Panther real: vet

Greg)Rex and I have been to the area and are going again this Saturday after a new sighting this week was reported to us.

SINCE the Northern News reported a panther sighting at Maraylya two weeks ago, there have been four more sightings.

According to Grose Vale woman Chris Coffey, who has spent thousands of dollars and many hours of her time collating sightings, there is a breeding population in the Hawkesbury.

"People ring and you know they have seen something because they are so upset," she said. But, said Ms Coffey, the Department of Primary Industries is unconvinced.

"The DPI has photographs, they have got video footage but they want scientific evidence. Isn't 10cm pug prints and scratches in trees scientific evidence?" she asked.

A department spokesman said he was aware of a number of alleged panther sightings. "In the past we've done a lot of work setting up cameras," he said. "At this stage we haven't come across any hard evidence that concludes there are panthers.

"We take people's reports seriously. We've taken paw prints that have been analysed by zoos and the results confirm a large cat, not a panther."

Ms Coffey disagrees and warns: "If you get up in the morning and find your animals badly injured or dead, don't just put it down to a dog attack. Report it to the Rural Lands Protection Board and someone will come out and investigate."

Board district veterinarian, Keith Hart, who has had experience with big cats in Africa, has lobbied on behalf of the community but says the response has to come from the Department of Primary Industry.

"I've no doubt they're big cats people are seeing," he said. "It's a breeding population of black panthers living on the fringe of Sydney. We need the State Government to acknowledge and give the community some guidelines as to what they should and shouldn't be doing.

"Leopards are considered the smartest of the big cats and the expertise is not available in this country to track them." "At the moment they are living in a fairly cordial relationship, ignoring humans, but there is a record of a leopard in India killing 120 people. "If something goes bad it could go bad in a big way."