Taken from another site. Get the game camera's ready boys.

THE search for Victoria's elusive big cats is back on.

Just weeks after it shelved plans to solve the decades-long mystery, the Victorian Government now wants to put the matter to rest once and for all.

Witness sightings have been recorded, over at least 60 years, of cougars, panthers or pumas in a wide stretch of Victoria from Gippsland to the Otways, the Grampians, central Victoria and at Beechworth in the northeast.

Have you seen an elusive big cat in Victoria? Tell us below.

The reports include livestock maulings and unexplained paw prints.

As reported in The Weekly Times, an official investigation has been launched in line with a 2010 pre-election pledge from Nationals leader Peter Ryan, who said "there were enough credible observations" to warrant the effort.

Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh said work on the big cat study had already started. Mr Walsh said wild-dog control remained the Government's priority but there were now "sufficient departmental resources available".

"The study will review existing literature, reports, correspondence and other evidence for the presence of big cats in Victoria, and it includes liaison with relevant community groups and individuals who have reports or records of possible sightings," Mr Walsh said.

"The study is expected to take several months to complete."

The investigation is known to include staff from the Department of Primary Industries and the Department of Sustainability and Environment.

Opposition agriculture spokesman John Lenders yesterday said the Government's priorities to rural and regional Victorians were more important "than solving Deputy Premier Peter Ryan's obsession with finding his big cat".

"In an ideal world when the Government has not cut jobs to DPI offices across the state, underfunded fruitfly road blocks and the baiting of wild dogs, maybe funding for a 'study' into big cats would be welcomed," Mr Lenders said.

"How can there be 'sufficient' departmental resources available to conduct a big-cat study when there have been significant jobs losses in both DPI and DSE as part of the Government's move to sack 4200 public servants across the state.

"With cuts to TAFE programs, the scrapping of the Rural and Regional First Homeowners bonus this shows that the Baillieu Government is not taking rural and regional Victorians seriously."

Melbourne-based big cats researcher Michael Moss said he had been telephoned by a DSE scientist wanting copies of his research and who asked him to keep the contact secret.

"There is no doubt they (big cats) are out there," Mr Moss said, adding that the recent rediscovery of the Tiger Quoll in the Otways again proved how easy it was for animals to remain undetected in wilderness area for long periods of time.

I don't have any footage of Aussie pumas but have plenty of film of bunyips if they are interested ...

So that's where they went !
Many of our states deny they exist despite may reputable sightings .Despite finding one recently in CT not far from NYC.NY and PA have lots of suitable areas for mountain lions .All they need is a deer every 7-10 days and away from too many people.

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Anything to generate a news headline (the big cats are here)

Anything to generate a news headline (the big cats are not here)


Meanwhile, who cares?

I care Ron...I mean if they are out there I wanna know....nah just kidding. This is a source of great amusment with a lot of people. Some folk say they are there but with the amount of game camera's in the bush these days you'd think someone would get a photo! And not a dodgy one of a small feral set up to look big

As a kid I went hunting for the 'Victoria Point Monster' in the Grampians but was later told by a 'Hamilton Spectator' journo it was just something made up for slow-news days.

A few years ago someone took some video footage of a big black cat in the bush. The TV station's editing room nodded, though; the beast looked formidable until it walked up to an unconcerned kangaroo, about three times the size.

While it would have been possible for someone to have let pumas go here (or in England) I just doubt that it happened or that any survive if it did. Lions have escaped from zoos and circuses, of course, but most were shot at the time, as I recall. Though I have spoken to people who've said they'd seen them, no one seems to have found any bones or ever shot any other modern panther here. The truth is probably that when we see something obscure in front of us, our minds place a template from communal memory or recent suggestion over top, as Edward de Bono has explained. From this we get the hobgoblin of the modern mind.

I will believe in the pumas perhaps when I see the next one stretched over the bonnet of a LandCruiser.

so if you ever see one, look slightly off at it and match it to some tree trunk or post !

Then their can be no guessing as to how big it was.


A mate of mine seriously thinks he saw one just out of Geelong.

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Those game cams would prove it if any of these critters were around. That or some good American hounds that know the smell - try getting them through quarantine! Sitting over baits in the right place might work, of course, but who has the time and belief in the project to do it?

Puma are the ideal species for the legend to hang on, I guess. All the big cats are very hard to hunt without baits and puma are thought to be the most 'cautious' of the lot.

I really would have thought that with all the game cams out there, all in prime hunting habitat with plenty of game to eat, at least ONE photo
of a big cat would have occurred.

Just my HO.

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I won't be a believer until a panther is bought in dead for research. There are however many sightings that never get reported. Two close hunting mates of mine saw a panther while hunting together about 6 years ago, on my mates cattle property near Wellington NSW, & they never went public, nor would they want to. I guess time will tell.

http://www.rgj.com/viewart/201...no-Harrah-s-released

Build casinos and they will come !!

I keep looking but I haven't seen one here in NY State. They certainly were in the past as I live 300m from Panther Brook !

Mountain lion, puma ,cougar,and other names are used.

I recall way back in '78 - thats 1978 , thanks gents -when I was based in deepest darkest Western Australia I shot some huge wild cats . Like 20lbs in weight , but certainly nothing that would qualify as a panther - although at that time in Quirading (sp. ? ) in WA there was reports of a large cat-like creature eating the farm animals .

No reason why there cant be such beasts out there , there is a lot of country and there just arnt enough game cameras out there to cover it all.

1978 JESUS you must be old Muzza

I am indeed old , mate , I was 19 at the time .....

It's just a pet that someone turned loose to fend for itself, like the pythons in south Florida.

You can see lots of things when you've been drinking lots of Fosters !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xbrU0WVSBo

There is something good in OZ !

Well, the report's out and the Victorian government has pronounced definitely and finally there are no 'big cats' roaming around Victoria, whereby it has fulfilled it's election promise.

Just in case someone does shoot one, though, can I have the skin?

sambarman

You know what is gong to happen now that they have made such a statement, don't you ?


Someone is going to get a picture of one,
shoot one or one will get killed on a road !

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But of course, 505G.

Matter of fact, according to the latest 'Weekly Times', the research found there had been a leopard in the Winchelsea area during the 1990s, established by comparing hairs etc with critters at the Melbourne Zoo. The study just doesn't accept that there is any population still getting around.

Check Robert Garcia's cat from Alberta , HUGE !,in the "Taxidermy " section so you know what to look for !

if they'r really committed to finding these cats, why not just use dogs.....