Video of Australian Mystery Cat
Posted by: Loren Coleman on February 1st, 2010
Otway’s resident Connie Whistance claims she has proof big cats roam [the Australian] bush after catching remarkable footage of an unidentified animal from her hand-held video camera [on January 29, 2010].
Ms Whistance said she has been stalked by the creatures over the last two years, sighting them on numerous occasions on her property.
But January 29, 2010’s vision, taken near Binns Track on the edge of the Otway National Park, was the first hard evidence she had to prove to sceptics big cats were in fact prowling the region.
Ms Whistance said she watched the feline-like black animal wander around farmland about 500m from her home.
“It was there for a good 15 to 20 minutes,” Ms Whistance said.
“It looked down like it was eating something and eventually it went back into the swampland.”
Ms Whistance said she first spotted a big cat outside her home near Barongarook in April 2008, and was so paralysed by fear that she was eventually forced to move house.
Since then she said she has seen several panther-like creatures in various sizes and markings.
“(In 2008) the cat’s and dog’s behaviour had been erratic and they wouldn’t go outside. Then one night I pulled into my driveway and I thought an alien was looking at me,” Ms Whistance said.
“I didn’t know what to do, it had these big green eyes.”
The mystery of the big cat has baffled experts and residents in the region for years.
Despite hundreds of claimed sightings, the matter is often been fobbed off as myth.
In April 2009, a women told of a mystery big black cat issuing a screaming growl within 30m of her home at Kawarren, south of Colac.
In 2008, big cat researcher Simon Townsend blamed the death of 40 livestock in the region on roaming panthers.
Mr Townsend has since bought state-of-the-art camera equipment in a bid for elusive footage but the panthers have continued to dodge the cameras.
Source. “Otways video captures what could be big cat” by Christie Peucker
January 30th, 2010.
{Why did I have this urge to say “Kitty, kitty, kitty,” after seeing this blobfelid footage? – Loren}
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Update: Image below is one mentioned by Matt Bille, below.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
It’s hard to doubt Australia has some kind of large imported feline predator. In this case, one certainly gets the impression of a bigger animal than a standard domestic feline. (It does put me in mind of those Australian photos from a few years ago showing the body of what appreared to be the biggest feral cat in history.)
It’s hard to see what this animal’s gait is like because of the camera motion. It will be interesting if a Cryptomundo reader can stabilize this footage and perhaps republish (within copyright laws, of course) some stills as well.
Looked like a dark colored fox to me
Cool kitty. Or wolf, maybe. Fox? Who can tell?
This one cries out for stabilization. It is impossible to tell what that is. I’m not sure what to say about the practice of submitting totally inclusive video, regardless the compelling nature of one’ s personal experience. But maybe – as with Patty – stabilizing this one might get some additional detail to emerge.
I feel that Australia does have some big mystery cats, but this video only adds mystery to the mystery.
Obviously its shaky, and of course their is no size reference for which we could judge the size of the animal.
Australia seems like such an interesting continent.
Greetings All!
If I hadn’t been told what it was supposed to be, I would have said it was a fox. The tail seems too big to be a cat of any sort. It would be helpful to see a (steady) shot of a human at the same spot for size comparison. And it seems to me that a big cat would haul its food off to eat it in private, wouldn’t it?
whew! thought I had too much coffee, shaky shaky eggs and baky! 🙂
Interesting, but hard to say. I agree with Matt, hopefully someone has the time and capability to stabilize the footage.
Wobble wobble wobble.
It certainly isn’t huge. Stabilization would be nice. There are times when it looks more like a fox or a coyote.
That doesn’t mean what she has seen at other times might not be large cat-like animals.
Unless someone goes out there and stands in the same spot so we can get some idea of how big those rows in the field or the height of the bushes in the background I don’t know how you can say this isn’t just a very large house cat. I wouldn’t doubt the existence of non-native big cats in the area, but I certainly wouldn’t call this proof of them. If she called the police then I’d suspect that someone would have been able to find prints as well.
Based on the size of the fence in the frame, it looks like a standard barbedwire fence, I would say the size of this cat is well within the range of domesticated. Also, based on the shaking of the camera I would assume the person filming is quite a distance away and has the camera zoomed as far as it can get go. At ranges that far probably 200+ yards or even much greater there is really now way to correctly estimate the size of an animal that small when we’re talking about an animal that is 12 inches tall compared to an animal that may be 3ft tall.
Not sure what all the hype’s about; in relation to the uncut grass and fence posts, the animal doesn’t really appear all that big – at least not appreciably bigger than a large domestic cat.
Here’s another thought: how hard would it have been for Ms Whistance to simply follow-up by filming an object of known size, in the same place as the “panther-like creature”, for comparison?
I think this blobcat is more of a kitten… 🙂
The few times there was any kind of focus going on the “thing” looked more coyote like than feline. Someone really needs to teach people how to use their cameras.
I agree with MattBille, like Brittan’s alien big cats, this is most likely a pet gone feral. That does not mean we should be dissmissive about this sighting, as we do not have any DNA to verify this theory. However, even if we discover that this is just a feral pet we should pay close attention to how they breed and behave in this new environ as it will help us to understand how Brittan’s felids have become such a unique population. I know we tend to write-off OOPAs that are obvious pets, but there is a great deal that can be learned by these creatures as they sometimes can develop unique genetic profiles and conditions.
Yes, PLEASE somebody stabilize this footage.
Very promising and provocative footage.
Not a definite “slam bang” but definitely merits further study. 🙂
I believe that there are “Big cats” in the Otways as i was lucky enough to see one several years ago while on holidays in this area.
Its a shame the footage is so jumpy thou:(
I am in the process of building a cabin in the Otways area close to where i had my sighting and plan to spend some time looking for proof of their presence.
The animal looks like an ordinary domestic cat to me (as if there was anything ordinary about a cat!).
As to the cat that Matt refers to (the “Gippsland cat”), those photos were obviously shot using forced perspective. The fact that the only part of that carcass that was sent to any sort of authority for further examination was the tail raises a red flag that spells h-o-a-x to me.
I concur with shumway10973 in that, in certain frames, it looks more canine, or, in my opinion, like a fox.
There may very well be big cats in Australia(as a result of many possibilities) but this grossly poor quality video reduces the scrutiny to the ridiculous bigfoot level where people are speculating on indistinct ambiguities.
All other obvious factors aside, e.g., nothing as a size reference, blurry and shaking picture, the thing I was impressed, with as I stopped and advanced the video bit by bit, was that it brought a thylacine to mind rather than a big cat.
I agree with JBrook the fence makes it look like a domestic cat. Most of my colleagues agree it is a black fox.
I was in the Otways in January and spotted a black cat on the road ahead – and even had a car camera running, but I haven’t yet checked the footage: I think the cat was just normal sized.
However, further west, near Portland (which has turned up its fair share of Tasmanian tiger sightings), a colleague found what looks to me like a large cat footprint. It seemed to be an old print and was found on the packed-sand floor of the entrance to a limestone cave overhang. I don’t have the name of the caves to hand, but they’re a tourist stop near the two lakes which are north of Cape Bridgewater. I think it’s where the label “Bridgwater Lakes Aquatic Club” is shown in this map.
I took photos of the print, with scale, and will have to get to posting them.
Also in that area I saw what *did* look like a large cat run across the road ahead of us. Friends were travelling in convoy, in front of us and we came over a crest. It would have been somewhere around 8.30 to 9pm. It was only getting dark at 8.50pm. Way ahead I saw a large animal cross from right to left and disappear into a stand of pine trees. Afterwards I asked my friend whether he saw it and he said no. I had the car camera running that time too, but when I started checking the footage, at that sort of distance it would have appeared as only a couple of pixels. The car cam is great for stuff that crosses just in front of you, but this animal was anything up to about 800m away.
Still, given the width of the road I’d say this was large enough to be a “big cat”. This was also January this year.
I forgot to add we also found scats near the lakes (i.e. near the footprint too) which contained what I first thought was the skin of a black snake, but later reasoned was the foot pad of a wallaby. Given the scat was on the ground I figured it was not a big cat’s scat (unless someone can tell me that some big cats don’t bury their waste?) but more likely fox or feral dog.
Ok – extra info. I made a mistake on the time of the “big cat” sighting – it was broad daylight. I just checked the car cam video and there is no way you could see the animal if it was there – the distance was just too far.
I also just checked the photos of the possible big cat print we found. They show 3 digits which span 8.1cm. From a reference chart published by Denver Zoo, this matches the size of a jaguar. I’ll work on getting photos of the print online soon.
I wish people would learn to at least use a monopod when taking videos such as this. They also need to learn than when they are at maximum, or close to it, zoom that any little movement of the camera is magnified by that same amount.
Thanks to Kittenz for reminding me on the Gippsland cat. I knew it was forced perspective (as with the giant desert arthropods from the Persian Gulf and some giant-hog pictures), but it still looked unusually big. I yield to the expertise of the animal professionals, though.
The evidence for an introduced big cat of some sort in Australia is one of the most compelling cases in cryptozoology. Sightings, track casts, kills, etc. keep piling up. It’s a shame this video does not appear to settle the question.
I do wonder about possible overlap with between big cats reports and the marsupial “Queensland tiger.” The latter is always reported as striped, but, assuming it is in fact a surviving marsupial predator, could it have solid-colored variants?
At 0:25. of the film, the shape is clear, and it looks just like a fox. But, a black fox? Interesting, in that respect.
The reported actions of the “fox” also match the known behaviour of a fox hunting field mice.
Is it a prerequisite that all anomolies be photographed in short, blurry, jerky sequences? Two words, folks; “Auto-focus” and “Stabilize”.
Hi MattBille,
on my site I analysed the Engel Gippsland cat. I was given information about the size of its tail, supplied by first-hand witness Mike Williams, who measured it. It was simple geometry to work out the length of the cat from there. The final estimate was a tip-to-tip length of between 170 and 176cm with Guiness World Records noting the largest confirmed domestic cat length as 122cm.
The story is that Mr Engel had to dispose of the body due to complaints from family, but kept the tail as a souvenir. I know people who’ve done likewise with foxes they’ve shot and I don’t find that part of the story at all unusual – despite the enthusiasm of most people commenting in this thread, there are plenty of land owners who couldn’t care less if the animal they’ve just shot is of interest to cryptozoology. In any case, the DNA analysis, based on samples from the tail, identified the cat as a domestic.
Regarding marsupial colour patterns, I know that quolls, which are normally spotted, can appear in an all-white form. (In fact many other Australian animals do likewise, including birds like the kookaburra and monotremes like the echidna). When I examined the last mainland Eastern quoll specimen, held at the Australian Museum, I noted another quoll which had a disproportionately large white patch on it – kind of like 5 or 6 spots blended together. I can easily imagine an ordinarily striped marsupial exhibiting a solid, or near solid colouration. In fact, Tasmanian tiger photos show some specimens with numerous thick stripes; others show barely any stripes and those that are there are thin. My site also has an index to various quoll articles, including photos of the ones mentioned here.
I needed a glass of wine after that! It looked like a nervous Fox, big tail, or the tail was shaking too much, or I was having an attack, or the film, as is, is useless.
Too much can be read into shaky, blurry videos and pictures that speculation seems to muddy the pond, often detracting from the truth rather than contributing, and often giving fodder to the scoftics.
Did anyone else notice the fence only appears after 13 seconds? It looks like 2 clips put together. In both clips the animal faces right. In the 2nd clip the animal is to the right of the fence. If the 2nd clip was in fact shot second, then in between clips 1 and 2 the animal must have crossed the fence. Why was that not filmed, or if it was filmed, why was that segment excluded? If the 2nd clip was filmed first then it’s possible the animal did not cross any fence line.
There is a follow-up article in the Geelong Advertiser today.
Interestingly, the local football club is known as the Geelong Cats.
Chris.
Thanks for the Gippsland and marsupial information, YouCan.
Dick Raynor has a stabilized frame posted on the Big Cat forum. It no longer looks exceptionally big to me.
Now that the footage has been stabilized, it DOES look like a Fox, although a larger-than-average Fox.
Still, there is that ambiguity about it that keeps it interesting.
I think the fence line is of quite large and scrubby and not relatively short grass, possibly they can be seen on Google earth. So the animal is likely large enough to be a fox, bearing in mind if the animal is not adult fox size a young small fox may look much like an adult. It is not impossible the animal is a dog as they vary so much and a dog can look like almost anything-even a lion.
The picture, to me, is not clearly of a fox and in some pictures looks almost thylacine like. Not far from a nature park and wilderness and one needs to keep a cryptozoological open mind?
It would be helpful if a stabilised film was available, if I understand only a frame has been ? If not so, could a link be given please?
Personally I am grateful for Connie Whistance supplying these interesting pictures and in view of the reports of activity there could be more to come. I hope so!
It’s unlikely that is not a standard size barbed wire fence. That being the case the cat is as big as a house cat.
I dont know what a standard size fence is in this area, perhaps a local can measure one of the type shown, they appear to be recognizable on google earth suggestion if so they are quite tall.
A lot of foxes are surprisingly small and large old dog foxes less common. A normal fox is about 14 ins high at the back. So it all depends on the height of the grass and vegetation-or a large cat!
Pawnee responds:
…Two words, folks; “Auto-focus” and “Stabilize”.
In my experience a camera on autofocus will start to “hunt” when waved around, resulting in very few sharp frames to work on. I find it best to leave the focus locked on infinity, or the hyperfocal distance if you have one 😉
Are we all looking at the same video? This just looks like any other ordinary house cat. I know large predatory felines are more exciting than common house cats, but I don’t see anything in this video which would suggest anything more than a domestic cat. Had the person taking the video merely knelt down and steadied the camera on their knee, or against a small tree, this would have been much easier to watch. It’s starting to give me a headache, and I don’t see any reason to keep looking at it.
I found this stabilized version here.
It is a bit better especially towards the end.
Shape and movement looks more like a fox than anything else to me.
What ever it is it’s small and not a large animal, pet kitty more than likely. The purposfully skaken cam to distort what is being filmed doesn’t help push it’s case much either.
Rest your eyes on this MrInspector
These foxes have been domesticated and have been kept as pets.