GARY KUBOTA /
State wildlife biologist Fern Duvall yesterday exhibited the kind of wire cage being used to try to catch the large cat suspected of being in lower Olinda, mauka of Makawao town.
Mystery cat sightings
spur safety concernsA state biologist says the Maui
animal may be a jaguar or leopard
WAILUKU >> Maui resident Susan Wachter said several sightings of a big catlike animal have made residents in lower Olinda think about the safety of their animals and small children.
One neighbor has stopped her walks in the forest.
"Certainly, we're very nervous," said Wachter, who described seeing a large catlike animal 10 days ago.
Wachter added that she and her husband, Willie, hope the animal will be captured and no harm will be done to it.
State wildlife biologist Fern Duvall said based on descriptions from six people who have had good visual sightings of the animal, he believes it may be a jaguar or leopard.
He said people seeing the cat should call state officials and not approach the animal. "They should be cautious."
Duvall, the Wachters and Dr. Ed Boone, who saw the animal on a separate occasion, spoke at a news conference yesterday morning at a state base yard in Kahului.
Duvall displayed the type of cage that had been placed near the Wachters' residence near a gulch to capture the animal. State workers have been baiting the trap with butchered pork or beef bones.
Duvall said so far, a review of a fur ball collected on a fence in the Olinda area showed the fur did not belong to a domestic cat, dog or deer. But he said he had not been able to match the fur ball to a kind of animal.
Duvall said state officials have not received reports of deer or domestic animals being killed in the area.
State officials plan to meet with lower Olinda residents, but no date has been set for the gathering.
Lower Olinda, mauka of Makawao town, is a mixture of pastures and dry-land forest, with many eucalyptus trees and a broad view of Maui's central valley.
Residents' houses often are acres apart, and an animal can easily cross private properties without being seen.
Duvall said all the sightings have been on the Pukalani side of Olinda Road, mauka of Seabury Hall.
Wachter said she and her husband were in a vehicle going out of their driveway on the afternoon of June 9 when they came upon a "very large, dark, almost black animal."
"It looked up. I saw the profile of its head, catlike, running down the hill," Wachter said. "He quickly took a turn to the right, and then I saw a very long tail. ... It came up in the end, and it disappeared in the gulch which runs next to our home."
Willie Wachter said he did not get as good a look because he was driving and a bush temporarily obstructed his view.
"It was large. It was dark ... and it was running unlike a dog runs, really low to the ground and fast," he said.
Boone and the Wachters said there has been a decrease in the number of chickens and more noise at night in the gulch.
"There's been a lot of barking and carrying on down by the gulch area," Susan Wachter said.
The Maui Invasive Species Committee said any sightings should be reported to Duvall on Maui at 873-3502.
