I myself finally saw this animal since I posted my last comment. It was black with a long tail (maybe 15″) but not as bushy as the others described and the tail didn’t stand up but the animal kept it straight out parallel to the ground. It was about the size of a 50lb dog It has pointed ears, a feline type face, long muscular body and was not easily spooked like say a fox would be, I didn’t notice a hump in the body but it might have been in a different pose when the others saw it like maybe stalking something. I would describe it as a cross between a bobcat with a long tail and a cougar but black in color. For years I have probably spent as much time in the NC woods as I have indoors and have never before seen anything like it. I hope this gives you more to go on. I am trying to borrow a infrared camera so I can get a good pic of it since it mostly seems to be active after dark.

“…a feline type appearence with pointed ears, a long bushy tail that stands up and a humped rear section of its body and dark in color.”

What size animal do these folks report? Without knowing that, this could possibly describe the American Mink, Mustela vison. According to the web site of the American Society of Mammologists, these are uncommon, but distributed throughout the state of North Carolina.

Then again, most - but not all - of the images I can find of the American Mink do not show it with its tail standing up. Nor is the tail particularly “bushy,” although it is covered with fur and not naked like the tails of beavers or possums, etc.

Interesting.

Well, there’s the Jaguarundi, which can still be found in Texas and New Mexico, although it is rare nowadays. Apparently, like the Jaguar, it was once more widely distributed in North America. I see the genus listed, variously, as Felis, Puma, and Herpailurus. One source identifies the subspecies found in North America as Puma Yaguarondi Cacomitli. Having personally seen live individuals of this species in captivity, I can’t imagine that they could be mistaken for a long-tailed bobcat. They don’t look anything like a bobcat to me, and probably not to most people. I could easily imagine one being mistaken for a feral domestic kitty though.

I suppose it’s not impossible for bobcats to occasionally be born with long tails; after all, even people are occasionally born with tails. But I think that a bobcat/domestic hybrid is much more likely.

Perhaps it was a very young bobcat? The tails of bobcat kittens look longer, for their body size, than do the tails of adults. shumway10973 has a good point though: if the guy was a veteran trapper he would surely know the difference in an adult bobcat and a kitten