Phantom cat

• • NOTE: THIS ANIMAL DOES NOT EXIST**

Phantom cat

Grouping	Cryptid
Sub grouping	Various
Other name(s)	Alien Big Cat
Country	Various
Region	Various
Habitat	Various

Phantom Cats also known as 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 predation indicate large felines, such as jaguars or cougars. 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. Although ABCs are often referred to as "big cats", this term is often a misnomer as some sighted and/or caught ABCs are smaller cats such as lynx.

UK

Main article: British big cats

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.

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 cougars 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 a 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 Cougars in Victoria, and the Blue Mountains panther and Lithgow Panther in New South Wales.

See also: Gippsland phantom cat

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.

The Netherlands

In 2005 a black cougar 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

See also

• British Big Cats
• Cryptozoology
• Loren Coleman
• Blue Mountains panther
• Gippsland phantom cat

External links

Australia

• Australian article from The Sunday Herald Sun
• Australian article from The Bulletin
• Australian article from the Sydney Morning Herald
• Australian map of sightings near Sydney from the Sydney Morning Herald
• An overview of big cat sightings in Australia

Denmark

• The Beast of Funen

Finland

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

New Zealand

• List of sightings in New Zealand
• NZ Herald: MAF staff, wildlife experts hunt big black cat in vain
• Ashburton Guardian: An unsolved mystery

U. K.

• Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976
• September 2004 - Family Claims "Big Cat" Caught on Film
  • Video
• January 2003 attack
• BBC report
• http://www.britishbigcats.org/
• Cryptozoology/Big Cats at Curlie

United States

• Hawaiian Status Report on the Mystery Big Cat
  • Expert to Train Hawaii DLNR in Safe Capture Snaring Techniques