Mystery Big Cats of Australia

Over the past three decades there have been some 60 separate reports of a large cat-like animal attacking livestock and people in the Blue Mountains and Lithgow to the west of Sydney. This animal has been described as being like a panther!

The sightings range from distant glimpses to close encounters, and include large scratches on trees and instances where goat and sheep carcasses were found in trees.

Sightings of big cats began over a century ago in the Blue Mountains and where large areas of the Great Dividing Range represent an ideal habitat for such animals.

In 2003 a New South Wales Government inquiry found a colony of big cats is "more likely than not" roaming Sydney's outskirts and beyond. There were 19 sightings in December, 2008, usually reported as fleeting sightings at night, often on lonely country roads and local residents have understandably become fearful. I would be fearful myself if these big cats were spotted where I live!

The problem, of course, is that while the mysterious creature continues to pop up, nobody has ever landed the sort of indisputable evidence that would prompt David Attenborough to book the first flight to Sydney.

The mass slaughter of sheep is often given as evidence to support the big cat theory. The reports say the sheep are killed by a clean puncture or slit in the throat, the insides then eaten precisely and with no mess.

Just the way a big cat kills and eats its prey. Pretty much like the way that I send a rat over the rainbow bridge.

The photo here is of a wallaby carcass, found in the Blue Mountains close to where many sightings of a large black cat had been reported.

To the west of Melbourne, not so very far from me, the Geelong Advertiser ran a frightening story on September 15th, 2007.

This is the skeleton of a horse foal which was running and suckling its mum just eight hours earlier.

Discovery of the bones in a Geelong district paddock the morning after the kill has horrified the horse's owner and dramatically sharpened speculation that big cats are alive and feeding on bush fringes.

Farmers are disturbed by the almost total consumption of the foal's flesh, skin and organs. They believe deep gouge marks on the horse's leg bones are the work of powerful feline teeth or claws.

See what I mean? Feline teeth and claws!

Please excuse the slant in the image, the cover of the scanner is very heavy and hard to use - my claws have trouble with the slippery lid.

1. Blame the Americans
In the Gippsland region of south-eastern Victoria the origin of the cats is blamed either on American army personnel or American goldminers.

One theory is that World War II airmen stationed in the area brought panthers with them as mascots, only to later release them into the Bush.

A lot of sightings in Eastern Australia occur in old gold mining areas and anecdotal evidence suggests pumas were brought to Australia by American goldminers in the 1850s. These animals may have subsequently escaped or were released.

2. Escaped Circus Cats
Then there is the common zoo, or circus escapee, explanation. But history seems to deny that theory with records of just three escaped lions and one fugitive tiger. Two lions were killed and the third returned to its cage. The tiger was recaptured.

Restoration of Thylacoleo

Thylacoleo was part of the marsupial family Thylacoleonidae - predatory marsupials which lived in Australia from Late Oligocene times until the end of the Pleistocene. That's a long time ago by anyone's standards. In those far off days of the late Pleistocene Australia, like Africa today, had its own megafauna. But ours were marsupials, as distinct from the placental mammals of the Old and New Worlds.

Members of this marsupial family varied in size. Some were just my size, like any ordinary house cat and some were the size of an African lion. The most famous species is Thylacoleo carnifex, usually referred to as the "Marsupial lion".

Has the Thylacoleo survived? Are his descendants still in the wild places of the Blue Mountains today?