Solo walking

[Liamy77]

can you post a picture of it please??

Sorry, I didn't take a camera and don't own a mobile phone.
The prints are wider than they are long and the heel pad has a central trailing edge lobe.
The toes are widely splayed in an arc and middle inside toe is longer.
The forepaw has a slanted heel pad.
Typically dog prints form an X between the pads not so with cats.


Regards,
Ken

PLEASE try to get a plaster cast of 'em or at least some photos (ideally on film not digital) with some scale reference in the shot ( a ruler would do). Or do you have GPS co_ordinates for the prints to pass on to the local laws ranger or Parks n wildlife?
I would LOVE to see them too as i have worked under contract for 7 local councils and RSPCA as a cat trapper specialst in Vic a while ago now.....
I have personally trapped a true "feral" tomcat just under 16kg before but the print size you are describing is BIG... just wonderin... how DEEP were the tracks and how soft was the ground? also did you get the spacing between the tracks as an indication of stride length?


you might be interested in this: http://www.mysteriousaustralia.com/theg ... stery.html

and this: http://www.feral.org.au/an-evaluation-o ... australia/

[sailfish]

Liamy77

OK, seeing as you have such experience, it would be good the get evidence for confirmation. I live about an hour away from the area and will try before the next rain but life is busy. In your experience how interested are the authorities or do they treat these things as loony fringe? We have had a fair bit of rain for this area lately so the ground was obviously soft at the time. The prints are on what look like service tracks for the railway and forest. They are on higher or sloping ground, not in the slush. They are deeper than the dog prints around them, probably around 1cm deep. One right fore print is maybe 3 cm deep and looks like the paw slid in forwards. Sorry, I did not have the presence to measure the stride.


Regards,
Ken

[Liamy77]

mostly it depends on who you talk to as to what reception you get, and how much good evidence you have to back it up, had a bloke say BS to the 16kg tom untill the vet who ran the "cat protection society" in melbourne say she had to put it to sleep and it was definately that big and barely fit in the trap!.... i think the ideal situation apart from getting hold of the animal itself would be to track it and look for scat and hair samples stuck on scrub and document all the finds on film with a scale in the shot...i'm sure the CSIRO would love fur samples etc.... rangers may be busy and not have the knowledge or time to check it out.... there are a lot of loonies cryin wolf around too, as well as honest mistaken identities etc.... but that doesn't mean that ALL cases are "false"... i would't call myself an expert but i did specialise in feral and wild-domestic cats..... most big cat behavior is very similar to smaller species... i wonder that no corpses or physical evidence other than tracks and sightings have been found though... look for hairs or markings around the scrub too....

[ninjapuppet]

I'm part of a few clubs, but still enjoy my solo walks from time to time. Once going solo, I came across a group of NPA walkers around the kowmung river, whom the leader scolded me for going solo. Told him I was fully prepared for any likely contingencies including satellite phone, but the whole pack hounded me for going there alone.

Then I came across an excellent article in the wild magazine 122, by Peter Farmer. (Pete, youre a champ)
Pete's reasoning to support solo walkers is that if the medical crisis is stable and time constraints assessed as not critical, even four strong people will struggle to carry a 5th injured person through bush for any distance. In this circumstance, the only good that the group can do would be to get back to the car to call for help - the same help a PLB would alert. This only delays things.

Obviously there are situations where a group is beneficial such as being knocked unconsciousness but I still think the benefits exceeds the risks.

[simmo]

I suppose if you are a social animal the lack of company would take away some enjoyment. I enjoy quite time alone but find fellowship and banter can make the hills seam flatter.

Cheers Brett

im with you on the banter makes them hills flatter
Cheers Simmo

[Lindsay]

I'm part of a few clubs, but still enjoy my solo walks from time to time. Once going solo, I came across a group of NPA walkers around the kowmung river, whom the leader scolded me for going solo. Told him I was fully prepared for any likely contingencies including satellite phone, but the whole pack hounded me for going there alone.

I was chastised in a similar way by a group of day walkers on the Six Foot Track. I bit my tounge and did not say what I thought of the timid, ovine mentality that made people fearful of being alone with nature.

Then I came across an excellent article in the wild magazine 122, by Peter Farmer. (Pete, youre a champ)
Pete's reasoning to support solo walkers is that if the medical crisis is stable and time constraints assessed as not critical, even four strong people will struggle to carry a 5th injured person through bush for any distance. In this circumstance, the only good that the group can do would be to get back to the car to call for help - the same help a PLB would alert. This only delays things.

Obviously there are situations where a group is beneficial such as being knocked unconsciousness but I still think the benefits exceeds the risks.

As part of a 'leadership exercise' in the Navy six of us had to carry a 70kg dummy on an improvised stretcher through the Dandenongs for almost 24 hours. It was mid-winter and raining. Very difficult even with being able to rotate stretcher bearers and a real casualty would certainly have sustained more injuries from the attempt.

[Burnhard Rooknee]

With so many solo walkers putting up their hands a whole new bushwalking club could be formed. Do you think that idea will get past the marketing team?

[Packo]

Most of the walks I do are solo and that is the way I like it. There have been times when I have been on a nice peaceful walk in a remote area and I have wound up near a group of walkers. One minute I am listening to the birds and wind in the trees and the next I am listening to constant chit chat about what Nancy did at the wedding reception last night. Some people just don’t realise the noise pollution they are emitting from there vocal cords. It seems to be OK when two people are talking to themselves but when it’s a group of eight all trying to have a group discussion on the trail it gets a bit much. I either pick up the pace or hang back and have a rest just to get away from them.

For me it’s just solo and peaceful.

[north-north-west]

For me it’s just solo and peaceful.

And that's so much easier when you get off track.

[Joel]

"One young woman on horseback found the remains of a sheep wedged high up in tree branches, apparently carried there by one of these creatures. If, as I maintain, we are in fact dealing with a large still unknown species of giant marsupial cat related to the Thylacoleo, then we can cancel out the "panther" feral cats theory. Undoubtedly, feral cats make up a large percentage of Kangaroo Valley "panther" reports but a comparison of physical descriptions and plaster cast tracks of the "panther" certainly distinguish these creatures from any feral cat."

Liamy77, Is this guy serious? An unknown species of large carnivorous marsupial that has co-existed with Europeans for a couple of hundred years with out a scrap of evidence ever being found? No carcasses, no scats, fur scraps, no DNA of any kind what so ever. So what does he estimate the population as (I don't have time right now to read all the chapters)? It's like the Thylacine theory on acid.

[Stibb]

Maybe the sheep was on acid
Maybe he thought he was a tree climbing goat...