Rumours abound of lion in Central Australia

23 June, 2014

By Xavier La Canna 

 

A lion expert is playing down Facebook rumours that one of the big cats is roaming around Central Australia.

A lion is digitally placed in front of Uluru to illustrate rumours that one of the big cats is roaming around Central Australia. (Xavier La Canna (lion) and ABC Open (Sunset))

Charlie Manolis from Crocodylus Park, a wildlife park that houses lions in Darwin, said there was not enough large prey to sustain a lion in Australia's desert. "There have always been sightings of large cats," Mr Manolis said. "It is just that some of the ferals cats can be quite large," he said.

Mr Manolis was responding to rumours aired on Facebook that lions have been spotted in locations far apart in the Northern Territory. "They first spotted them up at Tennant Creek, somewhere there, and then someone saw it in Alice Springs," explained former ABC producer Michael Murdoch who now runs the local store in Santa Teresa, about 80kms from Alice Springs. "Someone saw it at Hermannsburg, but it hasn't been spotted in Santa Teresa yet," he said.

Mr Murdoch said the rumours have continued for a couple of months, and initially many people were scared of coming across the lion, but now most people seemed to agree it was untrue. "It was a Facebook story that got out of control," he said.

If a lion was to be confirmed in the NT deserts it would not be the first time an exotic animal has turned up in the Territory unexpectedly. In 2009 a pygmy hippopotamus was shot dead during a pig hunting expedition in the Douglas Daly district, about 200kms south of Darwin. In 2011 authorities in Darwin were left searching for a lioness after three separate reports that one of the big cats had crossed the Stuart Highway near Darwin.

Four lions broke loose from a circus performing at Mindil Beach in Darwin in 1986, with one of the animals escaping into the nearby Botanic Gardens, causing four wedding parties to scatter, and another attacking a camel.

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