PANTHER ON THE PROWL

A mysterious black beast, provisionally identified by the Sicilian regional forestry corps as a panther, was spotted recently near Palermo. A corps member even managed to take a photo of the animal which was published in the local paper. The image appeared as a somewhat blurred dark shadow lurking in the undergrowth but nonetheless set off a spate of sightings. All efforts to round up the creature have, however, failed.

Unaccountable appearances of big cats are not unknown in Italy. A case that received big media coverage in 1989 involved a feline that seemed to be skimming over the ground near Rome International Airport. The creature was never caught, despite the fact that it raided local henhouses and frightened local children. The year before, a black panther was sighted in Tuscany and Umbria. It alledgedly dispatched a dozen hens and a shepherd claimed he had been attacked by the creature and had only been saved thanks to the courageous resistence of  his three dogs.

Some sceptics have pointed out the similarities with tales of the Surrey Puma, a large, dark, mysterious beast which haunted the English countryside in the 1960s and 1970s. Some 362 sightings of this improbably feline were reported and it continued to pop up regularly for years afterwards. In the end, it seemed to vanish into thin air. It remains to be seen whether the Sicilian Puma will prove to be of more consistent stuff!

Posted on 03 Aug 2010 by Editor
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