Comments on: Mammoth Cave Mystery Cat Sightings

By: cantuckee

cantuckee — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 19:34:58 +0000

I also live in southeastern Kentucky and the old timers around here are talking about the big cats coming back into the areas. My Mother living in north central Kentucky had close encounter with a black panther laying in the cornfield adjoining her garden a couple of years ago. They were a 1/4 mile from a small town on the banks of the Ohio river. Look at the amount of streams, creeks and smaller rivers in the State. This animal ran back for the cover of the creek bottoms when it discovered it was seen. This is how they are moving around without being seen. Few people live in the bottoms that flood regularly. There exists lots of wildlife and cover there. Why should they come up around people?

By: kittenz

kittenz — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 19:13:21 +0000

I live in the easternmost county of Kentucky, in the Appalachian Mountains. The notion that the eastern cougar or mountain lion ever became extinct is a fallacy. (And yes, M Valdemar, lots of people in these parts, ’specially the old folks, still say “catamount”- usually prononced “cattiemount” - and “painter”). There has always been a remnant population of mountain lions. There are a LOT of whitetail deer here now, after a population rebound, and there is a pretty sizable elk herd too. And there is lots and lots of wild, hilly country, forested and with huge sandstone cliffs and monoliths topping nearly every mountain.

The most appropriate of the cougar’s many names is puma, since it is a native American word. You don’t often see pumas because they go to great lengths to avoid being seen & they are few, and far between.

I did see one in Kentucky, but not close to home. I was driving out around Cave Run Lake, down in the Knobs. The country there is all rolling foothills and very rural. It was a cold day in late March, in 1992. I saw an animal running beside the highway, far ahead of me, maybe a half mile. I thought at first that it was a dog, but as I drew closer to it I saw that it was not running the same way that a dog runs. I slowed down as I got closer to it and realized that it was a puma. It was not huge, it was maybe about 6 feet long or so. As I drew level with it I saw its beautiful face. It was so wild and beautiful. I guess I spooked it because just as I drew up beside it, it disappeared into the brush on the hillside. It was there one second and then seemingly without any effort it was gone.

I will never forget it.

By: Kultarr

Kultarr — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 21:33:33 +0000

Not surprising at all. How hard could it be for a cougar to pick up and move. Their normal territory is mostly houses now anyway. Where do you expect them to go? I don’t think that advice on what to do if you see a cougar is anything special. No matter what you do you’re still a walking hamburger to them. They’ll eat you anyway. Travel in groups, a cougar could take down one person, but not five.

By: shumway10973

shumway10973 — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 06:49:49 +0000

very simple reasons for these animals being “where they’re not suppose to be” 1) when our forefathers set things up they never really took inventory of the animals living there. plus if it was a predator, it was killed. 2) since most places killing one of these majestic animals is illegal (in california you almost have to prove you were going to die) so their numbers are out of control. Each year every female has at least 2 babies. They may stay with mommy for about a year, then she chases them off. the average cougar in california has a territory of between 25 and 50 square miles (I believe), so when they are sent away, they have to find their own territories. I’m not sure what year it was that we started protecting them, but over time they have really spread out. There have been reports of cougars being seen in downtown Los Angeles, getting their fill on those little kick-me dogs the rich and famous love.

By: John Ryan

John Ryan — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 20:38:22 +0000

Mr. Wells, et al., I’m not denying that ‘big cats’ were seen at Andrews AFB; I’ve spoken to two people who actually saw three of them. My point was that for a few days the cats are seen, and then they disappear, never to be seen again. As congested as the suburban Maryland area is, I just don’t know where these cats can go and not be seen again. Once again, I’m not denying the sightings; it’s the ‘afterwards’ in these type of cases that always puzzled me. Thanks for the response.

By: M Valdemar

M Valdemar — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 15:44:32 +0000

It’s worth noting that cats are probably the smartest land-based predators out there, and most of their intelligence is used for stealth. There’s nothing cryptid about bobcats, for example; they’re widely distributed throughout the midwest, and yet most people — even outdoors enthusiasts and naturalists — never see one in the wild. Because bobcats don’t want to be seen.

What’s almost more suprising to me about these out-of-place cougars is that they actually let themselves be seen. That seems unlikely, unless they really are out of their familiar element.

By the way, does anybody actually say “catamount” any more? I mean, other than grizzled old prospecters, consarnit.

By: DWA

DWA — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 13:57:48 +0000

As the man once said: absence of evidence is not evidence of an absence.

I’m struck, over 26 years of backpacking, paddling, hiking and x-c skiing, how few predators — and carcasses, and heck, predator tracks for that matter — I have seen. Example: mink: never. Bobcat: one, crossing a road in front of my car. Foxes, one here, one there, maybe not more than a dozen or so sightings all told. Coyotes: six or fewer. I could go on.

Then we have okapis, which are HUGE, showing up, all of a sudden, in a Congo park where they’ve been presumed extinct since 1959.

We’ll never give wildlife enough credit for having us figured out.

By: Jeremy_Wells

Jeremy_Wells — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 16:12:22 +0000

#9
Well, Mr Ryan, I can’t speak for the Andrews AFB area, but as a Kentuckian born and raised, I can tell you that it isn’t just the 80 square miles of Mammoth Cave National Park that are forested. The entire state is pretty rural. We used to vacation at Mammoth Caves when I was a youngster and the entire area is rural (it’s what the tourists and the natives want). There are plenty of places for a cougar to hide.
Answer me this, what are the chances of finding one HUMAN who wants to stay hidden within a 125 to 175 mile area? Now instead of a human, make it a big cat that is more comfortable in the environment, has padded paws that let it move stealthily and quietly through the woods, that can hide on a strong vertical branch of a tree, etc.
I know people that have lived in cougar country their whole lives and never seen one, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there.
I know there are red foxes in eastern Kentucky, but in over 20 years of hunting have only seen one ONCE in the forests. I know we have bobcats too, but the only one I’ve ever seen was a roadkill specimen that someone brought to my taxidermist uncle.
The very existence of these big predators depends on their stealth. If prey (or predator/man) knows they are there, they don’t get to eat. Simple as that.
In fact, I’m amazed that we get to see them as often as we do.

By: charlie23

charlie23 — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 07:14:55 +0000

“Fight back aggressively if attacked.”
…sounds like some good advice there…

By: John Ryan

John Ryan — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 01:58:55 +0000

Another “big cat” sighting, heh? I’m still trying to find witnesses to the sightings a month or so ago around Andrews AFB here in Md. I’m still puzzled by how these “cats” can simply disappear within a congested, urban area.