Comments on: Canadian Black Panthers Scaring Ontario Residents

By: WolvesRule

WolvesRule — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 03:01:37 +0000

I live in North Bay, and four days ago there was a sighting of a black panther roaming down McEwen, one of our most traveled streets. A woman was walking her dog when she saw what she believed to be a large black cat. Police have now cautioned the town to be aware that it has been seen in the area. I for one believe that we now have a breeding population started from a few that escaped from a exotic animal sanctuary when the animals were being put down because of carrying TB (tuberculosis). Because they had been acclimatised to our climate it wouldn’t be hard for them to find a rabbit or deer here or there now would it lol. Along with panthers a lot of other animals that we haven’t seen for a while this far north have been returning, such as Turkey Vultures, who normally stay to southern Canada and the Northern USA.

By: shumway10973

shumway10973 — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 19:50:46 +0000

That right there convinces that most of the big cat reports from around the world would be nothing more than escaped big cats from legal and illegal sources. I do believe I read somewhere, either here or another cryptid site, that the large cats reported in Britain were nothing more than the released (or offspring now) big cats when the government there passed a strict law about having exotic, big cats as pets. Many of the upper crust of England at one point went around the world collecting lions, tigers, leopards, panthers, etc… and when the law was passed, many just released them. As I have said before, big cats may be more picky about what type of other big cat they mate with (usually they don’t get along well enough to breed outside their specific species/breed), but when they are desperate enough to mate, they will put that aside and actually mate with what is around. So, as far as the mystery cats in Britain, there are probably very few that are pure to their species. I do believe that is why here in America we are very careful and watchful with anyone having exotic pets or any kind of such “zoo” or preserve. I think it would be interesting if they were aloud to continue on, even once “proven to be true”. I would just suggest relocating them somewhere further out in the non-populated areas of Canada.

By: Tabbercat8

Tabbercat8 — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 16:30:36 +0000

This is interesting, as I didn’t think we had anything cryptid around this area. I live 1 1/2 hours south of North Bay, and have travelled there on occasions. Will definately be keeping my eye out for anything unusual, and my camera handy. Though we do have a backyard lion and tiger farm close by and have visited that. Many large cats there, one of the tigers was even stolen and returned.

By: Woodford

Woodford — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 15:30:00 +0000

We’re getting a lot of big cat sightings down here in the London, Ontario area as well. The culprit in our case appears to be a cougar but still highly unusual for the region.

By: Benjamin Radford

Benjamin Radford — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 14:37:31 +0000

I investigated panther sightings in southern Ontario a few years ago. Police actually found one not far from Niagara Falls; it had escaped from its owner’s enclosure but died before it could be returned.