maybe it's something we haven't seen before, something very rare.

Either way, what I saw back then, whatever it was, wasn't a normal Australian native.

reply to post by OzTiger


What do you think of the photograph in the article?

The Gippsland cat was confirmed to be feral domestic cat. A very big one, probably not so big as the picture lead to believe, but nontheless big. I think it is very plausible that some cats have bred to attain the size of dogs, and taking into account the years of reportings on them, it is possible that there are large cats which may pose risk to small livestocks like sheeps. As I said they are apex predators and fast breeders. I have seen the Australian wilderness and know how vast it is, and in this way it reminds me of my country, Russia, where the wilderness is so vast that truly anything could be hiding out there (like the people who were found in remote Siberia who'd lived so long in isolation they were unaware of the modern world and lived as they did hundreds of years ago).

Maybe it is being overstated to some extent, but feral animals I know are a big problem in Australia, and I think it justified to investigate.

Also: the rumours of large cats also in the UK - perhaps the same thing is happening there, where feral cats, being once again top of food chain, in some uncommon cases become larger in size, as this will be advantageous in obtaining more prey, with size giving the ability to take down larger meat, which also is easier to hunt. So from 'evolutionary' perspective it makes sense.

One thing I can tell you about pumas, cougars and bobcats is that you rarely if ever see them. And, if you do you see them for no more than a second or so as it darts off to hide. I live in Los Angeles. We have a mountain range running right through the city. There are several mountain lions and bob cats in them. Right near peoples back yards if they live up in the hills. They are seen every once and a while, and their bodies are almost never found once they are dead. You will once in a blue moon find tracks but almost never any scat. There is very little evidence they are there. But every once and a while one wonders down into the city proper and gets shot or relocated reminding us that they are indeed up in them hills. If you were to tell someone who doesn't know any better they would not believe that lions live right beyond their backyard in the hills.

Pumas,Cougars Mountain Lions whatever you want to call them are solitary animals. they are almost never near another one. They have to stay spread out over a large geographical area with each cat having their own territories so as to not infringe on the the others food resources. SO there is only one of them around at any time, never in pairs unless they are mating. So spotting them is difficult and rare.

THe point being is that their could easily be wild large cats living in the outskirts of Victoria, and elsewhere in australia. Theres plenty for a population to eat. See no reason why they wouldn't do well. They are in general harmless and don't attack too often. SO they are no more dangerous than bears.

reply to post by 74Templar


Sounds like a cougar to me. I've seen a cougar and it looks and acts exactly like you describe. It's possible that some zoo or circus or animal collector released a few into the wild back in the day and they have established a small population.

If you saw it in your back yard be careful with your animals, and even any live stock you have. You know that cyclone fence it cleared in one hop. Cougars in the US have been seen with full grown fresh deer kills in their mouth making the exact same jump with no problems. they are pound for pound one of the strongest cats around. They will try and eat your dog or small live stock. THey won't go after humans unless deranged and desperate. They know for some reason that messing with humans is bad luck. At least the ones around LA in general do.

I can't see them being feral domestic cats. We have them all over and they never get that big.

Austrailian Big Cats

this page has a lot of pics, footprints, the whole getup. found it pretty interesting.

reply to post by BASSPLYR


All I can tell you is it scared the hell out of me, and that was close to 20 years ago. I'd jumped out of the window, and turned around, it was just standing there, crouched, about 5 metres away. Then it just kind of turned and bolted over the fence and took off up the hill like a bullet. I did notice all the sheep on our property back then were all down the front paddock, usually they were up by the house at night.

One of the things I recall was when it ran it's tail folded over, like a domestic cat's does when it runs quick, but I saw it for no more than about 20 seconds or so, then it was gone.

I've never seen a cougar in real life before, or any great cat outside of a zoo, but it fits the description and size.

reply to post by 74Templar


Do you mean the tip of the tail curled up a bit? I'm not sure what you mean by the tail folding over. But from it's behavior it sounds like a cougar. Cougars run when they see people. WOnder what it was doing so close to the house.

You mentioned the sheep stay in a paddock and that they were trying to avoid the animal by staying far from the house. Have you had any livestock that has been killed by a large predator in the past. Surprised the cat hasn't gone for one of them yet.

But man. 5 Meters away is within striking range of that cat. It could have easily pounced on you if it was inclined. Like I said they generally stay away from people. The fact that you two had a run in could have scared it away from your house in general.

I find it odd that there has been no reports of injured people or been killed from such large cats? or even hospital records showing patients having been hospitalized by attacks from such a large cat. Am i wrong? Have i missed any news articles showing that there have been reports indeed in the news media that people have been attacked?

Originally posted by BASSPLYR
reply to post by 74Templar

 

Do you mean the tip of the tail curled up a bit? I'm not sure what you mean by the tail folding over. But from it's behavior it sounds like a cougar. Cougars run when they see people. WOnder what it was doing so close to the house.

You mentioned the sheep stay in a paddock and that they were trying to avoid the animal by staying far from the house. Have you had any livestock that has been killed by a large predator in the past. Surprised the cat hasn't gone for one of them yet.

But man. 5 Meters away is within striking range of that cat. It could have easily pounced on you if it was inclined. Like I said they generally stay away from people. The fact that you two had a run in could have scared it away from your house in general.

If you see a domestic cat running fast the tail tends to bend into a curl, like an "n" I don't know if that makes sense but it was one thing I remember as it took off at high speed. I do remember the tail was huge though, really long and like a snake.

I think it was having a drink, it was near our water tanks when I spotted it, and it just kind of stood there crouched for about 5-10 seconds, of course while I was #ting bricks. I'd never seen anything like it, before or since. As for the property, my folks owned it about 20-25 years ago, we no longer own it.

I did ask some of the local farmers about it afterwards, and they all said they had seen it around, and it definetely wasn't a feral cat, though I did see some livestock kills, mainly sheep, along with foxes and rabbits, but that could be attested to a lot of wild animals here, and even to feral dogs. But as to what caused it, I really couldn't say, it could have been any number of things. I just recall that night the sheep were nowhere near the house, which was odd considering the flock usually stayed just on the other side of the fence near the house at night in a large group.

After that one encounter I never saw it again, but didn't dare leave the house for a smoke for about two weeks just incase.

Yeah mountain lions have long thin muscular tails. I can imagine it curling it's tail in a N shape. Could mean two things depending on how the tail looked. if the tail looked sorta like a inverted U that means it's aggressive and irritated. If it is arched over the back side it means feeling defensive. So this cat was not happy to see you.

However the fact that you were scared witless could have saved you from getting attacked. Were you staring at it like a deer in headlights? If so, thats actually a good thing. Staring down a cat is how you show dominance. It probably figured that you were up to the challenge and backed down.

Cat kills are distinctive due to the puncture marks on the neck from it's canines. Its possible that the ranchers aren't really inspecting to find out the exact animal thats been killing their smaller livestock. THe cat might have some of it's kills written off as the typical predator in the area like a feral dog.

Do you have deer in the area. Cougars like deer. Check out some of those kills and you might find Puma evidence.

I live in Gippsland in the Latrobe Valley Victoria Australia and these stories keep cropping up every so often and are invariably proven to be false.

How can anecdotes be proven true or false.?

The 'Gippsland Cat' photo in the opening post was taken in such a way as to make it bigger than it actually was and, from memory, I believe the shooter burnt the carcass before it could be examined thoroughly.

Poor framing..luckily the shooter provided other photos..ONE of which had scale.It was inside the caravan`s tent annexe next to a vertical post.

This will be yet another of those many 'tax-payer' funded white-elephant researches designed purely to substantiate the funding of a department dedicated to such fantasies controlled by the Minister for Funny Walks!
Waste of money imo.

What tax payer funded work is there.??
They do what they normally do 8-5 , so sorry..strawman "argument.

reply to post by BASSPLYR


As I said this was almost 20 years ago, I no longer live in the area and my folks no longer own the farm. It was a one off when I saw it, and it was in country Victoria, Australia, so no deer at all around. Lots of kangaroos, sheep, rabbits, and other unique mammals, I only saw a few kills, but they could have been cause by any wild animal, especially feral dogs, even a big cat. Much of the time we saw kills the throat was torn, which could attest to just about any carnivore in the area.

The main apex predator in Australia is the saltwater or freshwater croc, and they tend to stick to tropical climates, so a big cat living in the southern areas would indeed be an apex predator in temperate areas. One thing I didn't know is that they are solitary animals and have a large feeding area, so that explains the difference in colours between areas. Where we lived also was farmland surrounded by temperate forests, so plenty of water and places to hide, not to mention game. Lots of rabbits and foxes, and feral cats in that area. But as I said, this was almost 20 years ago, so it's possible the one I saw would be dead by now, depending on it's lifespan.

Originally posted by asecretcountry

I live in Gippsland in the Latrobe Valley Victoria Australia and these stories keep cropping up every so often and are invariably proven to be false.

How can anecdotes be proven true or false.?

The 'Gippsland Cat' photo in the opening post was taken in such a way as to make it bigger than it actually was and, from memory, I believe the shooter burnt the carcass before it could be examined thoroughly.

Poor framing..luckily the shooter provided other photos..ONE of which had scale.It was inside the caravan`s tent annexe next to a vertical post.

This will be yet another of those many 'tax-payer' funded white-elephant researches designed purely to substantiate the funding of a department dedicated to such fantasies controlled by the Minister for Funny Walks!
Waste of money imo.

What tax payer funded work is there.??
They do what they normally do 8-5 , so sorry..strawman "argument.

If you read the OP properly you will find that his reference states "The Victorian Government is investigating". Governments get their money from the taxpayer. The OP also states that the Gippsland Cat was proven to be just a feral cat.
Regarding your statement that the shooter provided other photo's I cannot find any unless you mean this one:

which is of a feral cat with a radio tracker attached to it.

Sorry, but the Tasmanian Tiger and Panther sightings, like the Yowee, belong in the same drawer as Alice in Wonderland.