I lived in south Georgia for a long time, and several people in my family have seen large cats (black twice, and brown twice). My mother and I saw a dead panther on I-16, and my parents saw a dead juvenile-sized panther on the same road (but different location) 10 years later. When my wife and I drove by the same spot 2 days later, we never saw a body. Yet, I have never seen any reference to roadkilled panthers (whether identified as wild or escaped pets) when trying to research ABCs in Georgia.

Great comments regarding identification by language.

And I love “lion” and “panther” sightings. Great post, Loren.

The really old folks, those who have lived all their lives in rural mountainous areas, all call pumas “panthers” (pronounced paint-ther). The younger people -the TV generations- usually call pumas “cougars” (no doubt influenced by nature shows on TV). Occasionally you will hear someone refer to “mountain lines” (you’ll never hear it pronounced “lion” by a native ).

Pumas ranged North and South America from end to end, except for extreme northern Canada. Their former range also extended from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific. Georgia was part of the range; the Okeefenokee Swamp in southern Georgia was long though to be hold one of the last surviving natural populations of Florida panther, formerly known as Puma concolor coryi, although none were confirmed there in an extensive recent survey. The Appalachian Mountains and central and western Georgia were home to the Eastern puma, Puma concolor cougar (all North American cougars are currently considered to be of this subspecies).

Pumas are widely considered by most authorities -certainly by most state F & W Departments in the East- to have been “extirpated” from the eastern US by the early 20th century. But natives beg to differ: there have been hundreds of sightings and other reports from that time to this, and not all of them are misidentifications.

That’s my one and only crypto-encounter. Did I truly see one? At the time I was absolutely certain. The size, the color, the shape, they were all correct, and unlike any bird native to the area. I only saw the one, sadly.

As to playing with language, there is also the traditions of the Uncle Remus stories, with ‘Br’er Bear, Br’er Fox and Br’er Rabbit. I don’t recall there being other critters used as characters, I mean there was to Br’er Buffalo or Br’er Wolf.

What makes a lion? They live in social groups while other cats live in solitude.
I think that is the distinction that divides cats into lion or not.

sorry i keep adding to this thread but i find words and wordplay interesting.

I had a friend whose house was completely surrounded by forest. One day he told me he had been seeing a female mountain lion stalking through the woods outside his home. He brought me down towards the creek, and after about an hour, sure enough I saw it. It was walking very slowly through some brush across the creek. It took about two minutes or so to pass into some foliage and vanish out of site, but midway through its treck it stopped and looked directly at us. It was definitely a fully grown cougar. I remember it vividly to this day. I can’t say if it was female or not.

I was thrilled to have seen it, so I rushed home and told my parents, who naturally didn’t believe me. My friend told me that the animal had escaped from a nearby wildlife preserve, the Yellow River Game Ranch. What’s odd about this story is that the Game Ranch only ever had one or two big cats in captivity at the time. I visited it frequently and neither animal was ever missing, nor were there any such reports in the media. So truth be told I have no idea where the animal came from. Nor did I ever see it again. I would have, too, if it had stayed in the area, because I played in those woods on almost a daily basis. I was pretty fearless as a kid, so the idea of a big cat in those woods never daunted me in the slightest.

Was it an escaped exotic? Maybe. Either way it was a pretty memorable childhood experience.