Gympie farmers shut down panther rumours after catching big cat on camera

It’s the stuff of legends. Panther-like big cats prowling the forests of the Wide Bay. Now, a farmer has captured a culprit on camera.

Tales of panther-like creatures prowling farms and forests have circulated the Gympie and Fraser Coast regions for decades.

Reported “sightings” in Glenwood, Miva, Curra, Rainbow Beach and Widgee have fascinated residents in the past, with rare photos and video footage of big black cats and paw prints emerging every few years.

Now, Langshaw farmers Jo and William Garrett believe they have the answer.

They didn’t buy into the legend but were intrigued when, while looking back on feral pig camera footage taken on their farm on Tuesday night (August 17), they spotted a huge black cat.

“It’s just a big feral cat, it’s not a panther,” Ms Garrett said.

“There are quite a few big feral cats out living in the forestry and around doing untold damage to our native wildlife.”

At 9:11pm on August 17, 2021, this big black feral cat approached the dead calf (circled in red) on a property at Langshaw, southwest of Gympie. Picture: Jo Garrett.

MORE GYMPIE NEWS: Violent dad ripped crying child from mother’s arms and fled

In the image, a calf carcass can be seen in the foreground (circled in red) which gives an idea of the cat’s size.

The idea that these animals are more than just overgrown feral cats originally stemmed from an urban legend that an Asiatic leopard escaped from a circus that travelled to Gympie, and bred with nearby cats.

“He's probably one of the biggest cats I have seen on the cameras … possibly the size of a small to medium dog, but it is certainly no panther,” Ms Garrett said.

“We do not buy into the whole panther debate, which we find hilarious, but I can understand why people might mistake it for something it’s not.”

A very large black cat caught on camera at a Miva property in 2018, which resident Wendy Elsley said could be mistaken by some to be a black panther.

Ms Garrett said the cameras placed around their ginger and cattle farm caught “a couple” of feral cats (while not as big as this) every week and these felines posed a great threat not only the farm animals but also to native wildlife in the area.

“Their predation on native bird species (is an issue), they have no boundaries, no hesitation about taking things for food, they do have a tendency to kill for pleasure or just out of boredom,” she said.

“If we can all just be very careful about desexing our pet cats and please keep them in at night because otherwise they end up breeding with our feral population and this is what we see on our cameras, lots and lots of different sorts of strays.”

William and Jo Garrett, the couple who captured a big black cat on their security camera.

Ms Garrett said there were ways farmers could keep the feral cats out, using tools like traps which could be purchased or hired.

“Nothing has happened to that cat but I know there are people who do trap and he is certainly one we would like to see taken out of the environment, whether the RSPCA could rehome him or not,” she said.

MORE GYMPIE NEWS: Quick thinking saves koala and joey after devastating attack

“We have used traps in the past for everything from rehoming bandicoots that have gotten into our veggie patch to rehoming feral cats.

“A part we can all play is looking after our own animals.”