MonsterQuest: Mystery Cats
Posted by: Loren Coleman on December 12th, 2007
The program took on mangy dogs last week, so tonight it is about the phantom felines. Will the Mystery Cats be more exciting than the Mystery Canids? Will the words Panthera atrox come from the lips of anyone on this program? Will the black dead felid carcass turn out to be only a domestic cat’s, thus mirroring last week’s program? Will the viewers begin to figure out that one reason there are so many animal mysteries in Minnesota is because that’s where the film production company is located? 🙂
It’s time for another “MonsterQuest.”
Lions in the Suburbs – Attacks by mountain lions make headlines across the U.S. But some people say they are seeing something else…large black cats. From Texas to Minnesota to West Virginia, MonsterQuest will follow the eyewitness accounts and physical evidence of these demon cats. Pictures and law enforcement encounters prove a big black cat is out there but what is it? While they resemble a mountain lion, there is no such thing as a black mountain lion. Bones from a carcass, eyewitnesses claim was a huge black cat, will be put to the DNA test.
Wednesday December 12th, 2007, at 10PM eastern / 9PM central on THE HISTORY CHANNEL
Check local listings for times and channel for the initial broadcast and many repeats.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Mountain lions abound (heh) in our foothills area, and altho “there is no such thing as a black mountain lion”, I’m looking forward to tonite’s expose’.
I know we have cougars, black bears and at least one wolverine in southern Minnesota, which is prairie, unlike the Northwoods.
I wonder where the film company is. Could be fun.
Another episode I don’t want to miss. But most likely will end up falling asleep. Man I wish these shows were on earlier than 10:00pm. I wonder what the DNA on the ” huge black cat” will prove it to be? I also wonder what they mean by huge? Are we talking mt. lion huge. Or just a huge bob cat sized black cat. Hmm, maybe I’ll have to actually drink some coffee to help me stay awake. I’m really not a coffee drinker, but what the heck eh.
I don’t think that anyone should state categorically that “there is no such thing as a black mountain lion”. Although there are no skins, nor any good, unambiguous photos of black pumas, most species of cats have some melanistic individuals, and in some species the melanistic animals are so prevalent as to constitute a distinct color phase. I see no reason why black pumas couldn’t exist.
That being said, I believe that the vast majority of sightings of “black panther” are misidentifications. Domestic or feral cats can look surprisingly large when you see them out hunting in a field, or at the edge of a woods. Big black dogs can be mistaken for big black cats. And so on.
Most people who live in puma territory go all their lives without ever seeing a wild puma. The pumas are there, but they are so elusive, they are almost cryptids themselves. When people do see them, they usually just get a quick glimpse. Pumas’ fur is thick and stand-offish, especially their winter coats, and the fur is darker near the skin (which is also dark). A quick glimpse of a tawny puma, if it occurs during the crepuscular hours when the animals are most active, could easily be mistaken for a very dark or even black cat.
Even though most of the sightings of black big cats in North America, especially those in the USA and Canada, are probably explainable as misidentifications, there are some sightings that can’t be brushed off so easily. I think that it is entirely possible that pumas have a black color phase. It could even be that there are two closely related species or subspecies of puma, with different coloration.
Then too, there are other species of cats in North America. Both jaguars’ and jaguarundis’ ranges, within historical times, included what is now the southern USA. The fossil record shows that jaguars – or at least, cats closely resembling modern jaguars – were even more widespread, extending all the way through North America and into Europe. Both of these species have melanistic color phases, and the jaguarundi is considered to be within the puma lineage. There must have at one time been species with that lineage intermediate in size between the large puma and the small jaguarundi. Maybe those intermediate species exist in relic populations.
Expecting to find living Panthera atrox is a bit of a stretch, but I would not swear that it is impossible. Very, very unlikely, but not impossible.
Some of the sightings are probably legitimate. I’m curious to see whether there are good, unambiguous photos of the “carcass” of the large black cat that is going to be DNA tested.
Here in Manitoba I have first hand reports of “black” cougars. These reports are always of large cats seen in morning hours. My personal feelings about these sightings is that they are indeed cougars, but, they are wet from morning dew on grass and vegetation that they have been traveling through during the time before the sighting was made. I did read that cougars do not have the genetic ability to be melanistic, they can be a very dark tan or brown, but not black. The only large North American cats to have this ability are bobcats & jaguars. This, by the way, doesn’t solve the sightings of large black cats seen in mid-day sun in places where black bobcats (Florida)or jaguars are not native to. Could the odd “black” jaguar perhaps have traveled to places far, far, out of their normal range? Or are all of these sightings just fat house cats? Hhhhhmmmmm…
Thanks for all the information, Kittenz. I’ve seen a mountain lion in the wild once, during a hike on some extensive, undeveloped property in Northern Santa Barbara County, California.
Oddly enough though, I have never had a good sighting of a bobcat, which I would imagine are more numerous – although I have seen their scat and tracks at times. I have seen feral cats hunting on many occasions. They can definitely seem much larger at a distance than they actually are; and in fact sometimes they are indeed fairly large individuals, for Felis silvestris catus. But they’re nowhere near the size of a mountain lion.
I have seen Jauguarundis at the Exotic Feline Breeding Compound in Rosamond, CA. They are beautiful cats, and several that I saw were a dark chocolate in color. But again, these were quite diminutive compared to the size of a mountain lion.
I hope to see more cats in the wild. If I ever see a large, black one, Cryptomundo will be the first to know about it.
I would also like to thank you for the information, KITTENZ.
Can’t wait for the episode. I love “phantom felines.”
Could it be one of those phantom “lions” Loren talks about in his books on tonight’s episode?
Wish it was one, at least.
I travel the Gunflint Trail in Northeastern Minnesota several times a year.
About 12 years ago in the early morning hours 6:00 – 6:30 a.m. (winter). (I wrote this down in a notebook). I saw what I believed to be a black cougar walking in the ditch along the road. At the time I thought it was black. I realize now thanks to you guys that it was probably dark brown or dark gray. Maybe black. It was not tawny.
But there is no doubt in my mind that it was a cougar. When I drove by it I was no more than 15 feet away from it. It was at least 6 – 7 feet long including the tail. I pulled over and the cat let me have a great look at it before it strolled slowly into the woods. I watched the cat for a good 2 minutes. Again there is no doubt what this cat was.
This was no dog or large house cat. Not a Lynx and not a bobcat. I saw the tail very clearly. It was at least 2 feet long.
I have also seen a bobcat in the wild. It was winter and the cat was almost white. That was also on the Gunflint Trail up near the end of the road near Gunflint Lake.
I know my wildlife up there and there is nothing else that it could have been.
In this area of the Gunflint Trail I have seen a lot of deer and moose also. A great area for a cougar. There are also several wolf packs in this area.
Oh yeah… And I’m not crazy either. At least I don’t think so. LOL
I forgot to mention that I feel very fortunate to have seen what I saw.
I watched the show, thought it was pretty well done. Good job of analyzing the evidence without disparaging the people making the sightings. I think most if not all the people interviewed were sincere in what they reported. I agreed with the experts’ explanation pretty much. However, the footage of the cat in West Virgina was very compelling. While I looked at the others I said to myself “that’s a big, black house cat” But that West Virginia cat – no way. It definitely had the more robust cougar look besides being blackish in color. Then when the animator did the size determination of the cat, that really made me take notice. It was either a young cougar or leopard or else it was the Guinness record for the worlds biggest domestic cat.
I also watched the show last night. And I didn’t fall asleep. That’s amazing itself. Anyway, The comparing of size was kool how they did it. They determined the animal to be 24 inches from nose to rump.
24 inches is not that big. Though it did look a bit more muscular than the house cat in the other video. I’m still leaning towards very large house cat. Could be a Guinness record.
What I thought was weird is that nobody really checked the cat that looked tangled in the fence until weeks later. Then some the bones found at the spot turn out the be canine.
I did find all the witnesses to seem to be honest people. And the one guy was really concerned about people, especially children being attacked.
“Good show”, as they say… well done.
This Series does a good job of demonstrating – and illustrating – the strange mis-steps that seem to be common in cryptid sighting reports – ignoring a carcass until it is almost gone, no photographs, tracking, scaling devices, descriptive details etc…
It’s no wonder the skeptics and debunkers have such a field day retrospectively dismissing what may be important events, for lack of critical continuity and credibility on the part of otherwise intelligent and sincere witnesses. Most people are so involved with day-to-day chores and boring routines that they fail to respond to anomalistic events until it is too late to bother.
More’s the pity; the event may never happen again!
There have been a lot of trail-cam installations depicted in these recent Quests, and we can only hope that their continued monitoring of these “hot-spots” will eventually reveal something totally convincing, and that we will see those shots here on Cryptomundo, if not on a History Channel Update!
I’ll keep watching.
I would reiterate pretty mucg what most of the people who saw the show said. All of the witnesses seemed genuine and there really was compelling “evidence.”
DARHOP—
What I find strange about the whole situation is how the lady who saw the carcass could have soemhow mistaken it for a dog. More research should have been done on correlating the witness’s stories.
I disagree with you on the “big house cat” theory, though. My “believing,” intuitive side tends to think it was a young cougar or leopard, like ALLIGATOR said. If it was a house cat, it sure must have been exposed to a lot of Gamma rays (heh-heh, joke.) for it to have grown that big.
My opinion.
I thought the gentleman who kept saying “Somebody is going to get killed” was a bit of unnecessary overkill.
I know this is a late comment, but I also watched the show. It was the first episode monster quest that I was able to catch and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think that it brought the evidence to a new light and explored it very well. The one thing I did wonder as they were talking about the West Virginia video was how a 25 in. nose to butt cat could convince an expert that it had to be a young Jaguar or panther? 25 in. is not that large! Two days after viewing this episode I took it upon myself to measure my house cat and he measured 20 in. (not including his tail) and weighs 20 + pounds. I know we have a big house cat, but certainly it is not that uncommon for a cat to be bigger.
Also, I live in Washington state and in south-central Washington State I have had family members see what they considered to be black Cougars. The DNA defunct of this possibility is questionable to me. My extended family has long lived in the woods and understands the difference between a wet dark animal and just a dark animal.
Happy finding, Merry Christmas, & good luck to all.
I am really itchin’ for these guys to do a mothman episode
Regarding(seeing big black cats) in upstate, NY: It was back in 70’s and I lived up on East Hill outside, Elmira. Was standing out in driveway saying good bye to relative, and we both saw 3 very big cats running out from barn across Rd. They seemed to be chasing, and playing with each other, and ran up and around the back side of the barn and into the woods. It was a tawney, and 2 black ones; all same size…BIG, They were bigger than the big red setter male dog I owned, and looked heavier than him. He weighed almost 80+lbs,and they looked as though they each would go 150, or more eazy! Had long tails. My neighbors were gone away on vacc, but Walked up there and saw the paw prints they left(5″ across in width) The gamewarden, and a biologist from Pitts(who happened to be investigating strange sounds, sights in VanEtten area,)@that time, talked with me about the cats and they said what I described was too big for a panther that might migrate up from south, and that also the panthers migrate back south in winter, and they found it odd the cats were romping around in daytime so close to buildings and people, and didn;t seem to be that afraid. Prior to that my daughter, riding her bike down the rd by our house, came screeming into the house saying she’d just drove past a big black cat just sitting by the rd side. She said it had green eyes, looked at her, and was big, black and didn’t seem afraid of her, and she looked back to see it walking off into the rd side weeds next to the creek! This was only a few yrds from our house in the afternoon! I nolonger took walks alone in the woods afternoons after seeing them! Other neighbors also saw the cats. The Drs wife that lived across st said the conservation dept wanted it kept low key so people wouldn’t be coming up there looking to hunt them! I told the biologist, and gamewarden exactly what my MIL had told me after I saw the cats. The Dr neighbor house was the farm house my mil had grown up in yrs ago, and she said back then early 1900’s there was an old couple in the north chemung area that had brought 2 lepard cubs back with them as pets from a trip over seas, and people said when the cats got too big they turned them loose as they couldn’t handle them. All long dead now the people, but I often wondered if the cats I saw were from those leopards? Though I moved to Va some yrs ago; my daughter still lives up there;ny in my house, and says the big cats are still roaming about that area. I figured, offspring wise, they surely have populated by now as it has been around 30 yrs since I saw those 3 tog.. They mate around every 2-3 yrs, and keep their off spring with the mother about that long before they chase them away to go on their own. Think they each need several sq mi territories so in 30 yrs that’s many miles, and lots of cats population spread out; so who is kidding who when they say the big black cats are rare, and big cats about non existant in Eastern US. I’m here to tell ya they are alive and very well? Leenie.
Carpenoctem666-
I was one of the artists that worked on this program, and at the time, Mothman was indeed being discussed, though not in great detail 🙂
Sorry for off-topicness.