Ninety Mile Beach, Victoria 2005
Hello Dean,
I live on a remote property on the ninety mile beach, Gippsland Victoria
Our closest neighbour is 3Km away.
We have 1.2 Km of private beach.
Approx. 2pm 2.3.2005 I was walking my dog to our beach when [to my surprise] I saw my dog chase a black panther past me only 10 metres away. When I walk my dog to the beach he always runs ahead of me looking for kangaroos [we have a family of 14 living behind us] , he runs over two sand dune then returns to me on the track or waits for me on the second [beach]dune.
On this day he raced over the first dune into the bushes on one side. Seconds later the black panther appeared from over the dune with the dog in pursuit right across the track in front of me. It looked like a young panther. Ben, my dog, is a black lab kelpy cross.
The cat was bigger than my dog. In fact I thought it was my dog for a split second [until I saw Ben behind it !] The cat did not seem frightened. It just romped away with a "oops, caught again...but who cares..." attitude. My previous sighting was about 2 years ago when I saw a much larger black panther, the size of a great dane, cross the road before me at 10am as I was driving 2km from Seaspray.
There have been many sightings by other locals in our area.
There have been many sightings by other locals in our area.
If you are interested I can give you more information. During the holiday season there is usually a dead kangaroo or wallaby every 2 or 3km's on the coast road. Locals believe the cats come down from Mt Hotham during the season for the road toll then return months later. It is also believed the origin of the cats is the RAAF base near here {Sale} The US Airforce soldiers flew mascots directly in during WWII.
These included panthers, cougars , bobcats and pumas which escaped ,quickly and breeding this mongrel of today with a dominant black gene. This panther does not look like a zoo black panther, all its proportions are distorted.
The large one I saw was very big at the back yet smaller at the front with a head the size of a football.
Regards J. Browning