Are there really pumas or other killer cats roaming stealthily on our very doorstep? Tim the Yowie Man investigates.
'I just hope it doesn't have kittens.'' So warns farmer Bill Fogarty who recently while on the phone to a friend in his Adaminaby farmhouse when he glanced out the window and saw ''a large creature carrying something in its mouth''. A long-time farmer at Yaouk Gap, 14 km from Adaminaby, Bill initially dismissed the animal as one of the many wild dogs which roam this part of the high country. ''I thought it was a dingo with a fox in its mouth,'' Bill recalls.
However, as the creature sauntered closer to his home and Bill was able to get a much closer look at it, he realised, ''it was no dog''.
''It's body was as big as an adult kelpie, it's tail was about half a metre long and, it was a gingery, creamy colour,'' he recalls.
''It had a big head and pointy ears and one of those beautiful feline tails - you know, with that cat-like curl in it with a white tip.''
Bill, who kept talking on the phone describing what he was seeing to his friend, claims it was, ''four or five times bigger than a feral cat''. However, as the animal got closer, he realised, it actually had ''a lyrebird, not a fox in its mouth''.
''There's been many sightings over the years of the so-called 'Yaouk panther', but it's always been reported as black or a sandy brown, not this gingery colour,'' says Bill, who was left with no doubt at all that the creature he saw was a cat of some sort and not a dog.
Since his sighting, several neighbours also claim to have seen a cat of similar description in the Yaouk and Currango areas. ''Who knows if it is the same one or not,'' Bill says.
While it is uncertain whether his animal was a puma-like big cat or just an extra large feral cat, it once again throws the spotlight on Australia's biggest cryptozoological mystery - the possible existence of large exotic cats.
There are a number of theories which attempt to prove their existence. Here are the most common:
Escapees from a travelling circus: If all the circus truck crashes that are rumoured to have occurred, actually did happen, then there would be no circuses left in Australia. In fact, the circus truck rumour has become so endemic that it could be classified as an urban legend.
Blame the Americans: This hypothesis suggests that American servicemen at the end of World War II introduced pumas into the country when they brought them over as mascots on their boats. The pumas were then allegedly released into the bush.
Large feral cats: This theory has good intuitive appeal and may explain a small proportion of the reports. Apart from an obvious difference in body size, the paw prints of a feral cat are many times smaller than those of a puma.
Pets let loose: It is impossible to keep track of everyone who has had exotic pets such as pumas and it is not unforeseeable that several of these pets may have been dumped, or escaped.
CONTACT TIM
Got a comment on today's stories or an unusual photo? Email: timtheyowieman@bigpond.com or Twitter: @TimYowie or write to me c/o The Canberra Times, 9 Pirie Street, Fyshwick.
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