MYSTERY ANIMAL

Hokitika Guardian, 27 August 1927, Page 2

MYSTERY ANIMAL

PROWLING IN THE BUSH. IN NEW SOUTH AY ALES DISTRICT SYDNEY, August 4. The Cootamundra district in South ern New South AVales is excited over reports of a large animal which has been seen prowling the bush, and bands of armed men have spent several days in hunting it unsuccessfully. Whether it is an outsize iu dogs dingoes, or foxes. or whether it is a tiger or a jaguar that has escaped from some travelling circus, is not yet certain, but the settlers are convinced that it is something which must he treated with respect and prudence.

Recently one settler named Fox had a startling experience with it. Armed with a shot gun. he came face to face with the beast. He fired three shots at, it. The first missed, owing to the marksman’s high excitement. The second also went wide, hut Fox declared that tile third took effect, at a distance of fit) yards. His dog then rushed at the animal, hut the beast opened its mouth and crunched the dog to death and sped into the bush. Not placing too much reliance on his gun, which had proved itself unreliable on former occasions. Fox did not pursue the beast. He formed a party of about 40 settlers. and one day this week they searched for traces of the strange denizen of the Australian bush. Fox described it as being about eight feet long, without counting the tail, and with short logs. As it dashed away from Fox, it moved rapidly and silently and leaped with ease across a creek twenty feet wide. Led by box, the party went to the spot where lie had encountered it. and there found t.lie body of his dog, which had been ripped for lour or five inches along the windpipe and shoulder. The claw marks appeared to he those ol some animal larger than a dog. fox. or dingo, footprints found by the party were also larger than a dog’s, and marks of blood were discovered, indicating that Fox’s assumption that he had wounded the unknown beast was correct. Another mark of the unknown's depredations was the finding of a dead kangaroo, with its throat bitten through. Mucli of the country over which the search led consisted of ragged racks and wild Imsh. Some blood stains were found oil stones at the mouth of a cave on the side of a hill, hut none of the party' cared to venture inside to investigate. Experienced buslmieii declared that all the indications were that the marks of the beast were too formidable to he those of the ordinary wild animals of the Australian bush. 'lhe general opinion is that the animal is a jaguar. It was reported that when a circus camped at a small’ township in the district about a year ago, an animal escaped, and on another occasion four years ago, five animals escaped, of which only four were i ecu pi tired. During the last twelve months serious losses of stock have occurred in the district, and settlers are now attributing tnem to the forays of this strange beast.