Thread: New Zealands big Cats

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.

also a ocelot costs close to or over a thousand dollares.
anyone with one wouldnt let it get away surely.

Originally Posted by Bill999

also a ocelot costs close to or over a thousand dollares.
anyone with one wouldnt let it get away surely.

They were released 100? yrs ago
Ill be seeing them in a few weeks and get the full story

when I first got my firearms licence at the age of 16 I was staying on a friend of the famlies farm I shot 32 wild cats over a 3 week stay that included leaning on the boundry fence and shooting them on the place next door as well as well

Iv caught a tom cat so large and fat that he had to inch his way cm by cm into one of my box traps, getting him out after he had run outta life was a very tight squeeze

aparently that pan fried snapper was just a little too tempting,
and he came from the back of my 205 acre property backing onto a landcorp station.
im yet to see in person any domestic that comes close, but he was definitly from domestic bloodlines. Black typical cat looking with a normal head, Fat as and bigger than average body. very well fed on my phesants and quail me thinks

we do get a constant supply of dropoffs here tho.

Oh boy feral cats are great sport for shooting. IMO any cats are... Mongrel damn things. Did a week on rabbits on a station in Otago 10 years ago and it was a huge buzz when a cat would pop up in the middle of some rocks while we were pinging rabbits. There'd be a shout of "CAT" and all the .22's would swing on to it and a hail of lead would be sent it's way. Whoever pinged it earned breakfast in bed from the other shooters in the shearers quarters next morning. Similarly, odd coloured rabbits were worth bonuses too, a black one would get you a rum and coke brought to you by the others at days end, and a ginger one earned you a brandy-dry! We shot 4 cats and 1200 rabbits in 4 days between three of us, after the virus had gone through.

Ray.

Been those sightings down South too, which sounded interesting

Got a mate in Pest Destruction who I hunt with .

He's said for years that the back country is riddled with bloody moggies ...

I didnt believe him until I saw the cat shit .. and then several cats on molesworth last year.




Tim

it really is all bullshit till someone puts a bullet in one and posts the photo.
Ocelot

it seems tho that most seen are black and large rather than the ocelot pattern

smoke one spanners. you can do it

Originally Posted by Bill999

it really is all bullshit till someone puts a bullet in one and posts the photo. Ocelotit seems tho that most seen are black and large rather than the ocelot pattern smoke one spanners. you can do it

Not dismissing the ocelot ! But have a theory on large black cats . I used to do a lot of pig hunting , most pigs where gey in colour ,andOne out of Ten would be black . When we got multiple pigs the black pigs always appeared bigger , even too an experienced eye . When the pigs where put side by side the black pigs where no bigger just looked bigger . In open country black sticks out like dogs balls and they appear bigger . Anyone else experience this

Originally Posted by Munsey

Not dismissing the ocelot ! But have a theory on large black cats . I used to do a lot of pig hunting , most pigs where gey in colour ,andOne out of Ten would be black . When we got multiple pigs the black pigs always appeared bigger , even too an experienced eye . When the pigs where put side by side the black pigs where no bigger just looked bigger . In open country black sticks out like dogs balls and they appear bigger . Anyone else experience this

I once read an article about the Canterbury Panther or Big Cat or whatever it was called, but you know what I'm talking about. The writer said that when domesticated cats became feral, within a few generations, they usually became black in colour. This is by natural selection because the black cats made better hunters, due to being hidden in the dark. The writer also said that they tended to become larger too, for the same reasons. Perhaps part of the reason whenever someone sees the "Canterbury Panther" and thinks its huge is because it is some black feral cat and that colour, like you said, makes it seem larger. Along with the fact that they are probably a bit bigger than a domesticated cat would be (but still no where near the size of a Panther".

Originally Posted by phillipgr

I once read an article about the Canterbury Panther or Big Cat or whatever it was called, but you know what I'm talking about. The writer said that when domesticated cats became feral, within a few generations, they usually became black in colour. This is by natural selection because the black cats made better hunters, due to being hidden in the dark. The writer also said that they tended to become larger too, for the same reasons. Perhaps part of the reason whenever someone sees the "Canterbury Panther" and thinks its huge is because it is some black feral cat and that colour, like you said, makes it seem larger. Along with the fact that they are probably a bit bigger than a domesticated cat would be (but still no where near the size of a Panther".

Thanks for that , makes sence

Originally Posted by phillipgr

I once read an article about the Canterbury Panther or Big Cat or whatever it was called, but you know what I'm talking about. The writer said that when domesticated cats became feral, within a few generations, they usually became black in colour. This is by natural selection because the black cats made better hunters, due to being hidden in the dark. The writer also said that they tended to become larger too, for the same reasons. Perhaps part of the reason whenever someone sees the "Canterbury Panther" and thinks its huge is because it is some black feral cat and that colour, like you said, makes it seem larger. Along with the fact that they are probably a bit bigger than a domesticated cat would be (but still no where near the size of a Panther".

To behonest, I think that writer is full of it if that's what he says," that a black cat hunts better in the dark" LMFAO right there!!!
Gotta say that all the ferals I have shot in South Canterbury have been small, runty and riddled with worms...............

Originally Posted by Bulltahr

To behonest, I think that writer is full of it if that's what he says," that a black cat hunts better in the dark" LMFAO right there!!!
Gotta say that all the ferals I have shot in South Canterbury have been small, runty and riddled with worms...............

Haha you're probably right. He didn't use those exact words, I can't quite remember what he said exactly to be honest, I was skim reading it in NZ Nat Geo while waiting for my burger. Seems like he was on the money about the feral cats being bigger than the domesticated ones, though.

I think its kinda cool theres been a few recent sightings

Big Cat Sightings in New Zealand