When big-cat expert Bill Van Pelt arrives on Maui, he will do so without any pre-conceived notion about what's prowling around the Olinda area. Based on sketchy digital photographs of paw prints sent to him from Hawai'i, the animal could be either a dog or a big cat, said Van Pelt, an official with the Arizona Game and Fish Department. "I can't say it's a cat for sure," Van Pelt said in a telephone interview yesterday. "But there is an animal out there." Van Pelt said he won't know what it is until he gets out in the field. "If I can find a sign, I'm confident I can tell whether it's a cat," he said. Van Pelt has worked for the Arizona Game and Fish Department for 12 years, the last seven as nongame mammals program manager. His specialty is large predatory animals. He is a member of the Jaguar Conservation Team, Ocelot Recovery Team and the Mexican Wolf Project. Maui wildlife biologist Fern Duvall, the point man on the state's big-cat investigation, said he's been getting advice from a handful of experts.

But when he started looking for someone to bring to Maui, Van Pelt's name kept coming to the fore. Olinda residents have been reporting sightings of a big cat since December. State wildlife officials stepped up their hunt in June following a search that found paw tracks, claw marks on trees and dead birds. Officials set up cage traps, but they were dismantled after two weeks.

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