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Created: 08 November 2005

Panther or puss? Claws out over big cat claims

11.10.05
Greg Ansley

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10349588

CANBERRA - The claws are out as wildlife experts again argue the truth of one of Australia's great legends: giant cats roaming the woods of New South Wales and Victoria.

The stories have surfaced for more than a century, gaining some official backing but never providing sufficient scientific evidence to move from myth to fact. Now a Melbourne hunter, Kurt Engel, has told ABC radio he shot dead a black puma
near the East Gippsland town of Sale in June, providing photographs, a tail and samples of fur as confirmation.

Engel's claim excited Mike Williams, the Australian representative of the British-based Centre for Fortean Zoology, specialising in cryptozoology, the study of unknown animals. Williams sent DNA from the dead animal?s tail to India for examination, and is confident it will be confirmed as that of a big cat. But Hans Brunner, who tested the animal's hair for Victoria's Department of Sustainability and Environment, told Melbourne's Herald Sun that it came from a moggy. He said the hairs were too long for a puma or panther, and questioned why the carcass was dumped in a river rather that kept for examination, and why it had been photographed without a person next to it to provide scale. Stung by the suggestion his puma was instead a pussy, Engel retorted: "It must be the biggest
cat in the world if that's the case."

Such arguments have raged for decades, fuelled by sightings and theories that panthers or pumas kept as pets had been released by miners in the Victorian goldfields in the 1850s and/or by American troops in World War II.

Deakin University researcher Dr John Henry, who probed sightings in the 1970s,
told the ABC last year that he had concluded that it was "beyond reasonable
doubt" that big cats were roaming Victoria's Grampians region at that time.

In New South Wales, where sightings have been reported in Sydney's west and northwest, Richmond and the Blue Mountains, the Sun-Herald two years ago uncovered a secret state government study supporting the probability of a colony of big cats. The Agriculture Department said: "Nothing found in this review conclusively proves the presence of free-ranging exotic large cats in NSW, but this cannot be discounted and seems more likely than not".

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Created: 28 November 2005

DNA tests conclude it is a (very) big cat
KELVIN HEALEY

27 Nov 2005

DNA tests have revealed a mysterious cat shot in Gippsland was a gigantic feral domestic cat.

Big cat researchers have claimed it could be the state's largest feral tabby.

The size of the cat led to initial predictions it was a leopard or jaguar. The tests could end decades of speculation over big cat sightings in the Australian wilderness.

The feral cat's tail was 65cm in length, nearly twice the length of the largest recorded domestic cat tail.

Monash University experts analysed a sample from the tail of the cat, shot by Melbourne hunter Kurt Engel, and have concluded there was a 98 per chance it was a feral cat.

Mr Engel, 67, who photographed the cat and disposed of the carcass, but kept the tail as a trophy, said he accepted the finding but was adamant the cat was extremely large.

"If it was just a pussy cat, it was the biggest in the world," he said.

The laboratory testing compared the cat tail DNA against several samples of DNA taken from feral cats and other big cats from around the world.

In tests against DNA from feral cats, the tail DNA recorded several matches of 100 per cent and was always at least 97 per cent similar.

But when compared against DNA from big cats including leopards, cheetahs, lynx and tigers, the results were a 90 per cent match or less.

Big cat researcher Mike Williams said he was stunned by the DNA result.

"It was so large I just assumed it was an exotic animal," he said.

"I was obviously wrong, but it is extraordinary that Australia has a mutated cat that can grow to the size of a leopard.

"This might explain why there are so many reports of monstrous black cats in Australia.

"It is the world's largest feral cat."

Fellow big cat researcher Bernie Mace said it was an important finding.

"It leaves a question mark over the feral cat ? how big does it really get?" Mr Mace said.

"It has implications for the native fauna and ecology in Australia."


http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,17374294%255E2862,00.html

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Created: 17 September 2006

A SECRET government file confirms big cats are breeding in eastern Victoria.

Department of Primary Industries documents reveal at least 34 sightings of puma or panther-like cats, along with dozens of mystery stock kills in Gippsland, in the past three years.

And department officer Terry Higgins has seen the cats, but is banned from talking about them to the Sunday Herald Sun.

The department dossier was released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The file is based on a diary kept by Mr Higgins, a specialist "dogger" who takes reports of cat sightings.

Documented sightings include:

A GIANT fawn cat - described as bigger than a German shepherd dog - at Stockdale in January.

A "HUGE black puma" with three kittens the size of kelpie dogs, near Woodside Beach in May 2004.

12 LAMBS killed and gutted within three weeks near Woodside in May 2003.

A CALF devoured at Seaton in December 2004 and recorded as the work of "big cats. 100 per cent sure".

In June last year hunter Kurt Engel produced photographs he claimed showed he had shot dead a leopard or puma in rugged terrain near Sale in Gippsland, but DNA tests suggested it was a large feral cat.

The FoI material was released four years after leaked State Government documents revealed 59 big cat sightings in Gippsland in the three years to 2002.

The latest dossier notes sightings of "huge" cats at Binginwarri, Licola, Wellington River, Maffra, Woodside Beach, Glenmaggie and Seaton in Gippsland.

Mr Higgins, who is understood to have made six separate big cat sightings, told the Sunday Herald Sun he would lose his job if he spoke to the media.

"I am not allowed to discuss it, I can't say a damn thing," Mr Higgins said.

"I could do my job."

Binginwarri farmer Ron Jones said he had seen big cats on his farm about 30 times and lost 260 cattle in the past eight years to predators.

Mr Jones, 62, said the cats were about the size of a golden retriever dog.

He said his mother, 82, had had a close encounter with one of them just a few days ago.

And he had even shot one with a .22-calibre Magnum rifle - but it was not enough to fell the beast.

Big cat researcher Michael Moss said the cats were a threat to public safety. He called for a full investigation by the State Government.

Mr Moss said it was "pretty disgusting" that the Government had played a straight bat -- saying there was no evidence - at the incidence of big cats.

"This should be given very high priority," he said.

"There is a real threat to public safety."

A department spokeswoman said it was not known if big cats existed in the state.

"(The department) has no evidence to support or dismiss the theory that big cats exist in Victoria," she said.

"Periodically the Department of Primary Industries receives reports of sightings or activity attributed to big cats. The examples in the 'dogger's diary' are a record of those reported sightings."

Mr Moss said he has been conducting separate research into big cats in the Colac-Otways regions and had recorded accounts of 52 separate sighting in that area in the past three years.

http://www.news.com.au/sundayheraldsun/story/0,21985,20423656-2862,00.html

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Created: 13 November 2005

12 Aug 2000 AUSTRALIA:

Setting the wildcat among the pigeons.
By AMANDA HODGE.

Thousands are convinced wild pumas are roaming the bush. Amanda Hodge looks at the evidence "YOU'RE in cat country here," retired hunter Geoff Green says ominously as he holds up what was once the leg of a sheep. Twelve months ago, the retired professional game hunter collected the freshly killed remains from the border of his property.

The bones were neatly gnawed, the body incised from head to tail and the pelt licked clean of blood and flesh. This, Green knew, was not the work of a wild dog - a less discerning eater with sloppy table manners. "Dogs tend to leave wool and fur everywhere and they eat standing up," he says. "When cats kill a sheep there's no meat or wool spread anywhere. They bone them out, you know ... just leave a real neat heap like it's been skun by a man."

Green, a quietly spoken local landowner, is one of a growing band of people who believe there are colonies of pumas, panthers and leopards roaming the Victorian bush. The most popular theory as to how the big cats came to be there, is that World War II US fighter pilots carried not only puma insignia on their uniforms but also live puma cubs around Australia.

Other suggestions involve skint circus men, careless wildlife collectors and circus train crashes. Victorian professor of education John Henry has heard them all. As team leader of a Deakin University study 25 years ago into the existence of pumas in the Grampians, he came across more than his share of big cat believers. But that wasn't all he encountered.

Over two years, many dropping specimens and plaster-cast footprints later, two finds set the environmental science students buzzing. Both the scat specimens, complete with bones, fur and fibre, and a plaster cast of a footprint were sent to a US puma specialist in Colorado. The biologist wrote back in careful language - both specimens were consistent in appearance and make-up with what you would expect to find from a puma. "It was tantalising but not conclusive in a scientific sense," says Professor Henry. More evidence was required, so he went searching for primary sources. According to the theory, US airforce pilots flying in from a defeated Singapore flew mascots to the South Australian town of Mount Gambier, where several squadrons were regrouping in early 1942. When Japan threatened Australia's north coast, they were called up and told to get rid of the big cats - which they did at Victoria Point in the Grampians.

Professor Henry tracked down six of the servicemen and wrote to them. He confirmed they had served in Australia during 1942 and spent time in Mt Gambier before being dispatched to the north coast. He also confirmed that both a local US fighter squadron and US bomber squadron bore depictions of pumas on their uniform insignia. "All of that was consistent with the myth," Professor Henry says. "But when I finally took the plunge and asked them, `Did you ever bring out puma cubs as mascots?', the walls came up." A few letters, including one from a retired lieutenant-colonel, admitted not only knowledge of such stories but also that that they might be true.

Still, the team could not conclusively declare the presence of pumas in the Grampians. Instead their unofficial report concluded that there was evidence of "large carnivores other than wild dogs". The Deakin report remains more conclusive than the thousands of reported sightings of exotic cats reported since the 1870s. It is certainly more convincing than the blurred video footage aired on television last week. But the report was never published. The spectre of public and peer ridicule proved too intimidating - so much so that another academic involved in the project refused to talk to The Australian about the findings or allow his name to be mentioned.

The study remains a well-kept secret. In its absence, the new video footage has failed to convince officials in Victoria's Department of Natural Resources. Department spokesman Peter Menkhorst says the most logical explanation is that the black cat filmed was a feral cat. "We remain sceptical of the exotic cat theory until field evidence comes along rather than hearsay of sightings," Menkhorst says. But the witnesses are adamant, including a Victorian farmer who swears he found a three-month-old Hereford calf hanging 5m up in the fork of a tree. "People who haven't seen it are non-believers," says John McPhailand, a rabbiter from Daylesford. "I don't suffer from hallucinations.

I've seen it and I know others who have too." Green is not among them. He has never sighted a big cat, but he is convinced of their existence. His neighbour has lost more than 300 sheep in recent years, all killed and skinned in the same manner. He has made plaster casts of footprints he is convinced are not those of wild dogs or feral cats. Like many other believers who have been ridiculed for speaking out, there is an element of zealotry in Green's research.

In the dining room of his 140-year-old farmhouse, he produces reams of information and statements from former police officers, park rangers and farmers. Testimonials include descriptions of a "huge lioness-like animal" and a "bloody great big black cat", bigger than a sheepdog or labrador. Some are convinced that what they have seen is a thylacoleo carnifex, a tree-dwelling marsupial lion which has been extinct for 18,000 years.

Green is still making up his mind. Meanwhile, the sheep bone hangs in his shed, a pointed reminder that the truth is out there.

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