Woman films and photographs what she believes may be black panthers on Great Ocean Road

A woman claims to have captured on film this week “one of the legendary Great Ocean Road big black cats”, before sighting another possible panther soon after. See the video and photos.

A woman claims to have captured on film “one of the legendary Great Ocean Road big black cats” on Thursday morning, before sighting another possible panther shortly afterwards.

Posting her video footage and photos to Black Panther Sightings in Victoria Facebook page, she said the feline she filmed was up to 70cm in height and had a “classical slimline body and long tail with a flick-up at the end”.

It was just 50 metres or so from her car, she said.

“I stood unbelieving for a few seconds until my hubby snapped me out of my shock,” the woman, on holidays from Queensland, said.

“I wished I had got a side view instead of being dumbstruck. Not saying definitely that this is a panther, but it was bloody big for a pussy cat.”

A woman claims to have filmed and photographed what she believes to be panthers, prowling near the Great Ocean Road Picture: Facebook

The feline’s size and tail length and shape have led others to suggest it could be a juvenile panther. Picture: Facebook

Just a short time late, the same woman posted she had, incredibly, sighted another big black, panther-like cat in the area.

“This is smaller than our first sighting but just as exciting,” she posted.

Comments on her Facebook post included one suggesting the black cat she filmed was a juvenile panther as it was “way bigger than a domestic/feral cat and its tail is not that of a domestic/feral cat or dog”.

Another person said the feline was similar to those she had spotted on her property in Victoria’s high country.

Yet others said that based on the length and curve of the tail, the feline filmed was “definitely a big cat”.

It’s far from the first time people have claimed to seen panthers in Victoria.

In August last year, a spate of super-sized black cat sightings across the state sparked speculation that panthers roamed bushland areas.

The possible panther sightings included one by a Gembrook man who said he was working on a hill when he saw a large black animal that he believed to be a panther.

Yet other people posted photos of “massive” paw prints in the sand of horse riding arenas and the snow at Mt Buller — but those prints were debunked as being not those of a panther.

In June, a woman posted, that “at the risk of sounding crazy”, her mother had seen “an extremely large black cat sitting on the side of the road” after she had checked her cattle.

The feline was about “two foot in height”, when it stood, she said.

Meanwhile a Dromana man in July last year posted: “Walking my dog at the mountain bike jumps in Dromana just before dusk today when all of a sudden what can only be described as a large black cat ran across the path roughly ten metres ahead.

“Wasn’t just a black blur, I could clearly make it out as a feline and it was far too big to be a feral house cat. I’d estimate it was about as long and tall as a Labrador but much slimmer.”

A wild black panther in its natural habitat in the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve, India.

A close up of a black panther.

A couple of months earlier a motorbike rider said he was riding on one of favourite trails in the Wombat State Forest near Daylesford with his father and two mates when “out of nowhere a massive black catlike figure” ran in front of him.

“Was about three times the size of a golden retriever — I took off and it just vanished in a blink of an eye — no one believes me but I know what I saw,” he said.

There have been numerous claimed black panther sightings across Victoria in recent years, including this one.

There were also reported possible panther sightings in the Otway Ranges.

Some people suggested the growing popularity of large breed cats in Australia could be playing a part in the evolution of a hybrid feral breed, that was much larger than regular domestic cats and was therefore being confused with panthers.

Originally published as Woman films and photographs what she believes may be black panthers on Great Ocean Road