In Forteana, the acronym ABC stands for ‘Alien Big Cats’ (or alternatively, sometimes ‘Anomalous Big Cats’), and is given to sightings of large felines – often ‘black panthers’ – in places where they should not be found. We can now add to that perhaps the term Australian Big Cats, as that’s the title of a new book by researchers Mike Williams and Rebecca Lang. Cryptozoology researcher (and Darklore contributor) Neil Arnold reviews the book at his blog:
Of all the books I’ve read on the ‘big cat’ mystery, Australian Big Cats is without doubt the finest. Even the most hardened of sceptics will enjoy this truly monstrous – and I mean monstrous at over 400 pages – read. Packed with fascinating eye-witness reports and data, Rebecca and Mike have also littered their work with some impressive photographs not just of huge paw-prints, slaughtered livestock and old newspaper reports, but fascinating photographs of the secretive animals themselves.
After reading this detailed tome, which is nigh on exhaustive regarding the Australian situation, you’ll be more informed of the media sensationalism which gave birth to legends such as the ‘Beast of Buderim’, the ‘Broken Hill Lioness’, the ‘Canterbury cat’, the ‘Kaiapoi Tiger’, and of course the ‘Emmaville Panther’ which has become a media darling to rival our very own ‘beasts’ of Exmoor, Bodmin and the like in Britain.
However, these Australian dwellers are not the stuff of foggy folklore, and exist in some reasonably impressive photographs, and of course that ever elusive film footage which seems, rather hilariously, to drive most big cat ‘researchers’ mad in their quest for their own Holy Grail. Rebecca and Mike look at the facts, and debate whether Thylacoleo carnifex – a large marsupial cat – could still exist thousands of years after its alleged extinction.
Incidentally, GrandmaGrail had her own run-in with an ABC near her farm at Daintree a few years back – so she might be one of the first in line to check out Australian Big Cats. If you’re interested too, you can pick up a copy from Amazon US and Amazon UK. You can also check out the Australian Big Cats blog for more information.
