MYSTERY BEAST.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 938, 7 December 1933, Page 5

MYSTERY BEAST.

Has Alarmed Residents in Victoria. ARMED PARTY’S SEARCH. (Special to the “ Star.”) MELBOURNE, November 27. Armed with heavy rifles, a party of Briagolong district residents will make a thorough search next week through rugged bush country, five miles from Briagolong, for a mysterious animal, thought to be a puma or lion, which has bepn alarming residents for some time. Led by Mr Rod Estoppey, the forest ranger of the district, the party will include First Constable Wright and the secretary of the Briagolong Rifle Club and about ten others. Mr Estoppey, who examined the tracks of the animal last Sunday, said that the footprints, which were three and a half feet apart, from the front | to the hind paws, were each six inches i long and four inches wide. They re- ! sembled the footprints of a cat, each I paw mark having the imprint of four | front toes with a smaller toe-mark at | the side. j After comparing the footprints with i those illustrated in an animal book, Mr | Estoppey is of the opinion that the ! beast is a puma. I He said that Mr H. Bedgford, of George's Creek, was near the same place recently with two cattle dogs. The dogs chased a rabbit into _ some thick scrub, but emerged a few minutes later with hair bristling. They bolted home terrified. Recently, he added, a large number of sheep had been found dead in peculiar circumstances on various properties in the district. The only mark of violence were two holes punctured in ! the sheep’s throats, from which the blood appeared to have been- sucked. The whole district was alarmed, said Mr Estoppey, and the party hoped to secure either the animal or some ; definite evidence of its identity in the ( course of its search.