The mystery of the ‘monstrous’ cats rekindled on the South Island

By RNZ

For more than 50 years, the presence of mountain lion-like feral cats on the South Island has been a hotly debated topic, but a Twizel Department of Conservation (DoC) official remains skeptical.

Two “monster” cat sightings earlier this month in North Canterbury have rekindled mystery and speculation again.

A possum hunter has vowed never to go back into the bush alone after meeting a cat that he estimates is about 2 meters long. That would make it roughly the same size as a cougar.

Over the years, there have been big cat sightings in Canterbury, Otago, Southland, and Marlborough.

Last year, there were reports of a large black animal close to Fairlie.

Department of Conservation Biodiversity Officer Dean Nelson has worked at Twizel for several years and is familiar with big cat sightings in the region.

He said he’s still a bit skeptical, though that might change if he ever sees one himself.

“The problem for me is that the sightings have taken place in many different places over many years and how do these animals remain hidden the rest of the time?”

Nelson said that if the big cats were there, they would likely see more reports in one place, or signs of their presence, such as sheep dying or the like.

Several of the sightings have occurred at times when light levels are low or at night, which can change the perception of a person’s size, he said.

“We know we caught just over 7kg of wild cats, but that’s not the size some of these people are talking about.”

Nelson said that although he has caught large wild cats, the only report that he has directly had of a larger than normal cat was in Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park in the 1980s.

“I had an American tourist who was convinced that he had seen a lynx, minus the tail, you know because they don’t have much of a tail, you know that he was convinced that it was a lynx what he had seen on one of the tracks.”

Nelson said he takes care of river areas where there is sand and big cats leave paw prints, but he has never seen any evidence of that.

But he said that feral cats are very good at avoiding humans and a good example of this is the number of cats that the DoC has been able to catch.

“People think there are some wild cats, but in the Tasman Valley that we have been catching for just over 15 years, we have taken almost 3,500 cats out of there during that period.”

Nelson said wild cats are New Zealand’s top predators because they are incredibly adaptable hunters, can survive by eating almost anything, and live in a wide variety of habitats.

But he said that if there were big cats, they would likely view cattle and sheep as easy food.

“I’m sure farmers would listen to it if they were losing livestock,” he said.

Wild cats need to gain as much weight as they can during the summer and fall to survive the cold winters, Nelson said.

Nelson said that while it is possible for cats to breed between feline species, if for example something like a lynx escapes from the zoo, this would be highly unlikely.

Small cats can breed with other species of small cats, and big cats can also hybridize with other species of large cats, he said.

“But there is not much to indicate hybrids between large and small cats, and the other problem with hybridization is that often a hybrid of one species is less fertile and less likely to have viable offspring.”