Yuku free message boards

Scott Parker points to where the "Lion" was spotted.

Reports of a Mystery Cat, said to look like a "lion," have the Northland of New Zealand as the seat of much excitement these days.

The giant alleged wild cat, described as a lion, was seen by Kaiwaka firefighter Allan Swanson's son Carl, 18, during an urban search and rescue exercise in a quarry at Kaiwaka, 90 minutes north of Auckland, on May 29, 2008.

Swanson was about 30 metres away from the beast when he saw it on the ridge of the Parker Lime Company quarry. Swanson says other locals have also seen it. According to the local media, Swanson knows he risks being labelled a bit loopy, but he is convinced it was a lion.

Carl Swanson is determined to revisit the scene near a quarry in Kaiwaka where he claims he saw a lion.

Firefighter volunteer and lion eyewitness Carl Swanson.

The 18-year-old Tikipunga student was among 100 fire, police and St John personnel participating in an exercise in the Parker Lime Company quarry on Gibbons Rd in late May when he made the frightening sighting.

He's adamant the very large cat he saw was a lion - judging from the way it looked and walked.

Carl Swanson was playing the part of a patient in a car inside the quarry waiting to be rescued when he looked up the hill and saw the animal.

"I told my colleague and it [the lion] was actually looking at us … like staring for a good one minute before it stood up and started walking on the edge of the quarry," he said. "That was the walk of a lion … really soft. In comparison to the trees in the background, it was massive and it kept walking around and eventually disappeared. I am pretty sure it was a lion … a big, big cat because I saw its whole side and thought it was something strange in the hills."

Carl Swanson said the lion was the size of a labrador and was about 2m long.

On whether he'll go back to have another look, he said: "With a gun just in case … it's always good."

Carl's dad Allan, who is a training officer with the Northland Fire Region, said the quarry was seen as an ideal location for mock exercises with crew from the Auckland brigade.

"It's quite funny because there have been no stories of cows or sheep being mauled but when you get one person, then two and three people saying the same thing, then something's got to be up there."

His first question when Carl told him that night about what he saw was: "Say that again, son?" [Considering this quote in an early press account, I suspect later news summaries saying the elder Swanson also saw the cat are in error.]

Kaiwaka Volunteer Fire Brigade chief fire officer John Bowmar began an investigation after the sighting about 5pm on May 29 during the exercise, which involved more than 100 firefighters, police, ambulance and search and rescue staff.

"Something rather large and unusual" was seen about 30 metres away on the ridge of the Parker Lime Company quarry, Bowmar reported.
"It was not a sheep, it was not a dog it was a very large cat."

Bowmar said the fireman and his teenage son were "not idiots".

His investigation led him to another local, now a minister, who made a similar sighting in the area about a decade ago.

"I made discreet inquiries and I come up with this guy (the minister) and he's no idiot," Bowmar said.

"(He) saw it years ago, he was out duck shooting. It was a huge cat, he said.

"He said, 'There was no point in me shooting it. I turned tail and ran.' "

Bowmar, in charge of the initial urban search and rescue exercise, had an open mind on the big-cat sighting.

"The way I see it, if one person saw it … oh yeah, right. If two people see it … well, yeah, maybe. Then a person saw it, or something, a few years ago … you think, `Well?"'

Bowmar had been told the fireman reported the sighting to police because "if something happened, he would feel terrible" had he not acted.

Parker Lime Company quarry manager Scott Parker had been made aware of last month's sighting.

"They said it looked like a cat the size of a dog," Parker said.

He talked to staff, who thought it may be an extra-large feral cat a number of which prowled the bush around the quarry site.

"A guy that works here, his old man used to push stuff out in the bush and he said the big feral cats would come out and try to attack the bulldozer.

"This is probably 20 years ago," Parker said.

Zion Wildlife Gardens, home of TV star Craig "The Lion Man" Busch, is situated at Kamo 80km north of Kaiwaka.

But a woman Sunday News contacted there yesterday said: "We are not missing any cats at all. We've got them all here, all 42 (lions, tigers, cheetahs and a leopard)."

There have been so many sightings of a mysterious "black panther" around Mid-Canterbury, a documentary was even made about it. In 2006, a Mount Somers woman said she saw a big black cat, the size of a five to seven-month old Labrador dog, drag a lamb across a paddock.

Sources: here, here, and here.