Otway Panther Photographed

arthwollipot

Observer of Phenomena, Pronouns: he/him
arthwollipot
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Big cat caught on film in Otways, fueling belief that panthers roam our wild places

A series of photos of a large, sleek black cat sauntering into the bush in south-west Victoria has reignited the long-held belief by some that panthers or pumas roam our wild places undetected.

Stories about populations of big, wild cats have been talked about since the 1830s, and the lush Victorian Otways region is just one place across the country where the rumours crop up time after time.

Professional photographer Amber Noseda was driving home from taking pictures of birds at Mount Sabine on Saturday afternoon when she spotted an unusual animal, which she initially thought was a black wallaby.

She pulled over and started using her camera's viewfinder to focus on the animal and realised it was a large cat.

"That's the biggest cat I've ever seen," she said.

"It was jet black, it had a really long sleek back, it wasn't tall looking at the photos but when it was sitting on the side of the road it certainly looked a lot taller."
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tl;dr It's a cat. At best, it's an unusually large black feral cat. But people will still claim that it's a panther. Something about hoofbeats and zebras comes to mind.
 
Definitely a cat. But local folklore will not be denied.

Although, you probably do get puma. And while it's rare, they do occasionally have melanistic mutations. But actual black panthers (jaguar or leopards) don't range that far north at all.
 
Emily's Cat said:
Definitely a cat. But local folklore will not be denied.

Although, you probably do get puma. And while it's rare, they do occasionally have melanistic mutations. But actual black panthers (jaguar or leopards) don't range that far north at all.
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I don’t get the second para. There are no puma or leopards in Australia (where the Otways are), only cats.
 
Trebuchet said:
Meow!
I do question, however whether it's necessarily "unusually large" or feral. Don't people have pet kitties there?
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There's really not enough reference points in that photo to make a good estimate of size. Of course, nothing bigger than a domestic cat is likely to be roaming around in Australia.
 
Emily's Cat said:
Definitely a cat. But local folklore will not be denied.

Although, you probably do get puma. And while it's rare, they do occasionally have melanistic mutations. But actual black panthers (jaguar or leopards) don't range that far north at all.
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Were you thinking of Victoria BC? I'd expect the occasional puma there. Not so much in Victoria Australia.
 
Emily's Cat said:
Definitely a cat. But local folklore will not be denied.

Although, you probably do get puma. And while it's rare, they do occasionally have melanistic mutations. But actual black panthers (jaguar or leopards) don't range that far north at all.
Click to expand...


I must go back to school and relearn my Geography. I live in Lara, in the southern part of the Australian mainland, and the Otways are even further south. Perhaps I should go even further south and visit Port Fairy or Warrnambool and check out the local Panther population.

Unless of course you think that since this is downunder, we are all upside down.


Norm
 
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That's, er, a cat.

Are the big cats and domestic housecats similar enough in physiology that, absent any indications of scale, there'd be no way to tell the difference? Or are there physiological differences you could notice if they were running/jumping etc.
 
I've unfortunately not seen a puma/cougar/catamount/panther/mountain lion in the wild, but it appears from the pictures that they have rather larger bodies relative to either legs or heads than house cats, and longer snouts. It is true that, with untufted ears and full tails, they're closer to house cats than the other wild cats we see around here, but I think you'd have to be pretty optimistic to think it's a rare variant of a species not proven to be around, rather than a very big black feral cat in a place where there actually is reliable evidence that very big black feral cats do occur.
 
Jim_MDP said:
D'ya ever wonder why there are no hurricanes in the Pacific... only cyclones?
Hmmm.


[emoji1]
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Off topic nitpick: Tropical Cyclones are called "hurricane" anywhere in the Western Hemisphere, including the eastern Pacific. My wife and I experience the tail end of Hurricane Norman in Los Angeles on our honeymoon in 1978.

And in the western Pacific they are "typhoons".
 
This is perfect.

self-debunking said:
"It was jet black, it had a really long sleek back, it wasn't tall looking at the photos but when it was sitting on the side of the road it certainly looked a lot taller."
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Another interpretation: She convinced herself it was huge; took photos and it was not huge.
 
I'm confused

3point14 said:
That's, er, a cat.

Are the big cats and domestic housecats similar enough in physiology that, absent any indications of scale, there'd be no way to tell the difference? Or are there physiological differences you could notice if they were running/jumping etc.
Click to expand...

CORed said:
There's really not enough reference points in that photo to make a good estimate of size. Of course, nothing bigger than a domestic cat is likely to be roaming around in Australia.
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Look at the background of the photo, the yellow flowers and the grass, the reference scale seems to be right there for me, hence my first post saying the buttercups must be massive.
The cat isn't.
 
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