Comments on: New VA Mystery Cat Photo

By: CryptidHuntr

CryptidHuntr — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 01:05:16 +0000

It’s a cougar.Trust me. I know what a cougar looks like. i live in Montana.Trust me. I wouod know

By: chrissy lamauge

chrissy lamauge — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:58:50 +0000

why won’t wooten go to a naturalist? they’ll tell you it’s puma. just look at the face markings!

By: John A. Lutz

John A. Lutz — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 06:04:49 +0000

Charlie Wooten’s trail camera photograph in Isle of Wight County, Virginia is that of a sub-adult PUMA according to mammal trackers & identification specialists with the EASTERN PUMA RESEARCH NETWORK.
This young cougar is probably the newest addition to the small numbers of known big cats who call the Great Dismal Swamp of SE Virginia & NE North Carolina their home.

By: DWA

DWA — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:49:45 +0000

No tracks, I’m presuming. No other evidence of a cougar in the local area.

Has anyone looked?

By: kittenz

kittenz — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:27:37 +0000

Enlarge the photo. Adjust the brightness and contrast. Flip it to black & white. Make it transparent and underlay a photo or good drawing of a known bobcat. You’ll see; it’s very obviously a bobcat.

By: cryptidsrus

cryptidsrus — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:54:17 +0000

I’m willing to go out and say this is a cougar. Sue me.

But if it is a bobcat, it is still a great picture.

Wonderfully ambiguous.

By: Alligator

Alligator — Mon, 18 May 2009 13:31:41 +0000

I went back and forth on this one. I’m sure the guy who submitted to Fish & Game people is sincere in his belief that this might be a cougar. However, the image is just vague enough to obscure some critical details. For instance, right where the face tufts are on a bobcat its just white out. Bobcat ear tufts are dark and could simply be lost in the grainy image. A bobcat tail is short, but it is still longer than most people think. In the down position like this it may give the impression of being longer than it really is - e.g. cougar long.

I am not totally discounting cougar, they are showing up in places where people least expect them. But I am going with bobcat on this one. I personally know of two situations where at first glance, wildlife officials misidentified bobcats as cougars at a distance. A second and longer look with binoculars dispelled that first impression. So given poor visual conditions and poor photos it is easy to misidentify.

And it could be a big old tom cat too. Locally someone shot a video of a “cougar” in their farm field. It certainly looked like the real deal. It passed by a fence post. Based on what the individual said about the fence hieght, it was the right size for a cougar. But on the scene, when a tape measure was put on the fence post, the cat size shrunk by 50%. Tracks in the immediate vicinity indicated a domestic cat, albeit a big one. The person who reported this was sincere, they just misidentified it.

We need some scale in this picture. Since there is an investigation maybe that information will be forthcoming.

By: michaelcdunn

michaelcdunn — Mon, 18 May 2009 04:38:28 +0000

A lot of Isle of Wight county is swampy country, still pretty wild in places even though it’s just outside of the major metropolitan area of Norfolk/Chesapeake/Virginia Beach. And it’s close to the Great Dismal Swamp, and generally hard to access as a result. It wouldn’t suprise me to find cougars in there.

By: tropicalwolf

tropicalwolf — Mon, 18 May 2009 02:59:02 +0000

The odds that that the tail just “happened” to be “down” along the legs and out of view is too much for me…

Thus, this IS a bobcat!

By: DWA

DWA — Mon, 18 May 2009 00:20:07 +0000

Don’t know. Vague enough to be either bobcat or cougar. Head looks more to me like the latter, although the ears look a bit big.

I might actually bet some money it isn’t a domestic cat, though.

Wow. A mystery cat photo that’s really a mystery!