Thread: New Zealands big Cats

I hate feral cats and have shot some large toms over the years,before a camera was part of my hunting kit.Who has photos or stories of large cats in NZ?
I will start with a photo taken 2 yrs ago by an American tourist who was camping near me in Mt Cook Nat Park.He came over to our camp to ask if we had Cougars in NZ as he had just seen one about the size of a Labrador dog,it went into the scrub and a hare ran out so he had a size comparison at the same distance of approx 300yds.I asked if he was able to photograph it to which he replied sure and showed me the photo on the camera screen.He later sent me a hard copy.I have since been back to the same spot and looked at the rock the cat is standing on, it,s not a small rock that is a big cat!!.


These are some cat prints in the sand on a remote beach on SI Westcoast also 2yrs ago.That stride bigger than the average moggy.


This cat lost the fight with a .375 H&H Mag.It had no top teeth at the front only the bottom ones, it was a young cat in good nick shot this year Central Otago.

you certainly don't want one climbing up you!

Nice shooting
Yeah there's some big pussy's out there that's for sure.

We normally get quite a few each time we hit the roos in the Mac.
Also on the farms I do some bunny population reducing on, I have come across a few. They seem to do very well on the young bunnies.
Heard of a pussy getting drilled at nearly 2000m on a range pass down Qtown way when guys were doing a goat cull.
Was a scraggly skinny feral from all accounts. Best thing was it got taken out.

There is/was a very large feral moggy living around the Landcorp block to the south of Mt. Tauhara in Taupo. I disturbed it once in a paddock across the road from our farm house while out training for cross country. Thought it was a stray dog at first as it ran away, but it stopped and looked at me before diving through the fence into the black berry. I got a good look at it, basically a very stocky cat of some kind, about the same size as a mature lab, maybe a little shorter height wise, but much much larger than the average house cat. Big enough to take a smaller sheep I reckon, easily able to take a lamb. I got the usual "cool story" when I told my parents. Then my mum saw it a couple of days later in the same paddock. Didn't see it for another 2 years after that, on the same block but about a hundred yards from our neighbors house. We turned up to get some mutton and they were standing out on the drive with binos checking it out. It's facial structure looked more like the big cats in Africa etc. What ever it was it would have been well fed.

I have seen a couple in Canterbury, they have a weird sort of haunch eh..big, powerful rear end and lower set shoulders.

This one made the mistake of showing itself while I was culling Goats on a neighbours forestry block. They must eat a LOT of native birds going by the size of some of them

Originally Posted by 7mmsaum

This one made the mistake of showing itself while I was culling Goats on a neighbours forestry block. They must eat a LOT of native birds going by the size of some of them

Now that is a good cat. Dead

Did you get any photos of its teeth?

I shot one down Cromwell way that was more like a leopard.. long long tail and long legs - was huge, quite different from your usual big moggie
Didnt get to retrieve it as it ended up in a burrow under a big boulder
Talked to station owner about it, apparently it was a 'Bendigo Tiger'
Great? Grandfather of Bendigo station introduced them 100 or so yrs ago to control the rabbit problem
Imported from India - cant remember the name of the cat - I think they are the ones you see draped around peoples shoulders over there

Same thing is happening over the ditch, some little cats getting VERY big as they get more feral.

Originally Posted by Spanners

I shot one down Cromwell way that was more like a leopard.. long long tail and long legs - was huge, quite different from your usual big moggie
Didnt get to retrieve it as it ended up in a burrow under a big boulder
Talked to station owner about it, apparently it was a 'Bendigo Tiger'
Great? Grandfather of Bendigo station introduced them 100 or so yrs ago to control the rabbit problem
Imported from India - cant remember the name of the cat - I think they are the ones you see draped around peoples shoulders over there

Ocelot?

Originally Posted by Wirehunt

Same thing is happening over the ditch, some little cats getting VERY big as they get more feral.

Do the local wild life a favour and shoot them Wirehunt.

Originally Posted by Rushy

Ocelot?

I dunno - founds familiar?
I'm down that way in a month and will ask if I remember

There was a fair bit about these cats sightings in the media a few years back


Big Cat Sightings in New Zealand

Smacked a cat on the run with a 20 gauge a few years ago. Had my now wife out with me for a rabbit shoot( her 1st and it happened to be her gun i shot it with too(i'd bought it for her)) It would have been a good 40 metres so i was most surprised when i saw it do the dead cat flip. I got a bit of a earbashing from her too when she realised i had shot a cat. just had to explin it was a wild one , kills native birds, spreads disease blah blah blah and that the bet one is a dead one. She understands now though.