Comments on: California’s Black Panthers

By: futhark

futhark — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 11:33:57 +0000

The only wild “cougar” I have ever seen was a black one in Briones Park in Contra Costa County running across a clearing in broad daylight one day in the late 1970s, This is a bit ironic, because I currently live in Lake County, which has one of the highest populations of cougars in California. I have seen tracks around here, but never an actual animal. The high school at which I taught for over 30 years in Upper Lake has the cougar as the school mascot and a mounted specimen in a glass case in the school office, but it is tawny, not black. This animal was trapped about a mile from my house in the early 1980s.

By: Eddy-A

Eddy-A — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 23:21:18 +0000

I saw a black panther Sunday March 28th 2010, in Pescadero Ca,

By: MikeinOC

MikeinOC — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:33:40 +0000

I have seen a black panther, black jaguar or black mountain lion — whatever is the proper term — in the semi-desert area around Perris, California, back about 1976. My cousin and I were hunting rabbits, and we knew from our friend who owned a large parcel, a ranch owner, before we went out hiking through the scrub-covered rolling terrain that a mountain lion had been killing livestock such as calves and pigs for several months. He said the ranchers wouldn’t mind if we killed it because of the losses they were incurring, but we were not about to do that. While we hiked for miles looking for rabbits, we came across lion tracks in dry creek beds and were on our guard. We also found several bony remains of dead livestock here and there along the way. At the end of our day, as we hiked back the few miles to where our car was parked, off in the distance behind us, about 1/4 mile or so, coming over a rise was what we initially thought was a huge black dog. But after we took out our binoculars, we could see it was a black mountain lion, and it continued slowly trotting in our direction. This concerned us, since we were in wide open terrain and still a long way from our car. I had a mere 22 rifle and fired a few shots off to the side of the animal. But the animal never broke its stride, it just continued trotting and shifted its course roughly parallel to us in the distance, and then continued on its way and disappeared over the rise. It was not scared or alarmed in the least. Needless to say, we were shocked to see the animal, and we told the rancher friend what we had seen. He was surprised to learn that it was a black mountain lion or panther, but he still said the ranchers wished someone would get rid of it. We never saw the animal again and don’t know if it continued its attacks on livestock in the area. But my cousin and I never forgot that unusual sight in southern California.

By: jtm_kryptos

jtm_kryptos — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:59:59 +0000

mr.77, if i hear that escaped exotic theory again, i’m going to burst, but seriously what’s with those dumb circus train sort of explanations…

By: jtm_kryptos

jtm_kryptos — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:58:03 +0000

sadly i heard of raging forest fires in california now…
i feel bad for all the Bigfoot, Panthera atrox, and others currently hiding in the southern California forests…

By: Samson77

Samson77 — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:26:11 +0000

Actually they do live in the hills surrounding LA, in the San Gabriel Mountains. I have seen them in Rancho Cucamonga (45 miles east of LA, just north of Ontario airport).
If these black cat sightings were farther south, near San Diego, I would guess it would be possible for a Jaguar to make it that far north of the border. But Northern California? Not likely. If the sightings are legit, it almost has to be an escaped exotic.

By: shumway10973

shumway10973 — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 18:38:46 +0000

Nothing really surprises me anymore. California is such a large and dispersed in every way and everything. And if they are alive and living in the coastal mountain range, they are thriving. True, people are encroaching on that area, but that means free, easy food (such critters as ones named fifi). That is what was happening in Los Angeles (I only say was because of the wildfires going on). Man spread into the hills and the mountain lions looked around and said, “Oh, look. Small defenseless dog. How cute. Dinner time…” and that’s what they have been doing ever since (although I don’t know if they officially exist in Los Angeles…sshhhhhh). It seems that nature is taking over again. We have all seen the movies where man almost destroys himself, lives in only a few small areas and nature reclaims everything we built and took. Well, Mother Nature isn’t waiting for us to do something stupid. There are too many reports of animals in larger cities.