Comments on: Cougars in Illinois?

By: hammerhead

hammerhead — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 05:42:11 +0000

I live in clay co. Indiana, as I speak a 150 lb. mountain lion is on the loose, having escaped from an exotic rescue center 5 miles from my house, will they capture it, I seriousley doubt it, and i wonder how many times has this happened with no one breathing a word for fear of some legal issues and other possible re-percussions…Farther south in sullivan county, many tawny “panther” sightings have been made, so many in fact that the rural residents take it in stride, I know personally of one family that called the DNR and asked them to please come and do something about the panther sunning itself in their driveway, they were laughfed at and hung up on…they are here, have been here and always will be unless as a species, they are driven to extinction, big cats travel, hide in trees, perhaps nocturnal, and can eat whatever they want, roadkill, game, etc.., why should we be so suprised at this when we have destroyed most of the wild habitats, and driven them to a nomadic lifestyle, do you put them in a woods and tell them to stay there? will they listen? I think not, and yes friends, the DNR lies.

By: YarriWarrior

YarriWarrior — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 17:31:07 +0000

I KNOW there are cougars in Illinois, because I saw one there with a group of friends back in the early 80’s. We were out driving about 3 am in a location quite near Decatur (and the lake) when it crossed the road in front of us (about 50 feet away). This was a very isolated area with a gravel pit and farms nearby, and lots of woods. A couple of days later I was working with my father, and we were at the city landfill. A sheriff’s deputy was there right next to us, so my dad struck up a conversation with him, and mentioned what I had seen. The deputy said he and another law enforcement officer had watched another cougar for sometime a few weeks before. I asked if the press knew of that and he said “no, they didn’t want to cause any sort of panic”. True story. I am very familiar with Carbondale and Giant city state park (hell’s kitchen) and I would be quite surprised if no puma inhabited that area. It is the PERFECT environment for them.

By: Ray Soliday

Ray Soliday — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 17:10:13 +0000

Democrats have always been in the state of Illinois, so maybe the cougars have too. And Loren, your alma mater is the cougars?, or the salukis? LOL. Definitely an essay, not much on research.

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 05:19:33 +0000

I agree with what Ceroill said. As humans further encroach on the habitat of these animals, there is going to be an increase in the amount of sightings and encounters. These animals don’t just fade away when they have nowhere left to go. I think this will be seen with cryptids as well, bigfoot for example. If it exists, I think it will certainly be sighted more often in the coming decades and we may even get that all powerful conclusive proof. Unfortunately for animals like the panther, if they start showing up in populated areas, people are going to see them as a threat and they could face either extermination or relocation. Either way, it doesn’t bode well for any population of these animals remaining in the state.

By: curtskinn

curtskinn — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 08:26:15 +0000

In South America, don’t forget that there are melanistic jaguars that could mistakenly be called panthers.

By: Rillo777

Rillo777 — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 05:27:13 +0000

Interesting. I live next door in Indiana. I wonder how long it will be before the big cats cross the border and are seen here. As far as the black cats go, they have been reported in the Midwest since the first settlers set up homesteads. With the often illegal import of black leopards and so forth it could:

1) create a breeding population of hybrid North American and Asian cats, and

2) create a sort of self-fulfilled prophecy. Black cats that are escaped pets and become a fixture in the Midwest.

I guess another question might be: at what point are they no longer considered cryptids but rather just another rarely seen part of the Midwest fauna?

By: bf looker

bf looker — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 00:09:23 +0000

Like the article says, if one of these big cats has your arm in its mouth are you really gonna care what color it is?

The point is more research into these animals is needed.

By: Shihan

Shihan — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 20:18:38 +0000

“…Parts of the state seem to be suffering a plague of black panthers, which hereabouts means not leopards (the only true black panther)…” Who ever made this statement is incorrect, black panther is most often used when referring to the S. American Jaguar which is ALSO a true black panther.

By: stancourtney

stancourtney — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 19:15:32 +0000

These sightings go back many decades in this area. I am one of those individuals who has seen two black panthers in Central Illinois. That doesn’t include the tawny cougar my wife saw in broad daylight near our home in April of 2005 or the tawny cougar that ran in front of my pickup the 29th of July at 8 o’clock in the morning.

By: Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 16:20:29 +0000

There have continued to be mountain lions in Illinois still the middle of the 20th century, despite the official notion that they have not been there.

Unfortunately, the information used in this article is filled with old incorrect tidbits of info from the eastern cougar people and off the internet, including this classic:

“Black pumas are known in South America,”

Not true. There is no verified specimen of a melanistic or black mountain lion (puma, cougar, etc.) from Central or South America. There are a couple rare photographs floating around of people with dead “black pumas” - but

1) we don’t know, really, where these photographs were taken (maybe not in South America);

2) we have no DNA to prove these animals aren’t black leopards in Asia or Africa or a black jaguar in South America;

3) we have no proof these aren’t someone’s dead black leopard pet.

Loren