Comments on: More Black Panthers Terrorizing Texas?

By: aloredojr

aloredojr — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 05:44:16 +0000

In 2002 my brother and i where in cleveland, texas when we caught sight (ablout 2/10 of a mile from us ) of a large black cat. We first thought it was odd for a house cat to be this far in the woods. When we drove up to the spot where we had seen the cat thats when we relized it was too big, judging by the distance and the brush it past, to be a regular cat. I estimated to stand about 2.5 to 3 feet tall at its shoulders. We never told anybody about it, we just blew it off.One day i was looking at tv when a show came on about big black cats and how there was no such thing. That is when i knew i had to had seen something unusal. So i agree that there is a possibility of something out there.

By: xaviergonz

xaviergonz — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 06:09:55 +0000

1997: We have a ranch in Ramirez, Texas where 3 of us saw a large black cat leap out a few feet from a buddy holding a jack rabbit he had just shot. It easily jumped over 8 feet back into the thicket after it saw the rest of us. Not sure if it was after the kill or not. I am a biologist with recorded jaguarundi sightings and twice published with my work. I know what we saw and it was in the clear for us to see especially my engineer buddy that was just a few feet from the large cat.

By: Archaic

Archaic — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 04:26:11 +0000

kf4yre: I live on the Texas/Arkansas border, and I totaly agree. Around here, panthers are just another part of the wildlife. They aren’t seen amazingly often, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t seen. They are so well known and factual to my whole town that to report a sighting or one would be like reporting a sighting of a coyote. Sure, if it is seen anywhere near where it could become a danger, then it is told to the Wildlife and Game wardens.

I have grown up with the knowledge of these panthers and their dieing woman-like screams. Their as real to me as couars are.

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 15:01:53 +0000

The odds being “extremely remote” do not mean “impossible”. I think there is a possibility a jaguar could have migrated up from down South, and black jaguars do exist, so that should not be completely ruled out yet. And as was said on the other post on this topic, there is a huge population of exotics kept in Texas that are not very well regulated it seems, so that possibility should remain open as well.

By: kf4yre

kf4yre — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 17:43:01 +0000

We used to have one on our farm but I havn’t seen it in years. The area where our farm is has been pretty much taken over by coyotes. I always thought that maybe they pushed it out. Or, it could have just migrated somewhere else on it’s own. My buddy and I was talking just last week about them, when I was back home on vacation. He’s still seeing one occasionally, so I reckon they’re still around.

By: kf4yre

kf4yre — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 17:32:19 +0000

It’s cool you have a copy of the report Rillo777. I’m not aware of them ever making the news back home, or of anybody ever killing one. They was so common place that they was thought of about like coyotes are, nobody really paid that much attention to them. Not sure if anybody ever knew what they were exactly. We just called them black panthers because of how they looked.

I do know that a buddy of mine has at least one around on his farm. He’s seen it chasing after deer on the farm. A couple years ago he got a deer while hunting and hung it up in a little shed next to his house. The next morning, something had gotten to the deer and tore it up. It was still hung up but it was tore up as if something had been eating on it. He said it had claw marks way up on the body. He said whatever did it must have been big to have leaned up and left marks so high up on the body. He figured it was the panther.

By: Rillo777

Rillo777 — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 16:39:57 +0000

kf4yre: I agree completely! You’re just south of me state-wise, but I’ve heard of them in Ohio and Illinois, too. The last big black cat that got attention from the media here was about 2000 or 2001 when it attacked a horse near a little tourist town called Zionsville. That’s about 30 miles or so west of me. Stories of black cats here go back over a hundred years. In the 1950’s someone, about 5 miles south of me, found a black kitten that belonged to one of the black cats. They said the mother’s “roar” sounded like a woman screaming. This is the only time I’ve ever heard of a possible capture of a BBC (big black cat).
This was all reported in the newspaper of which I have a photocopy. Of course, I have been unable to track down the family involved or whatever became of the kitten.
Incidently, according to the newspaper three veternarians and even a man from India who supposedly was familiar with panthers examined the kitten and could not determine the species.

By: kf4yre

kf4yre — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 12:09:44 +0000

We’ve had black panthers back home in south central Kentucky for years. I’ve seen them myself as well as have many other people. They’re common place back home and everybody knows about them. But, reading some of these reports, most of the wildlife officials in the reports think these people are crazy and there’s no such thing. The ones we have back home are not the black panthers like you see in Africa, but they do look like miniature versions of them. They’re jet black, long tail, and the head resembles the larger panthers. The ones I’ve seen have been about 6 feet long, from nose to tip of tail. They’re bigger then a bobcat, but a little smaller then a mountain lion. When they scream, every hair on your body will stand up. Have a scream that sounds a lot like a mountain lion or cougar. These wildlife officials need to get their head out and pay attention to the reports. These are very real animals.

By: Bob K.

Bob K. — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 09:45:47 +0000

Interesting article-and informative posts, all. My first thought was ‘jaguar’, based on the locale. But Rillos accounts placing them in Indiana? Could we be possibly talking about a heretofore uncataloged large North American feline, neither cougar nor jaguar?

By: Rillo777

Rillo777 — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 03:05:09 +0000

Daryl Colyer:
I wish you would add a department of investigators! I know you probably don’t need to be spread too thin and, of course, the main focus is bigfoot. But I am fascinated by the big black cats. I live in Indiana and we periodically have reports of them, too. There’s one area about 20 miles from me where the older residents still warn people to be careful about “the big black cats” although there supposedly haven’t been any cougars around here for decades. In any case, I don’t understand why the authorities are so quick and vehement about denying the possibility of such a creature. And just who says a big black cat is impossible anyway? It’s black, for crying out loud, not green or purple. It’s not like it’s a color completely unknown in felines! They make it sound like simply because it is black it just can’t exist. I agree, drop the semantics!