Big cat expert reveals truth behind viral ‘panther' footage

News.com.au

a day ago

An Australian big cat expert has revealed the truth after a clip of a supposed 'panther' went viral on social media early last week.
The footage, which has amassed over 2.5 million views, shows a large, jet black cat prowling along a road in Victoria's bushland.
Viewers were quick to brand it 'irrefutable proof' of the folklore that has long gripped the nation.
However, former Australian Zoo big cat keeper and expert Vaughan King has now revealed the truth behind the hugely popular video.
'It's almost certainly just a healthy looking black feral cat with its winter coat,' Mr King told news.com.au.
For years, people have believed that Australia's vast, untamed bushland could be hiding more than just kangaroos and kookaburras.
In late April 2024, prospector Angus James filmed what appears to be a large, jetâ€'black feline near Ballarat, Victoria.
At the time, he told news.com.au that he spotted the jet black shaped animal in his paddock when he was driving past.
'I pulled up and went to zoom in on it with my camera. And then it sort of took off and just sort of panned with it.'
'It was obviously a big cat – massive – bigger than your average house cat, that's for sure,' he said.
There are numerous sophisticated online databases that track 'big cat' sightings across Australia.
Perhaps the most common descriptions include large, black or tan-coloured cats resembling panthers or pumas.
And big cat origin theories are almost as plentiful as the sightings themselves.
Some theories suggest that the so-called big cats are escapees from private zoos, circuses, or exotic pet owners.
Historian David Waldron of Federation University's Ballarat campus left the door slightly ajar for the possibility of big cats roaming the nation.
'If you actually think about it, it's not particularly absurd — adding another introduced species to the pile,' he told ABC RN in 2018.
Dr Waldron canvassed government and media archives to uncover evidence of the early exotic animal trade in Australia, including instances of escaped circus animals.
'I came across one case in NSW where disgruntled performers let three tigers lose when they quit,' he said.
Another well-known theory is that today's cats might be descendants of abandoned mascots from World War II American soldiers.
'There definitely have been individual big cats in the bush out there from time to time, even quite recently. That's documented.
'Particularly in the 19th century where you didn't have quarantine regulations, like we have today.'
Indeed, reports of big cats span back to the 1800s, with a more recent, 2001 Deakin University study concluding that evidence of big cats in the Grampians was 'beyond reasonable doubt.'
In Vaughan King's documentary ' The Hunt: In Search of Australia's Big Cats ', the big cat expert teamed up with veteran researchers John Turner and Simon Townsend to investigate the sightings that have gripped Australians.
The film investigated multiple reports across the Otways in Victoria, the Hunter Valley in New South Wales and southâ€'west Western Australia.
Mr King — who moved his family to Victoria to lead the project — used longâ€'range camera traps, thermal drones, DNA sampling and intensive field investigations.
The team received hundreds of reports of sightings in the lead up to filming, some of which ranged from strange growls in the night and barbarous livestock killings.
In Victoria's Yarra and Dandenong Ranges, Mr King declared a big cat could '100 per cent' survive — despite the absence of sightings during filming.
Over in NSW in the Blue Mountains region, there have been over 560 reports of big cat sightings in the Hawkesbury, Blue Mountains and Lithgow area since 1998.
In response, the Department of Primary Industries commissioned four inquiries during the years 1999, 2003, 2008 and 2013.
In a 1999 letter to then National Parks and Wildlife Service director-general Brian Gilligan, Department of Agriculture head Kevin Sheridan warned: ''The reports are becoming too frequent for us to ignore the possibility. To … do so could bring into question government's duty of care.''
Wildlife ecologist Johannes Bauer was later commissioned to provide expert opinion.
'Difficult as it seems to accept, the most likely explanation of the evidence is the presence of a large, feline predator,'' he said.
'In this area, [it is] most likely a leopard, less likely a jaguar.''
In 2008, the report concluded: 'There is no scientific evidence found during this review that conclusively proves the presence of free-ranging exotic large cats in NSW, but a presence cannot be discounted, and it seems more likely than not on available evidence that such animals do exist in NSW.'
However, the 2013 inquiry returned bad news for lovers of the lore with invasive species expert John Parkes labelling the 500 eyewitness accounts as 'at best prima facie evidence'', saying 'large dogs, large feral cats or swamp wallabies'' were the likely candidates.
But eyewitnesses continue to disagree.
In 2020, professional photographer Amber Noseda captured a series of photos of a large, sleek black cat sauntering into the bush in southwest Victoria in 2020.
That same year, TV host Grant Denyer revealed he had seen what he believes to be 'sheep-sized' panthers on his Bathurst property.
'I'll give you an exclusive, and don't think I'm crazy, but I am on the panther bandwagon right now,' Denyer told news.com.au, at the time.
'I'm talking about the famous panthers that roam the Australian bush,' he said.
'I've seen the panther twice on the bottom of my farm and I have video to prove it — although blurry and zoomed 10 times on my iPhone,' he said.
Whether stories of panthers quietly stalking the Australian bush are true or not remains unknown, but witnesses and investigators are not giving up anytime soon.