Pumas, do they exist?

[Antie]

Need a few trail cams out there

[Die Judicii]

Need a few trail cams out there

Unfortunately I sold that property 2 years ago and moved away, and there is 1,700 klms distance.

A bit far to check on cameras etc

[Oldbloke]

I have never seen one, but I do believe there are "big cats" out there.
About 4 year ago my daughter was on her trail bike and I was on the Quad, riding through scrub on a 4WD trail.
We saw in the damp soft sand approx. 15 or so foot prints that were definitely feline, and about 4 1/2" across and 3/4" deep.

So we are firm believers that big cats do in fact exist.
I used to own property that bounded that scrub, and saw other things that only supported my belief.
One day I found a dead eastern grey roo about 40 metres in from the fence, and apart from no other injury, it was missing its head.
The next morning I went to take pics of it, and found that it was now on the scrub side of the wire netting fence.
The netting was anchoured in the ground so it had to have been taken over the fence.
It had the rib cage opened and only the heart and liver had been taken.

Apart from the fact that we didn't have a wild dog problem, that was not a signature kill of wild dogs either.

I assume there are no pics of the prints or the roo body?

[KWhorenet]

Not sure about Puma's but there's plenty of Adidas running wild in Bankstown & Lakemba

Is there a bounty on those ferals yet ?

x 50, but, I'll get into trouble off someone.

Just sourced some Vermin Control gear.

Target species specific Camo Pants of various styles, LR NF NXS scope, Gut Hook skinning knife and chest freezer for the bounty scalps and back straps.

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Should be ready to roll once my Fully Sic WRX STI arrives back from the paint shop.

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[brett1868]

Make sure you install the fully sik blow-off valve that goes "Beeee...Itch" when you back off. The boys down Bankstown way swear it's good for bulk KW at the wheels M8.

[KWhorenet]

Got it !
Wouldn't own boost without an un-necessary noise inducer ever.

Modded the Feroza today. Added a few thou to the factory standard exhaust manifold cracks.
The whistle is good for at least -3.6hp ( or - 4.8 % ) at the fly wheel according to Facebook.

[brett1868]

I lost interest in cars after buying this in 2009...201HP at the back wheel & 0-300 in 17 seconds

Nothing screams "Small Man" syndrome louder then a Hayabusa...especially a well modified one.

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[KWhorenet]

Ok you have my attention. Fcuk the STI off with antibiotics and trailer that beast down to Phillip Island picking me up along the Sth Gippy Hwy.

I accept your offer and invite

If I Supermotard my 1988 Cagiva MV Augusta 250 2-stroke road legal endure bike, I may start taking on the ute for something to spice up trips to Melbourne.

Nothing like the acrid smell of castor oil fumes in the morning and the screaming banshee sounds waling through the city streets.

[bigfellascott]

I lost interest in cars after buying this in 2009...201HP at the back wheel & 0-300 in 17 seconds

Nothing screams "Small Man" syndrome louder then a Hayabusa...especially a well modified one.

08062010129.jpg

Ah ya got a long long way to go before you can call that one well modified!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1LJrWGiCC4

500HP Busa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-07cW1QgTM

[KWhorenet]

That thing has approx. 3x the ponies of my 4WD

[bigfellascott]

That thing has approx. 3x the ponies of my 4WD

and a power to weight ratio that would be rather mind blowing!

[Combat_Wombat]

Well with everyone carrying phones with good quality cameras and video recorders in theory there should be more footage of these popping up. Or maybe less people with the I swear I saw it but I left the camera at home stories

[tom604]

heap of blokes shooting,dogging, trapping,using trail cams(that can take "non"blurry photos) and still no big pussy

[bigfellascott]

heap of blokes shooting,dogging, trapping,using trail cams(that can take "non"blurry photos) and still no big pussy

Yeah I reckon if we did have puma's running around the joint they'd be long gone now I reckon (assuming no mating had happened to continue the line), as you point out no one has ever produced a clear pic of one and that should tell ya something hey.

I'll believe it when I see a pic of one dead on the ground!

[sbd3927]

Wouldn't the "it was huge and black and must have been, I mean WAS a Panther !! NO DOUBT ABOUT IT, I FEARED FOR MY POOR POODLES LIFE, AND MY OWN FOR THAT MATTER ARHGHGHGHGHGH !!!!. How much for my story ? " be more from city folk or simple bull-shitters?

I second that. When I was a kid, we had a chap out from Melbourne, who went for a walk along the Puffing Billy steam train line. He returned 15min later, nervous but proud... "I saw a fox, but I ran away before it knew I was there..." yup, they rear them tough in suburbia.
I grew up in Menzies Creek in the 80's (Monbulk, Silvan area like another post above) and there were always the rumours of big cats. Never saw anything like one, but sighting foxes or feral cats makes me want to hunt, not run for my life and tell stories.

[Die Judicii]

I have never seen one, but I do believe there are "big cats" out there.
About 4 year ago my daughter was on her trail bike and I was on the Quad, riding through scrub on a 4WD trail.
We saw in the damp soft sand approx. 15 or so foot prints that were definitely feline, and about 4 1/2" across and 3/4" deep.

So we are firm believers that big cats do in fact exist.
I used to own property that bounded that scrub, and saw other things that only supported my belief.
One day I found a dead eastern grey roo about 40 metres in from the fence, and apart from no other injury, it was missing its head.
The next morning I went to take pics of it, and found that it was now on the scrub side of the wire netting fence.
The netting was anchoured in the ground so it had to have been taken over the fence.
It had the rib cage opened and only the heart and liver had been taken.

Apart from the fact that we didn't have a wild dog problem, that was not a signature kill of wild dogs either.

I assume there are no pics of the prints or the roo body?

Yeah Ol Fella,
I did have 5 or 6 sequential photos of the roo.
1st was ( minus the head like I said before) and after it was taken over the fence during the 2nd night.
2nd was on the 5th day, with the rib cage bared and just the heart and lungs gone during the 3rd night.
3rd was on the 7th day (for some reason nothing touched it on the 4th and 5th night) and it was opened on the side and 1/2 the gut was gone.
4th and 5th pics were only of what was left, as by this time the crows and whatever else were all getting into it.
Nothing really exciting about them from memory, and they are in amongst approx. 5,000 other pics in my PC somewhere.

The footprints themselves were the really sad part, because they were so distinct , I went into town to get some plaster to take impressions of them
to show anyone that was interested.
By the time I got back from town, it had started to rain quite heavily (it rains for 9 months of the year and drips off the bushes for the other 3 down there) and by the time we got out to where the prints were, they were almost completely indistinguishable.
Really pissed off, and I'll most likely never get a chance like that again.

[FuzzyM]

Wouldn't the "it was huge and black and must have been, I mean WAS a Panther !! NO DOUBT ABOUT IT, I FEARED FOR MY POOR POODLES LIFE, AND MY OWN FOR THAT MATTER ARHGHGHGHGHGH !!!!. How much for my story ? " be more from city folk or simple bull-shitters?

I second that. When I was a kid, we had a chap out from Melbourne, who went for a walk along the Puffing Billy steam train line. He returned 15min later, nervous but proud... "I saw a fox, but I ran away before it knew I was there..." yup, they rear them tough in suburbia.
I grew up in Menzies Creek in the 80's (Monbulk, Silvan area like another post above) and there were always the rumours of big cats. Never saw anything like one, but sighting foxes or feral cats makes me want to hunt, not run for my life and tell stories.

Maybe I will have a lucky moment when I'm out with the 303.
Don't fancy taking one on with the .22.

Here's a question, could you legally shoot one if you saw it?
I imagine it would be somewhat akin to a feral cat legal wise?

[North East]

Wouldn't the "it was huge and black and must have been, I mean WAS a Panther !! NO DOUBT ABOUT IT, I FEARED FOR MY POOR POODLES LIFE, AND MY OWN FOR THAT MATTER ARHGHGHGHGHGH !!!!. How much for my story ? " be more from city folk or simple bull-shitters?

I second that. When I was a kid, we had a chap out from Melbourne, who went for a walk along the Puffing Billy steam train line. He returned 15min later, nervous but proud... "I saw a fox, but I ran away before it knew I was there..." yup, they rear them tough in suburbia.
I grew up in Menzies Creek in the 80's (Monbulk, Silvan area like another post above) and there were always the rumours of big cats. Never saw anything like one, but sighting foxes or feral cats makes me want to hunt, not run for my life and tell stories.

Maybe I will have a lucky moment when I'm out with the 303.
Don't fancy taking one on with the .22.

Here's a question, could you legally shoot one if you saw it?
I imagine it would be somewhat akin to a feral cat legal wise?

They are feral animals....shoot them.

[Oldbloke]

Just shoot it in the back,,,, twice, to be sure, to be sure.

Too bad about the prints being washed out.

[Redwood]

Make sure you install the fully sik blow-off valve that goes "Beeee...Itch" when you back off. The boys down Bankstown way swear it's good for bulk KW at the wheels M8.

Sticker on the back window with the brand of blow-off valve adds 5kw too

[Monty]

Maybe I will have a lucky moment when I'm out with the 303.
Don't fancy taking one on with the .22.

You may have seen it before, there is a take-down single-shot .22lr called a pack-rifle in the states.

I think it was the marketing material (could be wrong) or could have been just regular hunters showing their catches, but there were guys choosing it for hiking as their mountain lion gun

Care to face off against one with just one of these?

Not me.

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[sally-bee]

Make sure you install the fully sik blow-off valve that goes "Beeee...Itch" when you back off. The boys down Bankstown way swear it's good for bulk KW at the wheels M8.

So do they actually do anything real or it's just for a "cool" sound?

[headspace]

Let's just say someone did shoot one of these "panthers" where would they stand in regard to Lion trophies being banned?? Probably not going to happen though.
JD

[FuzzyM]

Maybe I will have a lucky moment when I'm out with the 303.
Don't fancy taking one on with the .22.

You may have seen it before, there is a take-down single-shot .22lr called a pack-rifle in the states.

I think it was the marketing material (could be wrong) or could have been just regular hunters showing their catches, but there were guys choosing it for hiking as their mountain lion gun

Care to face off against one with just one of these?

Not me.

IMGP3338.jpg

No thanks Monty, I think I will stick with the 303 on my next panther hunt

[Title_II]

We usually head down to Old City in Philadelphia when we want some cougar action here in the States

This thread is funny because we have had the same debate in Pennsylvania and surrounding states for decades. There is no doubt people have seen them for decades, and they have even been caught, but they are quite rare in the northeastern US. When they have been caught/found they have been declared "western" based on their DNA, and we have been told they just wandered into the area. Which may well be true. But they are here, even though the official position of all regional Fish and Game regulators is that they are not here.

More recently, Pennsylvania has taken a more hedged approach to their position. "No breeding pairs" and none native to the area. One of the things you need to understand is that in Pennsylvania (and likely most surrounding states) is that game commissions must "manage" all animals in the Commonwealth. And that means developing the population, and it means hunting seasons. PGC denied the presence of feral Russian hogs for 15 years because they were invasive. They pretended they weren't here publicly and tried to kill them off behind closed doors. It finally got to the point of absurdity and they admitted they were here and told hunters just to shoot them on sight.

[1290]

Didnt you guys also pretend the eastern gray puma still existed without actually seeing one for 80 years??
...... finally declaring them extinct just days ago??

The original theory of the black puma aka gigantus felinas negros mythicous Victorianus.... was that it was relased by USGIs....

[Title_II]

Didnt you guys also pretend the eastern gray puma still existed without actually seeing one for 80 years??
...... finally declaring them extinct just days ago??

That's what I am talking about. They've been seen, they've been caught, and they've been killed here in the last decade alone. Are they "Eastern?" I don't know or care. Whatever they are, they are puma and they are here, if extremely rare. There may only be 1 in my Commonwealth as of this morning, but there are not none. And there are probably quite a few more than that from time to time.

[Varmtr]

Not sure about Puma's but there's plenty of Adidas running wild in Bankstown & Lakemba

Lots of them wild in corio as well

Yeh but probably stolen

[Yelp]

Care to face off against one with just one of these?

Geeez, not me.

[WildHunter]

I was going through old Sporting Shooter mags today and found a heap of articles and letters referencing big cats in Aus. I put them aside because of this thread, to post. Of course I can't remember where now