BIG CAT seen crossing the Sturt Highway - 3 cars stopped for it!

Feral lioness spotted crossing the Stuart Highway in Darwin

AAP
November 07, 2011 12:55PM

AUTHORITIES in Darwin are on the lookout for a feral lioness, after three reports of a big cat being spotted crossing the Stuart Highway.

The sightings about 9pm (CST) last night sparked a quick police search and a check at Crocodylus, a local wildlife park just a few minutes from the scene.

According to the NT News, three cars pulled over while the animal crossed the highway in front of them at Pinelands, a small suburb about 20km from Darwin. "I often get reports of dingoes in the area, which are a similar colour but a completely different size," said a spokeswoman for NT Police.
Police found no trace of the creature.

Chief scientist at Crocodylus, Charlie Manolis, said he took the sightings seriously, but both lions at the park were found to be secure.
He said that "not in a gazillion years" could a lion have escaped its enclosure and then voluntarily returned and been present when checked.

Mr Manolis said because three different people had reported seeing a lion, it was likely something was roaming around.
"Whether there is a large dog or a beastie out there that looks like a lion, we would like to find out any information about what it really is," he said.
Crocodylus is the only wildlife park in the Northern Territory that houses lions.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/motorists-spot-lion-near-darwin/story-e6freuzr-1226187661208

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Since a New South Wales report on the "Lithgow Pather" confirms that scat and fur found in the area was identified by DNA testing to belong to Leopard/Panther and Mountain Lion/Puma.... I'd say recent eyewitness reports by locals and even Bathurst based Rangers might ring true. Even the Australian Government sheepishly admitted last June that the Big Cats "most like exist" and that they were concerned that an attack might affect tourism. Be prepared!


What a mountain Lion looks like and why it might be mistaken for a lioness (above)

I think that is what is called a collective illusion There are days when I could swear there are fairies in the bottom of my garden, too.

granite2 wrote:I think that is what is called a collective illusion There are days when I could swear there are fairies in the bottom of my garden, too.

I don't know about the fairies in your garden but the Monkey Crossing the Road in Darwin last year was photographed in the middle of the road by the bus camera (along with the comments from the passengers and driver). It was clearly a baboon.

Well That baboon would have likely been the one who devised the new Mining Act and Regulations that have just came into force in the NT.

Seems like most areas of the world have these animals roaming free in the countryside. I remember back in the UK where I was born and raised we often had articles on the newa and in the press regarding large cats being spotted and killing sheep etc.
Not sure whether that news made it out here but there so many sheep being killed that the army was broughtr in to try and track and shoot the culprits. Various names were given to the creatures in various areas.

The beast of Exmoor
The hell hound
Margaret Thatcher

The belief is that up until the 60's (I think it was), people didn't need special licences, compounds etc to have a puma or lynx etc. Then when the government introduced these new rules and regulations people just released these animals into the wild rather than go to the expense of licences and building special compounds. These animals obviously bred with others out in the countryside and kept the species going.
I assume the same thing (or similar) happened out here.

we have mountain lions around our neighborhood and in the surrounding hills,
they are not intimidated by us at all.
also have bobcats which are the quickest animal i have every seen...a blur when they decide to shift to 'go'...

Nero, that picture of the cats on either side of the screen was amazing.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/big-cats-prowl-the-bush/story-e6frg8h6-1225883808451

G'day everyone,

newbie here and this topic reminds me of my truckie days in the NT some 30 years ago. now if I had been awake for 24 hrs or more I'd put it down to tired eyes but I had only been awake and on the road for 4 to 5 hrs. while weaving my way thru the devils marbles, I swear I saw something that looked like a lioness but it had some stripes on it's rump, jump across the road in front of me. and I never took drugs to stay awake so that can be counted out. after that I never got out of the primemover at night again. it was bad enuff with the dingoes and snakes bad that put the wind up me.
cheers
Snuggs

We have black panthers where we live in the Otway Rangers in Victoria. We have lived here for over 20yrs and myself, my wife and most of our neigbours have all seen a big black cat on more than one occasion. I last saw the cat about 9yrs ago when it jumped out from where it was hidding in front of me . I was only about 3-4mts away from it so there was no mistaking it for anyones pet moggy. I almost had a heart attack and pooped my pants. You can choose to believe me or not but i know what i saw was REAL. Cheers Grumpy!

"Since a New South Wales report on the "Lithgow Pather" confirms that scat and fur found in the area was identified by DNA testing to belong to Leopard/Panther and Mountain Lion/Puma"

Marco,
Could you please show me where this report is, so that I can read it. I can not believe this until I read it myself and confirm it is a reliable source.
Thanks,
Jigalong

Jigalong wrote:"Since a New South Wales report on the "Lithgow Pather" confirms that scat and fur found in the area was identified by DNA testing to belong to Leopard/Panther and Mountain Lion/Puma"Marco,
Could you please show me where this report is, so that I can read it. I can not believe this until I read it myself and confirm it is a reliable source.
Thanks,
Jigalong

Interbreeding.....Geez what next,
Dingoroos (dingo X kangaroo)
Koalion
possopuma
new south victorian

Pions, Lumas, Lanthers and Peopards.

Nice one xenon.

Photo's we need photo's....Or do we....I reckon if a bloke was to shoot a big cat and take in the carcass, they would be told that it was just a rare breed of possum or something and the carcass would never be seen again.

xenon wrote:
new south victorian

Now I have seen one of those...but I didn't have my camera with me.

Jigalong wrote:"Since a New South Wales report on the "Lithgow Pather" confirms that scat and fur found in the area was identified by DNA testing to belong to Leopard/Panther and Mountain Lion/Puma"

Marco,
Could you please show me where this report is, so that I can read it. I can not believe this until I read it myself and confirm it is a reliable source.
Thanks,
Jigalong

Hi Jig,
I posted the news clippings on the testing about a year ago (sometime in 2010) under a thread title claiming the Government admitted to the Big Cats most likely existing. I'm not going to wade through thousands of threads to find it but I did keep this news clipping which includes a statement from the NSW 2008 Government Commission on the Lithgow Panther (there's a reason why the Penrith Panther club chose a black Panther for their Mascot Logo... it used to be sighted frequently in the Penrith region of the lower Blue Mountains). I've blurred the unrelated material from the screen grab to reduce the file-size. You can just read the highlights to get to the more relevant information. Note the Final Conclusion by the State Government which is highlighted in green. It was reached after the DNA testing was performed on fur and feces plus examination of mutilated cattle (which was also featured on the news showing live footage of still-standing cows that had massive clawmarks on their backs and chewed behinds). The report in the 2009 news stated that the scat tested showed two distinctly different species of big cat were present. It also described how NSW Rangers looking for the cats had found freshly killed kangaroos stuffed up high in the trees which is something done by African leopards.

I spoke with two rangers this year from Bathurst who claim to have seen it and another prospector reported that the Rangers won't walk about areas of Wattle Flat to Portland at night (where some of them own property) after sighting the cats themselves. I saw something bounding away from a 4wheel drive South of Tuena last year with our local Prospecting Club president but the light was fairly low (it was about to rain) and the rear paws were more of a chocolate brown color than black... but it had a cat-like tail (thick) and I only glanced at it in the last second as it shot into the srcub about 20 feet from the front of the car. Could have been anything l suppose but it certainly resembled a very large cat and moved like one... was not a kangaroo. The color of the paws was a dark chocolate with the pattern identical to the pads on my own cats... just a hell of a lot larger. Again, it could have been anything. We stopped briefly but the rain started so we left.

Got the hell creeped out of me at a remote valley near Portland a few years ago when I got down into a very shadowy area to look at some old abandoned mines. My wife was too exhausted to come down to the bottom of the valley and I didn't think I'd make it back out from exhaustion myself. I left her with both the water and the camera (stupid mistake I won't make again) - But I came across hundreds of bones in this flat area down the bottom near the creek as the sun was dropping past the mountains. They were cows, kangaroos and all sorts of animals but just the bones... no skin. Got the heck out of there. Certainly got too creepy to stay as the sun was setting but I have to wonder what was with all the bones. No-one for miles around and no roads there either.

You will find further info in Prospecting Yarns

https://golddetecting.forumotion.net/t3180-new-book-on-big-cats

https://golddetecting.forumotion.net/t841-big-cats-and-foxes

Jeff

Marco,
Just to keep the peace, I am going to bite my tongue.
Jig

Gday

I have spent a great deal of my life in bush, while in the army and as a prospector, and I have seen and heard many unusual things, and I do believe that there are big cats Australia wide, they seem to fall in to mainly two types one is what would best be described as a black panther, the other is a puma, neither of these animals can be confused with a dog or dingo when you see them.

I saw a puma many years ago on the outskirts of Rockingham WA, it was still daylight and it was no more than a hundred metres away from me, it looked at me and I looked at it, it was about the size of a large dog, and very catlike in its gait, anyone who has cats will tell you that cats have a very distinctive gait and are nothing like a dog in appearance.

While doing site security just outside of a national park area north of Perth I was sitting reading in the car, when I heard screaming, hair raising screams like a woman being attacked, jumping from the car I put the spotlight into the bush, there was an animal a couple of hundred meters away, glowing eyes, and from what I could tell about a metre or so tall, I did not know it at the time but after contact with a lady who researches these things was told that it was likely a female puma, who make this very same noise when calling for a mate, also there ahd been many sitings and reports of big cats in the park and surrounding areas.

There have been other incidences where friends have seen what they best described as a lioness in a well known prospecting area, south of Meekatharra, they watched it run down a herd of goats and run off with a kid goat in its jaws, later finding the carcass in a clump of trees, I have seen the carcass and the bite marks, if it was a dog it would have had to been huge, the bites were on both sides of the torso.

Friends heading towards Karratha a couple of months back reported seeing what they described as a black panther crossing the road as they stopped for the night, they were on a motorbike so didint sleep too well that night either.

A long time resident of the Sandstone caravan park told me last time I was up there that he saw what he described as a black panther, a short time back, not around Sandstone but further north, but he also gave me some information that I will be looking in to where some friends on a lease to the south have found what they believe to be a nesting area of a big cat, kangaroo carcases and dead bird remains in an old station building.

We also found catlike scats when prospecting in the Quinns area, cats of all sizes scratch dirt over there scats, it could very well be the same cat that roams the whole area, apparently puma's will have a territory that covers 100klms or more.

I dont need any more convincing that there are big cats out there, and I dont really think that they are a threat to us, but common sense would dictate that you simply dont take chances and need to be aware of the possibility that there may be one in the area, and keep your wits about you.

In the same areas where friends said they saw a puma, I happened apon an Emu carcass, a short time dead, the feathers were scattered for hundreds of meters, blood spread a hundred meters or more up the hill, scrapes and scratches all over the place, the whole scene had the appearance of the Emu being persued and chased down where it still continued to struggle, the carcass was partially eaten, from what I have seen in the past dogs will eat almost everything and are not really too selective, also I have wondered whether a dog would tackle an emu in the first place, anyway the scene looked unusual due to the area the killing covered and the apperance of the emu being taken down in full flight, it appeared more the work of a cat than a dog.

cheers

stayyerAU

Haven't seen this on the bookshelves but I'd be interested in the contents. Anyone read it?

Interesting reading your thread reply, Stayerau. I keep two cameras on me now and I carefully selected the utility knives to wear based on their suitability of fending off a big cat if it came to be that they do exist here. There's only one man who successfully fought and killed a smaller big cat (leopard?) with his bare hands in Africa in the late 1800s or early 1900s and he had his arms in bandages in an old style picture taken of him after the encounter. Looking for the pic now.




There's a website that I just found that is devoted to press reports of the Big Cats here: http://www.australianbigcats.com


When I worked for George Lucas on the Star Wars prequels, I was called over to the Skywalker Ranch in San Raphael outside of San Francisco in the US. Whilst exploring the creek that ran down by the Main House outside of Lucas' office, I saw some big pawprints on the ground that caught my eye. The creek fed into a manmade lake called "Ewok Lake" (go figure). I asked the Director of Specialty Marketing what caused the prints because they looked too large for a domestic cat and he replied that there was a Cougar that lived in the hills which came to the lake to drink occasionally. There's nearly 100 staff on that property so it surprised me that the animal was so brazen.


Skywalker Ranch. The hay bales were set up for a staff BBQ.


The Vinyard in the foreground is used to produce wine that is bottled by Lucasfilm with the assistance of local monks and is bottled as a gift for film producers under the latin name for "Lucasfilm". The barn-like structure in this picture nestled in the hills is Skywalker Sound... where most of the ADR sound is added to the soundtracks of most of Hollywood's largest films. The Cougar/Mountain Lion visits from the hill behind it.

My wife has a property in rural Alberta (Canada) less than 20 minutes outside of the city and just last season the infrared cameras set up by a hunter who uses the property as a base showed Cougars with cubs, black bears and a Grizzly wandering the property. So close to the city seemed unusual to me.


My wife on her property in Canada in 2008. Quite a lot of animals roam across these farms although I loathe the skunks. Coyotes and Great Barn Owls are everywhere. We had a Winchester 30-30 with us on this lovely day in case of a rogue animal.


That monster-truck is how she gets around on the farms (built by her cousins) - it's probably Bear & Catproof.

Many years ago I was driving from Broken Hill to Adelaide late one night and very tired. I don't take drugs but I was too tired to be driving. One of those reflective triangle signs at an angle on a side roade turned into a witches hat, then a witch and flew away.

I kid you not this is what I thought I saw. I immediately stopped and woke my mate up and made him drive, but I couldn't go to sleep so disturbed was I by the fatigue induced hallucination.

This is what I mean by Collective Hallucination, If my mate had seen the same thing, thats what it would have been a collective hallucination.

Cheers, Jim

I was travelling home from the Goldfields late one sunday night a few years back. I was on Bells line of road near Mount Wilson when I rounded a bend and saw a big black cat leap into the bush from the roadway. It would have been about 3ft high at the back and fairly rattled me at the time.
Some mates and myself used to backpack into the Devils wilderness,deep in the Grose valley(about 25kms from mt wilson as the crow flies). Being thick bush we saw some strange things but we also heard noises at night that raised the hair on the back of my neck.Being about 12kms hike out,no one could have helped us if things went pear shaped.
I always doubted the existance of a big cat/s in the bush until that night at Mt Wilson.

granite2 wrote:If my mate had seen the same thing, thats what it would have been a collective hallucination.

Mothman in Australia?

I just bought a black cat. She's a Russian Blue Cross and just turned 12 weeks old today...

and I carefully selected the utility knives to wear based on their suitability of fending off a big cat

F me Nero thats the funniest thing i read on here for ages nananananan batman,
And i suspect the line 3 cars stopped should have been large cat avoided 3 cars, drivers charged with aiding and abetting non native wildlife.
Geez you blokes will believe anything seroiusly.
Regards
John

Famed taxidermist Carl Akeley poses in 1896 with the leopard he killed with his bare hands. “They ended up fighting it out to the death…literally, hand-to-hand combat with a leopard,” says Akeley’s biographer, Jay Kirk.



Thylacoleo carnifex - Australia's Marsupial Lion is thought to be extinct.

How about the Marsupial Lion? Anyone think they could still be around today?


Interesting to see how deep those scratchmarks are on the tree.


Probably the most convincing video out there with footage of an animal that simply can't be confused with a large feral cat.[b]

G'day Marko.

I'v seen more than one palm size cat like foot print embedded on boggy mud/clay type ground ground in and around Victorian creeks,especially ones that have shown signs of retractable claw marks.Never encounted one though.

Cheers kon61.

kon61,

as you have implied, just because you haven't seen one
doesn't mean they're not there...

Very true to that Flackmagnet.Just because one hasn't seen one live,the footprints alone are enough to make you stop and think.

Cheers kon61.

Big cats are so amazing.
Usually, at least from the few attacks that have happened here in California
the first inkling that anyone had that they were being stalked
was when they got hit from behind and taken down.
Of the three attacks I am thinking of, only one survived and that was because their partner was able
to drive the (mountain lion in this case), off.

Mountain lion attacks on people are always from high and behind.
They hit you in the back of the neck with their first bite, which basically paralyzes you,
then let their weight carry you to the ground and it's pretty much over.
They rarely attack but when they do they are incredibly potent.

I haven't seen an alien but I still don't think we have had any visit earth. So why should I believe that something exists when all actual, commonsense evidence points to it being impossible that something like that could be out there. There has never been a carcase to prove they are there. If they had been there since WW11 they would have bred up to be very common. But if there is only one it must be the longest living big cat in the world.

Cheers, with hallucinations to you. The stuff these people are smoking must be very strong stuff indeed.

Cheers, Jim