Big cat in Dandenongs, Vic

[youcantry]

The Knox Leader, May 8th, 2012 has an article about a big cat sighting in Belgrave on April 3. A teenager, their brother and his girlfriend were there. They said the rear of the animal was up to their waist height or hip height. It was a big cat with a big tail, black.

Apparently a horse in the nearby suburb The Basin was mauled in November last year with deep, curved claw marks to the upper flank.

It notes other recent sightings at Fields Creek and Mill Grove.

I don't have the article - a friend read it out to me over the phone.

[molloch]

free-press-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/belgrave-teen-eyes-big-cat/

[seth24]

Molloch, reading that article about the big cat sighting at
Belgrave, there is a mention of a belgrave resident named
Nick Costello. Is that the same nick costello that claimed to
have seen a thylacine in suburbia, which i presume was in the same area. i don't know how long ago this sighting was, but
he was interviewed about the sighting on the animal x doco.
Can anyone confirm,as iam pretty sure it is the same bloke ;D

[Deleted]

There's only one Nick Costello
Yes it will be the same one. Nick was active in the early days of ARFRA with Peter Chapple and Bernie Mace.
Nick has since produced an informative cd of "Big Cats in the Back Paddock" which includes a lot of information on the Dandenongs in particular.

[lurcherman]

FTA

“It is interesting that we’re getting more sightings closer to suburban areas of the Dandenong Ranges,” Mr Costello said.

Are the suburbs encroaching onto the ranges, or could it be an increase in cat population?

[Thylacoleo Gal]

May 9, 2012 6:34:29 GMT 10 lurcherman said:

Are the suburbs encroaching onto the ranges, or could it be an increase in cat population?

I'd say it's definitely that Melbourne's outer eastern 'burbs are encroaching into mmountain rainforests.

[Deleted]

It is common for females with kittens to leave the kits near houses to forage left over pet foods and the like.
The mothers come to check the cub, feed, and groom it.
In the days when town populations were scared s---tless by loud screams, it was nothing more than a mother cat calling her babies. Havnt heard of this for a long time. Cat numbers are down to what they used to be. I blame this on lack of suitable game for the growing cubs to hunt. With the esculation of rabbits I expect the number of cats to increase.
When living at Crystal Brook I found scratch marks of a giant feral on the footpaths. When about to leave the town 4 years later I discovered footmarks along a walking track, leading from the town
I got a series of pics of these footmarks with scales alongside.
I set the camera up with no result, once again the animal avoided the camera. This was before I learned about charged flashes emitting an audible signal. This confirmed that I was right when I saw the scratch marks at the earlier date
I have a tape, recorded on the outskirts of Maryborough Vic. of a female calling her kitten. This tape must be nearly 20 years old. Of course the "Kitten could be much larger than a normal cat"
She called from the same place for several weeks, and a Canadian hunter friend who visited my brother at Talbot identified the sound as a mother "lion" calling her baby, mountain lion of course.
Xrays and other tests reveal that my dicky heart is not so dicky after all, and I will reach that 4 score and 5 Monday week, the 14th.
Also a happy birth day for our friend the other day
Kind regards to all BC

[Deleted]

I would just like to say that i had a sighting of a large black cat yesterday evening at 5:23pm. i was walking up Glasgow track in kilsyth, which runs up to the channel 7 tower. when i got to the top just before kyeema track, the animal crossed the path about 10m in front of me. i didn't manage to see its head but i saw its body and tail. the animal stood taller than a fully grown labrador and its tail would have been at least 600mm long. the sighting startled me somewhat that i immediately turned around and headed straight back down the track. there was a girl not far behind me, who i told of my sighting and she too turned around.

[seth24]

welcome aboard hillclimber. what better way to start the forum
with a sighting. did you see the colour of the animal. there has
been sightings up in sydney of which they descibed as a black
cat-like animal. there was also a thylacine sighting in a suburb
of melbourne about a couple of months back. going by the report
they were pretty sure on what they saw. there seems to be
more sightings of these animals in suburban areas, off and on.
cheers seth ;D

[lilfoot]

Hi everyone , im new here although ive been actually checking this sight out for a year or so. my mate who is a member here gave me the heads up to the sighting on glasgow track. i live very close to this area, ive only been here for two years but from what my neighbors have told me there has been no rabbits since the 80s. but early this year we noticed a couple and now they are multiplying ( as rabbits do) rapidly.
so i dont know if thats what brings the cats in, but that and also the high number of deer and also the indigenous fauna id say it would be happy hunting grounds at the moment.
i have trail cameras set up at the moment but not on the western side of the hill as i thought it was too barren and dry but the time of this and a few other sightings on the western side have me thinking that they are following the sun, especially in the afternoon. The eastern side doesnt get much sun this time of year so it would be very cat like to seek as much sun as possible up here.

[Deleted]

From my observations it is apparent to me that juvenile giant feral juveniles need a host to fill the gaaaaaaaap until they can hunt larger game such as roos or wallabies ot predate livestock, and the rabbit fills the bill nicely,
Giant feral cats were prevelent up until the caalisi virus nearly eradicated the rabbits and the GF cat numbers dropped dramatically,
With rabbit numbers building up I expect the numbers of GFCs to increase.
The cats seen in the vicinity of towns or houses would probably have kittens planted somewhere in town, scavenging left over dog and cat food.
GFCs are suckers for dog cubes and it was not uncommon for big fellows to break into feed sheds and knock off the dog food.
As I have said before, those almighty screams that scared the living daylights out of populations were only mother cats calling their kittens.
Happy hunting BC

[lilfoot]

I can't vouch for any of the cats seen around the dandenongs but the one I saw near cann river was no feral. With a typical box head and tail that doesn't thin toward the end but rather got bigger like a panther. And also the fact it would have weighed 25 to 30 kilos going by the weight of my Labrador. Unless a slim not fat feral can be found to match this I'm convinced this is not anything close to a feral.

[Deleted]

Apart from the pumas in the Grampians and surrounds the puma sized cats endemic to the rest of Australia are Felis catus.
I proved this in 2001 when I had DNA carried out on 2 juvenile Giant ferals that were trapped in the Flinders Ranges.
This was confirmed when a large cat was shot in Gippsland in 2005(??) and researched.
The "Kurts kat" shot in Gippsland was well publicised.
Until then I was ridiculed and my findings were taken as a big joke.
BC

[lilfoot]

How big we're these cats? Of course u will get feral cat DNA from a feral cat. But were they as big as a Labrador or a German Shepard?

[molloch]

The actual size has never been independently confirmed. The Kurt photos, in my opinion, are obfuscated by the use of forced perspective, the "tail" skin that was provided has no context.

As you say, you will get cat DNA from feral cats, the point of contention is their actual size. Eye witness estimates are not vigorous enough to stand on their own, regardless of the observer. No offence bushcat..

[Deleted]

May 17, 2012 20:58:22 GMT 10 lilfoot said:

Hi everyone , im new here although ive been actually checking this sight out for a year or so. ...

Welcome aboard Lilfoot.

[elar]

Just a quick one... I grew up near Monbulk and remember my mum saying she had our bags packed and was ready to leave as she could hear a 'big cat' outside, purring or growling or something. We also had a pet sheep mauled but I don't recall the details ie. police report, suspected culprit etc. This was the early eighties. I still live in the area but haven't seen anythng myself. My brother spotted a 'big cat' recently near a local river (can't remember where exactly)but still not sure if I beleve the legend... It's all very interesting though

[Ian Thomas]

Lotta weird critter stories from the outer fringes of Melbourne where the burbs meet the forest. Hard to know, probly something in it.

[observer]

Interestingly, I heard of multiple sightings earlier this year in the same area as mentioned in this thread in May 2012.

Might start paying a bit more attention around the Glasgow Track area

[Deleted]

Some years ago in the Dandenongs a horse was killed and some meat taken from its neck and side of head. Also a bull was killed about the same time. Two unidentified men turned up and confiscated the carcass before it could be examined.
Then then was the case of the shredded shepherd near Dandenong A German Shepherd watch dog was found ripped into pieces and had to be collected with a bucket. To me this appeared to be the work of a thylaco.
I was told about big cats being present at Gembrook. This would be about 1950.
BS

[DP]

Nov 19, 2014 6:40:03 GMT 10 @bushcat said:

Some years ago in the Dandenongs a horse was killed and some meat taken from its neck and side of head. Also a bull was killed about the same time. Two unidentified men turned up and confiscated the carcass before it could be examined.
Then then was the case of the shredded shepherd near Dandenong A German Shepherd watch dog was found ripped into pieces and had to be collected with a bucket. To me this appeared to be the work of a thylaco.
I was told about big cats being present at Gembrook. This would be about 1950.
BS

Hi BC and observer, I think it was the bull that belonged to the Marotta family on Emerald Gembrook Rd. and the horse was at Paternosta Rd south of Emerald (?) I seem to remember that the horse was dragged some distance - officially a dog attack - yeah right... nothing to see here, move along.

Observer, I think that we may be very local to each other.

[Deleted]

I never heard about the horse being dragged, Some dog!!. One night 100 sheep were killed near Ballarat. This was blamed on dog. Cats screaming , frantic sheep and a mob of traumatised cattle. This also indirectly caused the death of a man. Fellow went into the paddock to see what was stirring the bull up.
Around 1950 I ran a hound pack and hunted deer around Gembrook. I went North in 1955 did pet food hunting for 10 years. I am still more than less up North, Flinders ranges,big cat country.
I have to visit a mumma cat that has kittens in Parachilna Gorge, and try my new camera out.
In the early 90s a cat hassling my rellies in Cent Vic carried full grown weathers (sheep) over 3 strong fences to the edge of the forest a Km away.
This cat finally sucumed to a sheep and lamb that was cat killed and were inoculated with a hypodermic. Some foxes were dead on site but cat was never found.
The lamb was taken and the cat was seen no more. Currently sheep are being killed near Denmark in WA.
BC

[observer]

I like reading all your stories BC, they keep the idea alive and kicking!
Obviously the stories in and around the Dandenong Ranges capture my attention even more, as it's my current location.

I don't actively look for anything, but spend a lot of time in and around the ranges and always keep one eye open and love hearing any new stories I can get.

Every second person I know from the Ranges or Yarra Valley has a cat related story and they are from all different walks of life.
I agree with the sentiment that it's impossible for everyone to see things that are very similar and for EVERY story to be misreported, overestimated or a joke.
Where there's smoke??

Speaking of smoke, there was some burning off on the NW side of the mountain last week and I've never seen so much animal activity!
Wallabies and wombats were all moving down the hill from the flames

[Thylacoleo Gal]

Yes, I've spoken with lots of rural people and it's true - every second person out in the countryside has a Big Cat story.