State Web Site
Department Web Site

Wildlife Exhibition permit requires that you must be over 18, must be USDA licensed, must have cages with scientific names posted, must conduct a minimum 12 hours education per year, special requirements for rabies prone animals; bats, coyotes, foxes, bobcats. Have specifications for humane handling, care, confinement and transportation of wildlife. Rehabilitation permit; has caging and housing, veterinary, handling requirements. Wild Animal License requires that you must be USDA licensed as breeder, dealer or exhibitor, must have insurance voucher for large felines; big cat species, snow leopard, mountain lion or cheetah, must have proof that no local ordinances forbid holding wildlife. Has regulation that specifies humane handling, care, confinement and transportation of wildlife. No permits issued for non-commercial possession of wild felines, i.e. no pets allowed.
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There are big loopholes in the law, and animals that were in private hands befoe that law was passed were grandfathered.

Sadly, there has finally been a proven case of gray wolves killing a human – in Canada. Someone can now collect that grim $500 bounty for proof of a healthy wild wolf attacking and killing a human.

At any rate, it’s obvious that Matt Drudge is a closet Cryptomundo fan.

But that’s beside the point. WHATEVER this guy saw, it scared him badly enough to cause him to jump into a river in the middle of January to try to get away from it! That takes a powerful lot of fright. It COULD have been something else, but I for one find this account very credible and I believe the guy saw a cat. I just cannot imagine an otter inspiring such abject fear in a human being.

The article did not say specifically whether the animal ran toward the forest technician, but I think if it frightened him enough to cause him to jump in the river it probably wasn’t running away.

There are a couple of possibilities that I can think of that could possibly be mistaken for a black panther, so let’s examine those possibilities.

The most likely animals to find in the Georgia woods would be feral domestic dogs or cats. A very large black feral domestic cat might look like a panther, especially if someone came upon it suddenly. He could have been mistaken about the size. I have a kitten, Jethro (not black), whom I measured just recently. He’s a big fellow. At 8 months old he’s 35 inches from nose tip to tail tip, and he is still growing. He’ll be about a meter long give or take an inch or so when he gets his full growth. And a lot of cats are bigger than he is. But nobody would mistake him for a big cat. And feral domestic cats usually avoid people, they don’t stalk people and attack them.

A black dog such as a shepherd or chow, or a mixed breed with similar pointed ears, might possibly be mistaken for a big cat. Possibly it was a big slinky dog stalking the man, or just groveling in submission as dogs do. Maybe when it ran it was running toward the man to attack, or maybe just because it was lost and recognized that he was a human which could help. A feral dog is slightly more believable as a possible case of mistaken identity than a feral domestic cat.

There are a lot of black bears in Georgia. Black bears are known to stalk and attack people on occasion. Could a person mistake a black bear for a big cat? Maybe. But this guy was a trained forester. The article does not say how experienced he was, or how much forest training he had, but one would presume that he would have been taught how to recognize bears. So I do not think that it is likely to have been a bear. Possible, but not likely.

Red wolves had a black color phase that was inky black. They are forest animals and were once native to Georgia. The black phase was common there at one time. But red wolves are not known to have ever attacked a human in the wild, and the black phase is thought to be extinct. Furthermore red wolves are officially extinct in the wild (except for a few pairs of reintroduced animals in North Carolina and Tennessee). I do not think it’s possible that this animal was a red wolf.

Jaguarundi? Maybe. There are dark color phases of Jaguarundi, even black ones. They are much smaller than panthers – only about half again as big as a domestic cat. Their ancient range included parts of the southeastern USA. But by all accounts they are so rare in the USA that they would make eastern pumas look plentiful. And they are never known to have attacked humans.

Otter? Utterly ridiculous. I don’t think that ANYONE could mistake an otter for a cat. Mink? Maybe, and minks are nasty-tempered little cusses. Wild minks do look sort of catlike. They can get pretty big too – bigger than a ferret – but nowhere near as big as a panther. They live near water, and maybe if it was a mink, it wasn’t actually attacking, but just trying to get back to the river. So mink, maybe. But very unlikely.

What does that leave? If the animals was black (and the guy seems pretty sure) I think it must have been a leopard. Sure, there are black jaguars, too, but jaguars have not been seen in the wild in the eastern US for centuries. And jaguars do not attack people. But leopards often do. Black puma? Doubtful, unless there IS a population of black pumas that has never been documented. I think it was probably a leopard.

Leopards are so adaptable. Of course they are not native to the New World, but if one were set free in the Georgia woods I have no doubt that it could survive.

I think that the Georgia ought to AT LEAST set up a camera trap in the area. After all, the area is heavily used by people, for hiking and other recreation. Whatever this was it frightened a grown man who makes his living in the Georgia forests badly enough to jump fully clothed into a river in the middle of the winter to get away from it. They need to try to find out what it is NOW, while the leaves are off. Before it maybe attacks someone again.