big black cats in the bush

This is no lie folks. Ive seen one with my own eyes in Talangi state forest back about eight years ago riding dirt bikes with a few mates. Scared the hell out of me Ive never ridden so fast in my life!

7w



http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200510/s1477836.htm

Shooter says he bagged 'urban legend' puma

A Melbourne man believes he has proof that a long-standing myth about the existence of big cats in the Victorian countryside is true.

Kurt Engel of Noble Park shot dead what is believed to be a black puma near Sale in East Gippsland in June.

Experts are conducting tests to confirm the identity of the big cat.

Mr Engel says farmers have seen big cats before but until now there has been no proof of their existence.

"Up until now it was just a myth, it's like, it might be like Big Foot," he said.

"People [have] seen them but never really can prove it but now it's come through, it did happen.

"I shot one and they do exist," Mr Engel said.

Rumours of big cats being spotted roaming in Gippsland and the Grampians have been rife since the 1970s.

One theory suggests that United States troops introduced the animals during World War II, eventually dumping their ex-mascots in the bush.

Some have dismissed the big cat stories as urban legend but an academic from Deakin University revealed last year that the stories were plausible.

Dr John Henry conducted research into the issue in the 1970s and told the ABC last year that he had "concluded that it was beyond reasonable doubt that there was a population of big cats in the Grampians at that time".

"If we were able to dismiss any account by another explanation that didn't require the invention of some exotic animal, we went for that every time," Dr Henry told ABC South-West Victoria.

"At the end of that there were four eyewitness accounts that we really couldn't knock over."

Dr Henry said that the population may have survived and even spread since the 1970s.

"If there are pumas in the Grampians - and we believe there's a strong case for that - then they would have bred up, they would have then moved out into adjacent suitable habitat," he said.
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