Phantom cat

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Phantom cats or alien big cats (ABCs) are a phenomenon of a number of countries and states including Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Denmark, and Hawaii. The reported sightings, tracks and injuries indicate large felines, like panthers or pumas. Many academics consider the study of ABCs to be at best fringe science, although a minority of academics consider this dismissal to be misguided. Evidence for the existence of ABCs is patchy but significant. The phrase "phantom panthers" was coined by cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, during his 1970s' in his investigations and writings on reports of large black mystery felids and massive maned cats in North America.

Although ABCs are often refered to as "big cats", this term is often a misnomer as some sighted and/or caught ABCs are smaller cats such as lynx.

Phantom Cats have been refered to in various popular media such as Marvel Comics

Contents

[edit] UK

Since the 1960s, there have been many sightings of big cats across Great Britain. An unusual concentration of sightings are in the southwestern region of England.

See British Big Cats

[edit] Australia

Sightings of exotic big cats in Australia began more than 100 years ago.

In the Gippsland region of south-eastern Victoria, the origin of the cats is claimed to be American World War II airmen who brought pumas with them as mascots and released them in the Australian Bush. No conclusion has been reached, and photographic evidence is often difficult to interpret. The mass slaughter of sheep is often given as evidence to support the big cat theory. They are often killed by a clean puncture or slit in the throat. The animals' insides are then eaten precisely and with no mess, in the same way big cat kills and eats its prey.

Several sets of video footage, claiming to show black panthers in the Australian Bush, have proved to be large feral cats.

Claimed sightings of big cats and their effects have led to government studies of the Grampian Mountains Pumas in Victoria, and the Blue Mountains panther and Lithgow Panther in New South Wales.

See also: Gippsland phantom cat

[edit] Denmark

In 1995, a big cat usually described as a lion (but sometimes as a lynx) was dubbed the Beast of Funen by nummerous eye-witnesses. There was an earlier big cat sighting from 1982 in southern Jutland.

[edit] The Netherlands

In 2005 a black puma was allegedly spotted on several occasions in a wildlife preserve, but the animal, nicknamed Winnie, was later identified as an unusually large crossbreed between a domestic and a wild cat.

[edit] New Zealand

Since the late 1990s, big cat sightings have been reported in widely separated parts of New Zealand, in both the North and South Islands. There have been several panther sightings in Mid-Canterbury near Ashburton and in the nearby foothills of the Southern Alps, but searches conducted there in 2003 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry found no corroborating physical evidence.

[edit] Hawaii

Stories of "mystery big cats" on the island of Maui have been circulating since the late 1980s. In December 2002, sightings of a big cat increased in number in the Kula (upcountry) area, and the Division of Forestry and Wildlife requested the help of big cat wildlife biologists William Van Pelt and Stan Cunningham of the Arizona Game and Fish Department. It is theorized that a large feline was illegally brought into Hawaii as a pet and released or allowed to wander in the wild. The big cat managed to elude traps, infrared cameras, and professional trackers. A fur sample was obtained in 2003 but DNA analysis was inconclusive. Experts speculate that the big cat may be either a Jaguar, Leopard or Mountain Lion.

[edit] Evidence for alien big cats

Dr. Darren Naish of the University of Portsmouth in the Britain discusses some of the evidence for ABCs on his blog.[1]

The New South Wales State Government reported in 2003 that it was "more likely than not" that there was a colony of exotic big cats living in the bush near Sydney.[2]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Australia

[edit] Denmark

[edit] Finland

  • (a lioness?) was observed by several people in Finland in 1992.

[edit] New Zealand

[edit] U. K.

[edit] United States

[edit] References

  1. ^ Naish blog.
  2. ^ SMH.
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