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#1
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Australian Big Cats
I've been almost obsessed with the the notion of large, Panther sized felids in our bush for quite some considerable time now. I've read every sliver of information on the subject, every eye witness account i can find, and even found a whole book on the subject. I have never seen one myself, but a few years back when I was living on a small property (surrounded by cane fields, densely wooded hill ranges, and bigger cattle properties) in northern QLD, I remember the neighbor telling me how one of their cows (Brahman) gave birth at night, and the next day they found its new born calf dead. But get this, the calf was 20ft high in a gumtree, wedged in a fork in the branches. This area was crawling with packs of big, vicious wild dingo crossbreeds (which I had been stalked by numerous times), but no dog can put a calf up in a tree like that. We had two big dogs, a fully grown Rhodesian Ridgeback/Irish Wolfhound cross, and a younger purebred Irish Wolfhound. They were both big strong dogs, and regularly chased packs of wild dogs away, and protected the young calves. But every now and again, at night hours after the sun went down, they'd start going crazy, running around between our shed (which we lived in) and a small creek about 80m away. We regularly had wild dogs try and stir them up, but on those occasions you would hear the wild ones howling and snarling as well. But in these occasions it was just our two dogs going off. It was really unnerving, considering whatever was outside could easily come into the shed, as we had no doors and all the rooms were open to the rest of the shed. Eventually things would settle down and it fell eerily quiet. Now I'm living in central Vic, Australia's hotspot for these sightings of big cats, and Im really interested in it. Just wanted to talk about it, without a family member or friend thinking I was a loony haha. Anyone else here interested in these big 'cats'?
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PB fish: 130cm salmon tailed (fork tailed) catfish caught on a 1-3kg stick with a 2000 size reel and 6lb mono. It was one helluva fight. |
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#3
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I'm also interested in this subject, mainly because I have seen multiple sightings.
On the way to one of my favourite fishing destinations there is a long white road, and every now and then a large black figure appears (I know straight white roads are hypnotic but this is a real thing) On a few occasions I've gotten pretty close to this cat, it's about the size of a large domestic dog and I've seen it mauling on kangaroos before. What puzzles me the most about this creature is how careless it is, I've know wild cats to be extremely skittish but the way this thing moves is crazy. It's a really slow/sluggish moving creature when it moves out the way for cars. It just does not care. I came across it while going for a jog one day as well and it didn't move so I turned around and didn't get to close. Also a lot of stories on about the south west cougar, I think dowelly had a thread on it. |
#4
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I've had a close call with a cougar or two in my younger years on one occasion it turner out to be a very enjoyable experience
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#5
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My grandfather spotted one while hunting deer in the vic high country above myrtleford around 20 years ago, he had it in the cross hairs for a few seconds but could not bring himself to pull the trigger. He described it as being black and twice the size of a german sheperd with the stride of a tiger.
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#6
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I remember reading something about a few guys getting ready to log the nannup pines and they watched a big black cat run down the hill. They described it as flowing across the rocks, similar to water
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#7
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When we lived in Lower South west region of Western Australia my Dad was the agriculture protection board officer for some of that region for a long time! A farmer had been losing a lot of sheep, lambs and Rams included enough to where it was a concern!
He had actually managed to organise a dart gun for them to use if they did see something as they believed what ever was doing was not a fox or wild dogs due to the way the animals were killed and eaten. Didn't end up finding out what happened with it all but have herd alot of stories! A lot of land out there and thick dense bush for a decent animal to hide! |
#8
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Quote:
I spoke to a deer hunter who saw some stuff and he said there is no way he would share the location. I thought it was out of respect for the thing he saw. But it was because he didnt want any noisy rubber necking blowins scaring the game out of the area. One cough or snapped twig can ruin a days hunt and a human walking around with the breeze at his back can flush all the meat out of a valley. Tourists with aftershave and gortex jackets rubbing and scraping on bushes, talking and going through their packs for snacks, could shut the place down in an instant. So if you have ever wondered why hunters, arent talkative, smell bad, dont wear rain coats, carry lighters to judge even the slightest breeze and are barefoot or wearing wetsuit booties - these are some of the sacrifices you have to make to see stuff in the bush |
#9
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Quote:
I'm messing with you because earlier in this thread, you were a bit mean to the guys who saw something - if I hadnt seen something while camping, I'd probably be typing the same thing as you are. |
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You too? I should have known.
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#11
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The mind can conjure up incredible things if you've had a few brewski's or whatever. I've
seen what i thought were UFO's but after a good nights sleep and some soul searching i've dismissed them figments of my imagination.......sometimes its better that way. cheers nereus
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H/B 45cm and keeping at it S/P 53cm should do more really vibe 45cm i'm liking em Surface 39cm and work in progress H/B mully 83cm and not so bitter S/P mully 85cm on 4lb FC |
#12
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#13
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There's something out there I reckon. The most logical possibility is that after hundreds and hundreds of generations in the bush, competing with bigger predators like dingos and the fact the most plentiful prey items in the bush are larger animals like Roos and wallabies, feral cats (felis catus), have grown much much larger than what was thought possible. Like growing up to around the 60-70kg mark. I've seen (in both photos and in person) marks left on cattle that were not teeth marks, or the marks of blunt dog claws. They were long, deep scars and lacerations, caused by sharp claws. The claw marks were about the width of a spread out human hand. Now it's no secret that quite a number of large exotic cats have escaped into the bush over the years, it it well documented, including in several police reports. If those escaped big cats bred with already quite large feral cats, then the resulting offspring would have hybrid vigor, ending up bigger, stronger, and generally smarter and more aggressive than the parents. I honestly think that that is a perfectly sound (and highly likely) explaination for all this evidence of big cats.
__________________
PB fish: 130cm salmon tailed (fork tailed) catfish caught on a 1-3kg stick with a 2000 size reel and 6lb mono. It was one helluva fight. |
#14
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From a mate
farqtwo↓ Re: Australian big cats Mon 28 Dec, 2015 1:08 pm Mate its true ...seen them with my own eyes in the Victorian Desert and High on the Nullarbor Plains where the calcrete meets the continental dune fields First encounter I was on Traverse 6 and some 70km south of the Barton Range , it had been a hard push on the 732 Liebherr and I wasn't looking forward to walking the 70km back out so I decided to cross country by picking up on an old BHP Traverse which was some 40km to the North West of my position ..... Without a GPS i started walking the Dozer cross country I was some 20km in and the country opened up into clays pans and crab holes that could easily swallow the tracks of the Liebherr if you not careful ..... i was picking my way through trying to dodge the worst of the crab holes and a black mass caught my eye some 50m or so in front . I stopped the machine and peeled my eyes forward and there it was ' a very large black cat leaping across the crab holes .... it was leaping in a way just like a cat would leap a bird or lizard ... like a pounce The appearance was very brief ' i pushed up with the dozer looking for it but never saw it again .... i couldn't even find a single footprint I eventually made it across the country with the dozer ' never saw another in that area but i did come across some tracks some 1000km further north |
#15
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Some 1000km further north in the Victorian Desert i was out inspecting the drill lines making sure the lads had rehabilitated the drill holes .
I was right down in the south of the tenement some 100ks from camp and after checking all was well i decided to add some reconnaissance work to the days long schedule.... it was a perfect time to look for water as it was late evening ' this is a good time to hear for birds flying to water or to look for camels walking to water I was sitting out of this big dune and i noticed half was down a dead camel ' i walk down to check it out as you can get a good indication on what animals are around ........ dingo ' pussy cats and a set of tracks that put the fear of God right up me ... big cat tracks bigger than any large dingo or hybrid Never been back there but hey 1000km south i saw a big black cat so that was enough for me |
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