Aussies have seen anomalous black and tawny big cats. In 2005, a hunter shot a very large feline causing a "big cat versus feral cat" controversy.
Australian Fauna: Native and Alien
This continent is home to marsupials - animals unique to it, crocodiles, wild boars and the Asian water buffalo. There are dingoes, wild dogs, which are believed to be descended from the wild Asian dogs brought down under by Aboriginal people trading with Indonesians.
Australia has three known feline cryptoids, the Queensland Tiger, the anomalous panthers and the very large feral cats. A fourth, the thylacine, is also known as the Tasmanian tiger and Tasmanian wolf.
There have been many sightings of big cats which aren’t native to the land. Other evidence includes carcasses of slain domestic animals, trails of paw prints, scat and pictures of two that were killed.
Kurt Engel was deer hunting when he saw a very large black cat pouncing towards him. The animal turned and the hunter shot it, but unfortunately, its head was blown away. Engel was disappointed that there was no head to mount as a trophy. He decided to save the tail and tossed the carcass in a river. He also had pictures taken of him and his “prize,” one of which was published in the August 2007 issue of Fortean Times and is on its website www.forteantimes.com .
Controversy and Theories
The feline’s tail was two feet long and the entire body measured six feet. Non-professional researchers wrote off the incident as a hoax, however, the picture published in Fortean Times clearly shows points of reference to verify the claims that the slain animal was a very large feline.
Engel took the tail to have DNA tests performed on it by professionals not long after he killed the animal. These indicated that the feline was an extremely large feral cat, not a panther.
It is believed that Australia’s feral population are descendents of the domestic cats the early British settlers brought with them to control mice on their ships. Is it possible that, over the years they mutated or evolved into cats the size of their big cousins?
Some say that American soldiers brought panthers and pumas with them while stationed there during World War II as mascots, then set them free when they left. Others believe miners kept the big cats to guard their stakes. There is the common zoo or circus escapee explanation, however, this has been unsubstantiated in the case of Australia’s mystery cats. There are records of three escaped lions and one fugitive tiger. Two lions were killed and the third returned to its cage. The tiger was recaptured.
Experts have analyzed the scat and paw trails of the cats and said they could be those of a puma. Due to the numerous ABC sightings in the Grampian Mountains, officials have neither confirmed nor denied that panthers and pumas live in Australia and are keeping investigative files open.
Is it possible that both large feral cats and ABCs prowl the Australian countryside?
Eerie Black Panther: Ohio Horror
Thylacine: Tasmanian Wolf-Tiger
Sources:
Clark, Jerome, Unexplained! (Visible Ink Press, 1999)
Lang, Ruby and Michael Williams, “Cats in the Bag”(Fortean Times, August 2007, volume 224)
