Mornington Peninsula big cat sightings light up social media
THE Mornington Peninsula’s big cat legend refuses to slink away, with fresh sightings of the elusive animals lighting up social media. And with the proliferation of private CCTV, could the oversized creatures finally be caught on camera?
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THE Peninsula’s big cat legend is refusing to slink away, with fresh sightings prompting a call for people with private CCTV to check their footage.
Social media lit up recently after the member of a Facebook group posted about her mother seeing a “massive black cat the size of a labrador” from the window of her Sorrento home on February 7.
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More than 100 members joined the conversation, with many sharing reports of their own sightings including in Rosebud, Boneo and Karingal.
Another sighting was reported late last year in Flinders to the Australian Big Cat Research Group on its website pantherpeople.com.
A dog walker was out on December 4, about 6.45am near Wood St, when they spotted a heavy-set creature near a thicket behind BA Cairns Reserve.
“My other dog was jumping around in the thicket and there was a strong smell of big cat pee (we went on safari earlier in the year),” the post said.
“I went back later on to try and get a print but a big snake was in the area!”
Melbourne-based big cat researcher Michael Moss said big cat sightings were not uncommon on the Mornington Peninsula.
Mr Moss, who has been tracking the big cat legend across Australia for more than 25 years, said there was not enough scientific evidence to “disprove the myth”.
“Pumas are elusive animals and they roam across a very large territory,” Mr Moss said.
“People have been reporting sightings, especially in rural areas, for a very long time and farming communities have also experienced significant stock loss that cannot be conclusively explained.”
He urged landowners to check their security tapes for vision of the feline.
“Places like Sorrento are wired now with private CCTV and there’s every chance that the evidence we are looking for has been inadvertently recorded,” Mr Moss said.
He also recommended motorists with dash cams installed in their vehicles to review the footage, especially motorists who regularly drove at dawn and dusk.
Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning spokeswoman Taryn Hunter said there were no records of “big cats” in official zoological databases, despite considerable research over many decades.
She said most sightings were inconclusive and likely involved feral domestic cats.