Black leopard shot with infrared camera. Photo: Rimba Research Malaysia. A witness says the
body shape is similar to a big cat she saw in the Grantville area last month.
body shape is similar to a big cat she saw in the Grantville area last month.
By Meryl Brown Tobin
THE Grantville area has long been a hot spot for big cat sightings. In the latest incident, a woman was mowing a track on a small hobby farm at about 11.15am on January 26 when she saw a strange big cat slink across the track about 20 metres in front of her.
Despite the motor of the mower still running, the big cat did not even look in her direction. Because of this, she felt no fear.
"I stopped immediately,” said the witness, who did not want to be named, “and sat in awe watching it. It was very beautiful and I wanted to take in every single part of it."
“It was far too big for a feral cat. It would have been about two metres long from nose to tail, with the body about one metre and the tail the same. It was a uniform deep unusual grey colour, a bit like char grey but with fawn in it."
The track was 4-5 metres wide and she said the cat took up half of it. It was longer than a normal dog. It was slinky, not thick like a jaguar or puma, but more delicate. The animal was not shiny and its hair was short.
With the help of her mobile phone, the woman tried to identify it. She said the closest animal for body shape was the Malaysian panther pictured in the photo above.
However, unlike the one in the photograph, her cat held its tail straight out and down a fraction and curled on the end. Its legs might also have been a bit shorter than those in the photo but it was hard to tell, she said, because it was slinking not walking.
The day after the sighting, neighbours reported an unusual and very strong odour like a powerful cat urine outside the front of their house. On hearing about the big cat sighting, they wondered if the big cat had marked out its territory on their place. Heavy rain fell that night and they have not smelt it since
They also said many years ago, probably in the 1990s, there were ten sheep on the property where the big cat was sighted. Over some weeks, five or six of the sheep were killed. Each was predated in a manner resembling a puma kill – the chest cavity was opened and internal organs such as the liver and kidneys eaten first and the intestines discarded.
Dorothy Williams of the Australian Rare Fauna Research Association said the association has thousands of reports of big cat sightings Australia-wide on its database. Among them are many from the Grantville area and other areas of South Gippsland.
On September 26, 2012 at 6am a local driver saw “a big black panther” bounding across the road and up an embankment into bush maybe several hundred metres from the most recent sighting. He was still stunned when interviewed two weeks later.
On September 27, 2012, the day after his sighting, a Pioneer Bay woman saw “a jet-black big cat” lope across the road from a farm 5km south of his sighting. “It made my hair stand on end,” she said. The owner of the farm concerned said his dogs had barked a lot a number of nights around that time.
On October 11, 2012 at 8am a Kernot resident sighted “a huge.black cat” about two metres long crossing a road in Kernot. She thought it was a puma. A week later, she said, “I was in absolute shock and spooked all week. I told everybody I knew – it was like I’d scored the jackpot.”
The Grantville area has long been a hot spot for rare fauna sightings, especially sightings of big feral cats and various unidentified big cats fitting the description of panthers and pumas. Witnesses come from many walks of life and include mayors, councillors, farmers, hunters, teachers, journalists, a detective and business people.
Many witnesses do not share their sightings widely, if at all, for fear of ridicule.
Meryl Tobin is a local writer who has followed up many reports in the area for ARFRA. To report a sighting, please contact her on [email protected] or (03) 5997 6328.
The track was 4-5 metres wide and she said the cat took up half of it. It was longer than a normal dog. It was slinky, not thick like a jaguar or puma, but more delicate. The animal was not shiny and its hair was short.
With the help of her mobile phone, the woman tried to identify it. She said the closest animal for body shape was the Malaysian panther pictured in the photo above.
However, unlike the one in the photograph, her cat held its tail straight out and down a fraction and curled on the end. Its legs might also have been a bit shorter than those in the photo but it was hard to tell, she said, because it was slinking not walking.
The day after the sighting, neighbours reported an unusual and very strong odour like a powerful cat urine outside the front of their house. On hearing about the big cat sighting, they wondered if the big cat had marked out its territory on their place. Heavy rain fell that night and they have not smelt it since
They also said many years ago, probably in the 1990s, there were ten sheep on the property where the big cat was sighted. Over some weeks, five or six of the sheep were killed. Each was predated in a manner resembling a puma kill – the chest cavity was opened and internal organs such as the liver and kidneys eaten first and the intestines discarded.
Dorothy Williams of the Australian Rare Fauna Research Association said the association has thousands of reports of big cat sightings Australia-wide on its database. Among them are many from the Grantville area and other areas of South Gippsland.
On September 26, 2012 at 6am a local driver saw “a big black panther” bounding across the road and up an embankment into bush maybe several hundred metres from the most recent sighting. He was still stunned when interviewed two weeks later.
On September 27, 2012, the day after his sighting, a Pioneer Bay woman saw “a jet-black big cat” lope across the road from a farm 5km south of his sighting. “It made my hair stand on end,” she said. The owner of the farm concerned said his dogs had barked a lot a number of nights around that time.
On October 11, 2012 at 8am a Kernot resident sighted “a huge.black cat” about two metres long crossing a road in Kernot. She thought it was a puma. A week later, she said, “I was in absolute shock and spooked all week. I told everybody I knew – it was like I’d scored the jackpot.”
The Grantville area has long been a hot spot for rare fauna sightings, especially sightings of big feral cats and various unidentified big cats fitting the description of panthers and pumas. Witnesses come from many walks of life and include mayors, councillors, farmers, hunters, teachers, journalists, a detective and business people.
Many witnesses do not share their sightings widely, if at all, for fear of ridicule.
Meryl Tobin is a local writer who has followed up many reports in the area for ARFRA. To report a sighting, please contact her on [email protected] or (03) 5997 6328.