Comments on: Increase in Mystery Cat Encounters?

By: jasbales

jasbales — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:29:18 +0000

This is actually how I got to this site. Last night I heard and saw a large cat outside my home. When I went looking online I saw a cat that was similar size and coloring, but it couldn’t be a lynx because the cat I saw had a LONG, striped tail. Just a few inches from the end of the tail was a black ring and then from the ring to the end was white. Not a lynx, and not a mountain lion. I’m in the mountains of northern Arizona.

By: nolongerskeptic

nolongerskeptic — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 21:09:34 +0000

i believe all yall. im from ne oklahoma and spotted a big black cat with a tail. i called the police and althogh they came to check it out, they were skeptical. the local vet was also skeptical. could this have been a panther?

By: Jeremy_Wells

Jeremy_Wells — Tue, 02 May 2006 16:46:11 +0000

eastern Kentucky and western West Virginia, where I grew up, is FULL of tales from folks in my dad’s generation, and older folks (50+ years old) who tell tales of seeing big cats aplenty up through the 1960s, but except for a few odd hunters, they aren’t reported as much anymore (last report I recollect was in the late 1990s in Lewis County, Kentucky)
What is interesting to me is that, while my father and the old-timers report both tawny and black cats, with the exception of the tawny Lewis County cat that recieved some press after it was spotted dragging a white-tail deer fawn across someone’s yard, most of the reports I heard of in my lifetime were more likely to involve black cats.
Bobcats are still common where I grew up, and young black bears ocassionaly wander in from the deeper woods of West Virginia, but the people of the area are familiar with these critters. I don’t think they would often mistake the much smaller bobcat or the much larger black bear with a “panther.”

By: beim

beim — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 01:43:16 +0000

In northwest Kansas in the Phillips County area. There is I believe to be a hidden amount of mountain lions in the unpopulated heavly rich in deer area. There have been accounts of large proportions of cattle that were found upon high in the trees, and also an untold number of personal acounts, including my dad’s own exciting farming account while farming and seeing the cougar just hanging out in a irrigation dike like, “hey i am in an irrigation dike.” We must not think these animals as unwanted guests, but as the keepers of levels in our wildlife around us. Many people are injured and even killed by deer related accedents every year, so maybe we should relax and let mother nature do its thang yo. Has anyone heard anything about those sneaky snakehead fish/snakes indangering man lately?

By: kscryptoholic

kscryptoholic — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 05:11:31 +0000

Why are various wildlife agencies so skeptical about the existence of the eastern cougar? This animal is mainly nocturnal, notoriously wary of man, and now has a plentiful supply of tasty white-tailed deer throughout the eastern half of the USA. Small and scattered populations of this large cat had to have survived. With the rebound of deer populations and the abscence of intense hunting with dogs, this animal is making a comeback. Here in Kansas, no one believed the many reports over the years of the cougar, until some scat was analysed and cougar DNA found. The funny thing was this scat was collected in the populous eastern part of the state and not out west, closer to populations of the cat in the Black Hills and Rockies. In fact, a cougar was hit and killed by a car in the metropolitan area of Kansas City a few years back east of the mighty Missouri river mind you. I know the cougar is a strong swimmer, but I doubt it would intentionally swim across such a swift river as the Mo. If this cougar did not come from the west of the Missouri river, it had to come from somewhere to the east and north. The eastern cougar is no cryptid in my book!

By: texasgirl

texasgirl — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 01:50:21 +0000

I’m not sure what their status is in Texas, but they are thick up in the northern Panhandle of Texas.

By: MattBille

MattBille — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 19:43:56 +0000

Loren’s timing in posting this is almost Fortean… Fox News Channel is saying schools are shut down near Andrews AFB, MD, after two “big cats” were sighted. As of this writing, there is nothing on their Website yet.

By: cor2879

cor2879 — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 16:38:18 +0000

One of the things that makes top predators top is that they are excellent survivors. What’s surprising to me is that officials are so hesitant to accept that Eastern Cougars are still alive and well, despite evidence to the contrary for years. Perhaps Loki is right about a ‘minor’ coverup, but just as he said what would be the point when most of the eastern states have a significant Black Bear population… except perhaps that Cougars have, whether deserved or not, a worse stigma or reputation attached to them. Whether I would be right in feeling so or not, I think I would rather come across a Black Bear than a Cougar in the wild. Bears don’t seem to be quite as innately aggressive (unless provoked or starving of course)

By: Loki

Loki — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 14:37:58 +0000

Hey, guys…New to the site and LOVE IT!
Not only have I seen the large cats in the northeast,(I’m from New York in the West-Point Military Academy Area), I believe there is also a “minor” cover-up to hide the fact they exist alongside populated areas. Whether intentional or not, it’s definitely a concern.The local wildlife officials DO deal with a somewhat sizeable black bear population, so I can’t understand the unwillingness to accept another large predator exists.

My personal closest encounter was with a dead one laying alongside Route 17 southbound. For people not local to the area,this is a heavily traveled road. At first I didn’t belive it, until a second pass and stopping (annoying some morning commuters). I called it in to the county road crew who are used to cleaning up the multitude of of dead deer year-round. After work, I asked the same people what they did with the remains and no-one knew anything about it. Are there any other similar stories througout the north-east of this happening? Or is it just my clueless local bureauocrats? Thanks all…

By: Ole Bub

Ole Bub — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 13:25:54 +0000

Mountain Lions are supposed to be extinct in Oklahoma too…however many folks including myself have seen them for years….even the occassional black panther or two. If you have white tailed deer…you almost certainly have the elusive apex predator…JMHO

We have had a very dry year and as a result sightings of bears and cougars have been on the increase….a park in Broken Arrow (population 100,000) has been cordoned off while fish and game folks attempt to trap the “extinct”…critter seen adjacent to a school playground….

Rah Rah the Broken Arrow (Thylacines)Tigers….

Nice Bigfoot forum on the Xzone radio last night…Loren did a nice job, the final guest, Kathy Strain was very interesting…certainly worth listening to the archive and signing their protection petition….IMHO.

seeing is believing

tired ole bub, and the dawgs