"That's not a f****** cat - that's huge!" exclaimed one of the witnesses, a television cameraman.
"It was a cat the size of a German Shepherd!"
Pawprints the trio later found in the snow measured 10cm in circumference.
The local zoo Orana Park dismissed the footage as domestic cat - but the witnesses say if that's the case, it's one monster moggy!
The mid-Canterbury area is well known for its big cat sightings and was the setting for Prints of Darkness, a documentary about New Zealand's big cats by New Zealanders Mark Orton and Pip Walls.
The area also featured in Australian Big Cats: An Unnatural History of Panthers by Michael Williams and Rebecca Lang, which includes a chapter about New Zealand's big cats.
You can view the footage here:
http://www.3news.co.nz/Canterburys-big-cat---real-or-myth/tabid/367/articleID/222632/Default.aspx
Several of the reports of unknown big cats in Australia, and even some of the recovered bodies of such-turn out to be exactly what you stated: "A domestic (house) cat run wild the size of a german shepard, one monster moggy"
ReplyDeleteEvidently the genetics of an ordinary cat include the innate capability to grow up to such a huge size in the lack of any naturally-present competition in the area.
Best Wishes, Dale D.
Indeed Dale, indeed. We certainly found many cases of 'monster moggies' while writing our book Australian Big Cats: An Unnatural History of Panthers (the Kurt Engel case is perhaps the best known) - but strangely many people don't seem to think this fact on its own has any significance.
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