The Kanimbla Valley Panther That Was Toby the Cat

For a century, people around Lithgow and the Blue Mountains have told stories of a big black cat. The Blue Mountains panther has gathered more than 500 reports in 20 years. NSW Agriculture looked into it in 2001 to 2003 and found no conclusive evidence, yet judged a big cat "more likely than not". In 2018, reports came from Blackheath in March and from Greg Culley and his son Samuel at Knapsack Reserve in April. TV presenter Grant Denyer and producer Cheryl Rogers released their own video.

Monday afternoon, 11 June 2018. Belinda Baker and her partner, Steven Muiser of Blackheath, were looking at developments near the Coxs River in the Kanimbla Valley. Belinda pointed and said, "Look at that it looks like a big black cat." The animal roamed along a slope as they filmed it. "We watched it walking around for about half an hour," Baker said, adding, "It was huge!"

Muiser put it at about 20 minutes and was sure of what it was not. "We see feral cats all the time, and we could film them all day long and that was definitely not a feral cat." He called it "probably five times that size" and "as wide as the bonnet of my ute". It had "that big cat swagger". The New Daily reported a height of about 60 cm.

Baker posted her video to Facebook as a possible sighting of the Lithgow panther. On Tuesday 12 June, Muiser told his story to the Nine Network's Today show. The Lithgow Mercury, the Central Western Daily, the Blue Mountains Gazette, the Canberra Times and Fox News all carried it. By Wednesday 13 June, one of the videos had almost 300,000 views.

Professor Barry Brook, a wildlife biologist at the University of Tasmania, was cautious. Most likely not a panther, he said. Perhaps a domestic cat. In his words, "the optical illusion gave it a sense of scale that it was much larger than in reality."

Then the owner of the paddock spoke up. Danielle Donlan commented on Facebook. "Sorry to let you all down, but this is my cat, Toby. That is my paddock being filmed and yes, he is a large desexed black male who loves to visit the neighbours."

To the Blue Mountains Gazette's readers she put it plainly. "He has never been a panther. He is a domestic cat, black in colour, larger than usual, but not panther size." Toby had been visiting the neighbours for the last 14 years. Donlan filmed him herself to show he is "a humble domestic cat". Judged against the fence, she said, he was clearly a large male cat.

The family's humour wore thin as the clips spread nationally. They worried people would come to take pictures, or perhaps hunt the panther.

Nobody called it a hoax. Two people watched an animal for 20 to 30 minutes and filmed it in good faith, and Muiser knew feral cats well. Yet on an open hillside, with nothing nearby to give scale, a big pet cat became a panther. In the long file of the Blue Mountains panther, Toby is something rare. A sighting with an answer.