Leopard sighting recorded near popular holiday spot
A LEOPARD sighting near one of the region's most popular holiday spots has excited one former Coast cat handler hunting for proof of big cats in Australia.
Sunshine Coast
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A LEOPARD sighting near one of the region's most popular holiday spots has excited one former Coast cat handler who is on the hunt for proof of big cats in Australia.
Vaughan King, founder of Australian big cat research group website pantherpeople.com, believes a big cat spotted near Rainbow Beach is likely to be a Melanistic or Asiatic leopard.
READ: Previous sightings: Big cat on the prowl?
He said they'd evolved with darker fur to suit dark, jungle environments, and expected that to be the type of cat spotted on Pettigrews Rd, Cooloola, near Rainbow Beach.
The sighting was logged on the website on April 25 at about 3.30pm.
The spotter said they were driving along a sandy track when the big cat crossed the path about 30m ahead of them, leaping across the 3m-wide track in one stride.
"Pure black with a very thick long tail. No snout like a dog, was definitely a big cat," the sighting log reads.
"Was easily the size of my 50kg Arab. I chose the snow Leopard as reference as it looked low and sleek with the big chunky tail."
Mr King said it was possible the cat was a black jaguar, but it was more likely a leopard.
The former big cat handler at Australia Zoo has given himself a year to find definitive proof of big cats existing in Australia.
He's been on the road since April, and is currently "wedged between hotspots" in Victoria, after a string of sightings in the Dandenong, Healesville and Warburton areas.
"Victoria is certainly the hotspot in Australia," Mr King said.
His website had more than 40 new sightings logged in the last fortnight alone, and there's been more than 200 big cat sightings registered nationwide since he launched the research site.
He's working on identifying sighting hotspots and territories through the data to pinpoint his search.
"It's just been going gangbusters," he said.
Some recent media appearances as well as a pug mark spotted in the Illawarra had resulted in a spike of reports in that region too.
He said the Cooloola sighting wasn't too far away from historic reports of big cats to the north and north-west of Gympie, and if he'd been local he said he probably would've sped to the scene to try and track the cat.
"These animals move so far, even in a night," Mr King said.
"I do feel like I'm chasing shadows sometimes."
He said being close to the sighting hotspots ensured he could be on scene, talking to people who'd spotted big cats within an hour or two of the sighting now, which was helping his quest to find indisputable evidence.
"I'm certainly getting closer," he said.
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