New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees says rumours that a leopard inhabits bushland on Sydney's outskirts cannot be dismissed, because the safety of children could be at risk.

Talk of panthers or leopards in the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury region has persisted for decades and there are almost 300 claimed sightings of a big cat in the area.

While there is still no conclusive proof such an animal roams Sydney's north-western fringes, Mr Rees says the animal cannot be discounted as an urban myth.

"I know I don't do policy on the run, but I think it's three years since Minister Campbell had a look at this, I think it's probably time to do it again," he said.
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I missed this on the news but believe in the panther. We've found prints and have heard vocalisiation near by. 2 of the kids even claim to have seen it and we did find a print where they said it was. It'd have to be a colony of panthers to substain so long in the bush for.

Tia,

This is the link to the previous discussion on the tracks you found wile walking the dogs: Link

For sure, too many reports come through and after the Gippsland "pussycat" the possibility is quite strong. It is quite rugged country after all.
It is theorised to be a Panther.

out of place animals do occur. yet i dont know y it has anything to do with cryptozoology instead of foreign species invading a foreign habitat?

Austalia once had marsupial lions - not true lions, but lion-like in size and appearance. So any large feline would definitely be a foreigner. Quite probably a species or subspecies of exotic pet that escaped into the wild.

Our Mountain Lions/Catamounts/Gougers/Pumas
Their the mountain lions territory range is between five and twenty five square miles, were as a Panthers is between one hundred and fifty to two hundred square miles, and that’s saying that it wishes to stay in a know living habitat and not chose to relocate elsewhere…

Personally here in the States I will never give up my right to bare arms as the fire arms are a means of servile and protection, it interesting to see the wavering of support and non support of fire arms and it is viewed between Human atrocities of fire arms and contrasted or even constricted in a wild life/attack/Sighting Scare, it is a matter of servile both that of the Wild Animals and the Human Family structure, I am interested in knowing where the issue stand here in the event of living in the area or rather within the two hundred square mile radius of the reported Panther…when I adventure I pack both Heat and Bear Knife because I have spoken to those lucky survivors of bear, wild Boar and Mountain Lion…You can make note of the Panther rear and front Paw tracks and learn how to tell of how freshly made they are, how and guestimate their weight and direction of travels and how many…also learn how to identify the scants…

Here in the States and Oregon, U.S.A. we have many Mountain Lions and Bears but we watch our Babies well, and have Brave Dogs if we do live at edge of the wilds if we children to guard of not…mort my friends keep a 12 Gauge Sort loaded with Number nine shot and few Lead Deer Slugs shells the size and shape of a roll of dimes, and most have a Hunting Rifle or at least a Big Caliber Hand Gun…
Because of the ever expanding urban sprawl and encroachment upon the Natural wildlife, here in the States we have been having a lot more Mountain Lions coming down and attacking Cats, Dogs and Stocking wee children as pry in here in Town and neighboring town but is the imposing of Hunting with Dogs that is causing the Mountain Lions to lose even more, and there have been a lot of Bears going in and endangering home owners and destroying their property, and then the Animals lose, again, both because of the ones they are the offenders searching for food, and as the ones hated and hunted because of reports bordering Mass Hysteria because of over Hyped News reports…

Pavot

umm, they can go anywhere where they can hunt and find prey, you know.

Is this a breeding population left over from WWII or is it a single animal?

There are those on the boards who will tell you that until there is a body it does not exist. Eyewitness reports be danged.

Myself I can easly imagine several dozen cats wandering around that territory.

I think it is several different animals. Reports from Lions to Leopard abound, they cannot all be right, but no doubt some are. WWII Pilots are known to have released mascots. There seems reasonable substantiation that at least one serviceman released a Puma in the Grampians in Western Victoria. Naitive fauna are easy prey and good eating. No doubt a released cat would lead a charmed life.
I hope it is taken seriously to be quite honest. Enough reports warrant investigation and the Oz ecosystems have suffered enough from imports. I hope we look very soon very hard, and like Metallica says

Kill 'em all.

I agree....it is very rugged terrain out there...but surly more can be done to see if there is anything out there.There would have to be or have had to have been more than 1 of these creatures out there.I hope its not just people wanting there 5 mins of fame

I recall the post Tia made about this back in 2005, It's strange they have not found anything after all this time...

It is a bloody big range, and if there is a small population out there, I find it very unlikely that it might ever be found or captured. Don't forget about in the UK, they have a large cat wondering about, and it has rarely been seen. There was a video of a large black cat in Australia, I will try and find it.

I looking for the video I was talking about and found this old footage of a large black cat shot.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/australia/vic/g...10/s1478556.htm
http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid...vt=lf&hl=en
http://neatorama.cachefly.net/images/2006-...t-gippsland.jpg
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...94-2862,00.html

Just goes to show that when cats have no other preditor they will thrive, and one day our feral cats might turn into a large feline like those great cats around the world if left unchecked. (I hate feral cats)

I doubt anyone will take notice untill someone gets hurt. I don't think it is a hoax, I personally am still reeling over the Gipsland pussycat results.

That monster was a moggie?

BTW Welcome to UM.

I also live in the Blue Mountains where this large pussycat is supposed to roam. On balance at the moment I don't believe they exist here. Mainly due to the lack of good supporting evidence and that urban legends of black panthers (out of their normal habitat) seem to be quite common. Probably in most cases large black feral cats IMO.

Until recently a neighbour of mine was one of the head honchos of National Parks and Wildlife up here and I did ask him about the packs of hybrid feral dogs that were supposedly in this park and adjoining parks. He confirmed they did exist but they generally weren't near the main tourist routes. So in that respect I suppose there are large animals that are rarely seen by the general populace.

I remember there was one theory that they had escaped from the Lion Park that used to be down at Warragamba Dam.

I go out in the bush a lot by myself and don't feel the need to be concerned at this point.

Thanks for the link X, it was actually a new print we found straight after the vocals and sightings. Unfortuently it was right on the edge of very steep terrain so I wasn't going to try to get any shots or plasters.

I went to that as a little kid. What a shame they shut it down, and the Beenleigh one. Loved it.

I admit my sister and I were crazy for that place - we lived on the other side of Sydney then and we used to make my Dad drive us all out there in the old Holden Kingswood....that had a back window that used to randomly slide down and a door you couldn't lock. As a kid it added to the excitement lol.

Edit: Realise the last bit will only make sense to others if you know that you drove through the park with the lions around you...so you only felt as safe as your car.