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black panther


Trigger Mike

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On the last day of deer season I was walking through the woods looking for deer sign since I had not seen one in the stand. As I walked I heard something behind me. I made a big splash through a creek and did not feel anything was behind me. I went through the woods and out under the power lines and walked back to the open field where my stand is and looked 200 yards down into it near where I felt I was being followed and near sunset saw a large black shadow under a pine tree. This large black shadow then got up and snuck away deeper into the woods. I was about the size of a large dog but jet black and when it walked it had its legs bent like it was sneaking. Right after it disappeared a deer came out of the woods below where the panther had been and as it came into the field, it immediately turned on a dime and ran fast from where it came from. I was over 200 from it and had trees behind me so I doubt the deer saw me.

yesterday I saw some large tracks similar to a panther on my house side of the power line. This tells me he is venturing closer to home. The game wardens tell everyone there are no panthers here, but many have heard their cries at night. Since they are protected I can not kill them. How do I get them to move on and away from my children?

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I will add that when I had chickens that something heavy had got on top where I had put fencing up and their weight had pushed the top in creating a gap that a predator used to get in and would eat 4 chickens at a time and then left over the top. I now wonder if it was a panther.

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According to the egg heads, there ain't such a thing as a black panther. <_<

 

According to them, there's a black leopard and a black jaguar but the cougar doesn't come in all black. Who you gonna trust? Highly educated career academicians or country folks that are constantly-in some cases make their living in- the woods or on the land they are making the sightings on?

 

I know some folks up just north of here near Roanoke that apparently had one take up temporary residence on the back side of their place a few years ago. They saw it about once a week for about 2 months. Nobody 'official' like the game wardens would believe them either. Said it was a house cat and they were misjudging the size and distance. Of a house cat. On their own place. That the man inherited from his family and had lived on his whole life and his wife had move there as a young bride during the 1st Reagan administration.

 

Yeah. Right. That's exactly what was happening. :blink::angry::blink:

 

The good news is since it doesn't exist, you ain't gotta worry about it being protected.

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There could be two possibilities: 1) this is a mountain lion/catamount/panther/painter (same critter, just different local terminology) that has mellanism, i.e., is all black, the opposite of albino; or 2) this is a black leopard or black chettah that escaped from a zoo, or large cat preserve somewhere.

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Cougars? Yes everywhere. black, no. Like a bigfoot. Bring in a carcass.

 

An employee had a black panther on his place in South Barry county, MO. Wooly country. e and a neighbor went to a great deal of trouble to build a live trap to catch it and prove it existed. Success! Unfortunately it weighed about 20 lbs.

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According to the egg heads, there ain't such a thing as a black panther. <_<

 

According to them, there's a black leopard and a black jaguar but the cougar doesn't come in all black. Who you gonna trust? Highly educated career academicians or country folks that are constantly-in some cases make their living in- the woods or on the land they are making the sightings on?

 

I know some folks up just north of here near Roanoke that apparently had one take up temporary residence on the back side of their place a few years ago. They saw it about once a week for about 2 months. Nobody 'official' like the game wardens would believe them either. Said it was a house cat and they were misjudging the size and distance. Of a house cat. On their own place. That the man inherited from his family and had lived on his whole life and his wife had move there as a young bride during the 1st Reagan administration.

 

Yeah. Right. That's exactly what was happening. :blink::angry::blink:

 

The good news is since it doesn't exist, you ain't gotta worry about it being protected.

 

These are the same egg-heads that have claimed for years that there are no wovles in here in Colorado until one was run over crossing I-70. :blink:

They have claimed for years about us not having any Grizzlies here in Colorado either but one was killed in 1979 and recent sightings in the San Juans and in the Culebra ranges of the Colorado Rockies throw all of that out the window... :huh:

 

Just remember, to protect your family and livestock and not worry about the laws... I would rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6... :excl::excl:

Take care, CBA

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These are the same egg-heads that have claimed for years that there are no wovles in here in Colorado until one was run over crossing I-70. :blink:

They have claimed for years about us not having any Grizzlies here in Colorado either but one was killed in 1979 and recent sightings in the San Juans and in the Culebra ranges of the Colorado Rockies throw all of that out the window... :huh:

 

Just remember, to protect your family and livestock and not worry about the laws... I would rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6... :excl::excl:

Take care, CBA

 

You pretty much got it nailed.

 

I find it hard to take the word of a desk jockey from some college over the word of someone who lives on the land and has extensive experience with the locale. I ain't forgot that the natives in the Congo were telling tales of apes and chimps for a long time before some white scientist ever saw one. They were told they were seeing things or misidentifying what they saw, too.

 

There's always been a cougar (or panther) population in Florida and south GA and AL. It's not nearly as big as it was 100 years ago, but it's still there. I can see one of them having a recessive all black trait that popped up far more likely than a black jaguar from Mexico making it all the way to Alabama or Georgia (crossing the Mississippi River, the better part of a dozen major travel arteries AND avoiding all population centers while not being seen by anyone) by happenstance.

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They say there are no black mountain lions.

 

Okay. I'll accept that.

 

They say there ARE black jaguars.

 

I'll accept that too.

 

They got jaguars in Mexico. If pregnant women and little babies can cross that river, I don't see how it stops big cats.

 

So, okay, I see a black panther in New Mexico. Scientists say, "Baaahhhh, you couldn't have. There are no black mountain lions". Why would a "black panther" have to be a mountain lion? Why couldn't it be a jaguar?

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I don't see why a jaguar couldn't make it to Alabama or Florida. When DeSoto showed up, there weren't any coyotes there. But there are now.

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All I know is, when I lived near Atlanta, I worried less about needing something for defense than I do now in my own back 40. I already run up on a rattler, copperhead and other snakes. I have pictures of coyotes from my deer camera by my kids swingset. I know I would lose 4 chickens at a time multiple times. No matter what I did, something found its way in. Sometimes I'd lose them in the day time as well as night. I know something growled at my while feeding my chickens.

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They say there are no black mountain lions.

 

Okay. I'll accept that.

 

They say there ARE black jaguars.

 

I'll accept that too.

 

They got jaguars in Mexico. If pregnant women and little babies can cross that river, I don't see how it stops big cats.

 

So, okay, I see a black panther in New Mexico. Scientists say, "Baaahhhh, you couldn't have. There are no black mountain lions". Why would a "black panther" have to be a mountain lion? Why couldn't it be a jaguar?

They have game camera sightings of jaguars in southern US. Arizona and New Mexico

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All I know is, when I lived near Atlanta, I worried less about needing something for defense than I do now in my own back 40. I already run up on a rattler, copperhead and other snakes. I have pictures of coyotes from my deer camera by my kids swingset. I know I would lose 4 chickens at a time multiple times. No matter what I did, something found its way in. Sometimes I'd lose them in the day time as well as night. I know something growled at my while feeding my chickens.

I'm sure you don't go out unarmed.

Do you have any dogs?

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All I know is, when I lived near Atlanta, I worried less about needing something for defense than I do now in my own back 40. I already run up on a rattler, copperhead and other snakes. I have pictures of coyotes from my deer camera by my kids swingset. I know I would lose 4 chickens at a time multiple times. No matter what I did, something found its way in. Sometimes I'd lose them in the day time as well as night. I know something growled at my while feeding my chickens.

I'm sure you don't go out unarmed.

Do you have any dogs?

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I'm sure you don't go out unarmed.

Do you have any dogs?

yep two hound/shepherd mixed pups. They bark at the woods at night in the direction I saw the large prints. They stay in the yard though. Sometimes they even stay on the porch. I think they got my last two chickens. I would put out the cat food but my dogs would eat it as would my cat.

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My son goes out in the woods against my wishes and he said today the dogs were with him and jumpy and kept sniffing the air and they found a pile of cardinal feathers and some possible hawk feathers (grey with brown feathers) in a pile elsewhere with blood on the straw and grass.

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Here in SW La. we see Fl. Panthers...the State of La. has officially come out recognizing we have Florida Panthers in La. and of course they are protected. Between me my son and a neighbor we have seen them 7 times, as close as 65-70 ft. jumping over fence of my chicken yard. They look exactly like a cougar/mountain lion and are about the same color and size.

 

...crosscut

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We got bobcats and lynx in TN, but coyotes and coyotes that bred to dogs are becoming the problem here.

 

One of our cattle dogs killed a couple last spring, so we're waiting for 'em to get bad again this spring.

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Did some google. the Florida Panther is a cougar. Used to be a sub species of the regular cougar but they decided it was the same thing.

We didn't have cougars in Mo until a game camera caught one. We didn't have wolves until a varmint hunter killed one.

The difference here is that the cougar and the wolf are critters that occupy nearby states. For one to be seen here he just has to make a little road trip.

For a black cougar to be seen he has to defy the laws of genetics.

To my knowledge there has never been a black cat of major predator size captured or killed in the US.

and yes, I grew up with the firm knowledge that the wilderness to the south of where I lived was home to panthers and everyone knew someone whose 2nd cousin by marriage had seen one. Many expeditions mounted, none successful.

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Did some google. the Florida Panther is a cougar. Used to be a sub species of the regular cougar but they decided it was the same thing.

We didn't have cougars in Mo until a game camera caught one. We didn't have wolves until a varmint hunter killed one.

The difference here is that the cougar and the wolf are critters that occupy nearby states. For one to be seen here he just has to make a little road trip.

For a black cougar to be seen he has to defy the laws of genetics.

To my knowledge there has never been a black cat of major predator size captured or killed in the US.

and yes, I grew up with the firm knowledge that the wilderness to the south of where I lived was home to panthers and everyone knew someone whose 2nd cousin by marriage had seen one. Many expeditions mounted, none successful.

Bigfoot keeps em for pets and won't let nobody see one...thats the reason!

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People, we need to understand that we are not the kings of the wild beyond. There are some who roam the mountains freely with out a care and some don't come back alive... :(

Be aware of your surroundings everywhere you go( city, county, countryside, hills and mountains) there are all kinds of nasties out there that wanna prey on you one way or another and no desk jockey is gonna tell me that " there ain't no such a thing as..." ;):excl::)

 

Respectfully,

CBA

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Bigfoot keeps em for pets and won't let nobody see one...thats the reason!

I recall a movie many years ago about these campers who kept getting killed by a possible big foot like creature, all but the good looking brunette who was captured and then you hear a baby crying from inside a cave.

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Kinda of a souped up house cat.

 

Ever listen to Jerry Clower's "A Coon Huntin' Story?"

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Ever listen to Jerry Clower's "A Coon Huntin' Story?"

 

No I haven't, could I find that on youtube maybe?

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I'm not sure that I would call a professional wildlife biologist a "desk jockey"; most of those folks have some very decent field experience to go along with years of training in anatomy and behavior. Many are in a better position than you or I, no matter how long we have lived in an area, to accurately and dispassionately analyze reported sightings. I'm not totally discounting eyewitness observations - but trained observers are often more accurate.

 

A quick Web search indicates that the consensus seems to be that no one has taken a verified black leopard, cougar or other large cat, that might be described by some non-desk jockeys as a "black panther", in North America.

 

Just about every year, we get reports around here of big cat sightings, often accompanied by an unscaled photo of a paw print that could easily be a Tabby or a lion, depending upon actual size. Unfortunately, the verifications always fall short, leaving us with only rumor and campfire stories.

 

LL

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