By Meryl Tobin
RECENTLY a local man walking along a track in the Grantville bush near the Grantville Tip passed a big black creature sleeping under some bushes.
“It was curled up with its back to me and only one metre from me,” the man said. “I walked back for a second look and stood two metres from it for about 20 seconds. It had a big tail like a kangaroo, and at first I wondered if it was a kangaroo.
“Suddenly it sprang up and leaped 20 metres away from me. It was the size of a big Alsatian and had two legs at the front and two at the back. It moved away from me at an angle. It was definitely not a kangaroo or a black swamp wallaby or a feral cat.
“As it ran off, I could see the back of it was narrow and sleek and it was short-haired. The bones on its legs were bony and it had a thick tail. I’m pretty sure it was all black.”
To try to identify what he had seen, the man googled and come across an article Big cat sighting adds to mystery - Bass Coast Post, 10.2.2022.
It reported a sighting in Grantville on January 26, 2022. “The photo with it was identical to my creature.” The photo was of a panther (black leopard).
When he checked other images of panthers on the Internet, he found this photo of another big cat similar to the one he saw.
The following day the man returned to look for hair samples, but found none. He took photos of the flattened area where the animal had been sleeping.
As the sighting had spooked him, the man also visited a farmhouse in the area.
The woman there told him she had seen a similar creature about three years earlier.
When startled, she said it had leapt over a two metre high fence.
On a visit to the area a week later, he met someone who said another person nearby had seen a big cat about two weeks earlier.
The man’s sighting occurred Sunday, June 18 at 2 pm about four km from the January 26, 2022, sighting and close to sites of reported historic sightings, vocalisations and attacks on stock.
Walkers need to be aware. Though most big cats sighted have not been aggressive, when cornered some have been. Some witnesses have reported big cats terrifying and/or harming stock. Some attacks on humans in America have been fatal.
Also, going by reports, more than one sort of big cat frequents South Gippsland. Some fit the description of a panther, some a puma and some are unidentified. Some unidentified ones are the size of a panther or puma or close to it, but their colouring, markings or shape, sort of ears and/or tail do not fit. One man who had a lot of experience trapping big feral cats said a big black cat he saw in the Lang Lang area looked like a panther, had the leap of a panther and was far bigger than the big feral cats he trapped.
Note:
Meryl Brown Tobin has been a long time member of the Australian Rare Fauna Research Association and, with others, has followed up numerous sightings of mystery animals in South Gippsland and elsewhere in Australia since 1987.
Witnesses include farm workers, farmers, shooters, walkers, a former ranger, a librarian, a nurse, a chemist, a dentist, business people, security officers, test car drivers, journalists including an ABC news editor, teachers, a mail carrier, a worker at a quarry, a detective, councillors including a former mayor and members of their families, a Bass Coast Council staff member , a Department of Sustainability staff member and scientists.
Many witnesses do not report their sightings because of fear of ridicule, sensationalism by the press or because they want to protect the mystery animals.
Anyone who would like to report a sighting can contact Meryl Brown Tobin on h-mtobin@bigpond.com or 0400 359 976.
