Big cat mystery latest in state's creature sightings

Big cat mystery latest in state's creature sightings
January 16, 2009
By Glenis Green
couriermail.com.au

THERE'S nothing quite like a mystery animal sighting to divert attention from life's less-happy realities such as the global economic crisis.

So this week's reports of a big cat prowling the rural suburb of Glenwood, north of Gympie, have not only given some light relief on the news front, they have also reignited the age-old debate over the existence of mythical and mysterious creatures in Queensland.

From the Kilcoy Yowie to the Logan Bunyip; the Buderim Beast to the Gayndah Bear, this state has had more than its fair share of unexplained animal sightings over the decades.

Whole websites are now devoted to Australian cryptozoology, featuring regular blogs detailing the latest sightings, recording local legend and analysing every skerrick of data, from prints and poo to grainy photos and video clips.

And now the Glenwood Panther can be added - thanks to the quick thinking of Pepper Rd pensioner Colin Rossow, 67, who managed to take a plaster cast of a huge paw print in soft dirt near his grape trellis last week.

Despite an initial flurry of scepticism, other Glenwood residents have come forward to relate their own close encounters of the big cat kind.

David Nelmes, who lives nearby in Fleming Rd, has even produced photographs of a similar panther-sized paw print he found in soft-packed clay around the water tank he installed some months back.

He took measurements and took his evidence to the local vet but did not go public for fear of ridicule.

Mr Nelmes said whatever made the prints had a stride measuring 130cm and he actually measured them against a neighbour's husky to see the difference.

"It was definitely a big cat and not a dog," he said.

"When I went to the vet he said, 'There's no dog that size', because when you look at it, it would have measured 1.3m from toe to toe."

Mr Nelmes said he had shot at feral cats in the St George area in his younger days and while some of them could get to the size of a young cocker spaniel, they were nowhere near as big as the marks near his tank indicated.

Wayne Welch, 53, of Kallangur, who is helping big cat expert Mike Williams with research for The Centre for Fortean Zoology and his new book, Big Cats in Australia, said he had been studying big cats himself since he was eight years old and he thought Mr Rossow's paw print looked genuine.

"Everyone believes that it is impossible for leopards or any big cat to be free within Australia," Mr Welch sai