I have heard stories of big cats in the bush for years but only creditable evidence was in the Ballarat newspaper "The Courier" a few years ago ,and the story stated that a US army unit stationed there during WW2 had a Puma as a mascot and it shows some pictures of it in Ballarat but when the unit was ordered north the pumas were taken to the Grampians and released. A women interviewed stated when she was a child she lived on a farm near the Grampians and 3 or 4 US army trucks came onto the property asking for directions to the Grampians and the soldiers showed her family not one but several pumas a adult and a few cubs since then there have been reports of pumas or big cats every so often , last one I heard of was a glider pilot spotted two pumas sunning themselves on a rock ledge in the Grampians. If the stories are true the cats would have interbred but for how long? Plenty of food Red Deer, Kangaroos, Wallabys, Wombats etc, but surely a cat would have been shot by now? but maybe never reported?

Steve