Maybe I am too cynical, but I think the reason comes down to money.

If a state confirms that it is home to a native species, then it has to come up with and implement a management plan for that species. If the animal is not native to the state, no problem unless it creates problems (cost people money) as an invasive species.

This is why “out of place” cougar sightings are always attributed to mistaken identity, or as considered “escaped pets” or long-distance wanderings of individual animals. At least the “circus train wreck” reason isn’t used anymore.

My experience with declawed cats is that they tend to bite. They have been deprived of their primary weapons, and might even suffer phantom pains from their amputated digits.

I think Bigfoots are real. Sooner or later, a body will turn up. Expect to hear State Governments say, “Yeah, it’s real and you’ve got one. But it didn’t come from here! It must have wandered in from (fill in the blank).

I also agree that it is cruel to declaw cats just as it is to perform a Venomectomy on a reptile; they needing the various enzymes to predigest their food. I had no say in the matter with the cat. Around the time I was hanging out in Sussex N.J. I also worked for a vet who boarded a cougar “Shandi” there; (it being exiled from Manhattan). She was also declawed, but I think back on those days and am glad she was. I Can’t tell you how many times she smacked hell out of me, sometimes giving me a black eye or bloody nose; all in playfulness. They’re tremendously strong creatures.

I cannot really figure out why the NPS keeps so many secrets like this and other things I looked into. I learned a long time ago filing a FOIA request is a total waste of time; and things are getting worse not better.

The article I was referring to in my post was “New Jaguar Sighted in Arizona”, a link provided below the Black Cat article.

There seems to be a misconception in the media that we only get jaguars in this country one at a time. When in fact, the jaguar, while certainly uncommon, is hardly unknown in the mountains of New Mexico and Arizona. While working there, in 2009, 2010, and 2011, I heard many first-hand accounts of encounters with these animals, and was even taken to the site of one of the encounters.

Some of these jaguars are melanistic. Melanistic big cats are reported in many places in the US, although cougars, our more common large cat, do not exhibit a melanistic variation.

What, then, are people seeing? This, to me, is the real black cat mystery.

The big cat pictured in the article above is a melanistic leopard. Fine. Melanistic jaguars can be even larger. I saw a photo of a jaguar killed in Arizona (not melanistic) that went 400 pounds.

The little cat in the photos looks to me like a Bengal cat. These are beautiful domestic pets, hardly a mystery.

If I had a cat tearing up the house, I would try behavior modification. I cannot support declawing. It is the equivalent of cutting fingers off at the first joint, and is illegal in some countries and states.

The larger picture most resembling the old world leopard (Panthera pardus) in profile. Of course melanistic examples are relatively common. The small (lower) pics are extremely similar to the photo of an Asian leopard cat, (Prionailurus bengalensis); which really does look pretty exactly like a tabby cat. The Asian leopard cat, (Prionailurus bengalensis) is about the size of a large tabby cat topping off at 9 lb. The have been hybridized with domestic cats and are known as Bengal cats in the pet trade. I know a lady with an F2 Bengal cat and it was quite the handful climbing her curtains and attacking her boyfriend etc. She finally had to have it declawed as it was tearing everything up.

But after refreshing my spotty memory with my copy of volume II; Walker’s Mammals of the World; 3rd ed. I see that; (Prionailurus bengalensis); [then felis bengalensis] looks identical to our mystery cat except in coloration. I really believe; (as is the habit of newspapers everywhere); the Times of India” resorted to file photos of any melanistic leopard they could find in order to complete the header.

@desertdweller: The sighting in question happened in the Sunderbans; (pronounced suonderbuns) in Southeast Asia, so I’m a little bit confused by your post. The “new species story” showed up in the “Times of India” not in a SW United States paper. Interestingly the Sunderbans is where the vast majority of tigers are all confirmed man-eaters because of the acquired taste for human flesh developed as a result of thousands of flood victim corpses being carried into the mangrove jungles by the high tides etc.
In any case my money is on the “new Species” being a melanistic leopard cat

My thoughts, too.

The two photos of the small cat were not shown at the time I posted above. Only the big cat was shown.

These small cat photos may not even be a wild cat. It looks a lot like a domestic cat to me.

But I sure wouldn’t say leopard, and color’s not the reason. It’s a small cat.