should i believe or not .... i think i do???

lol ok this story is from my grandpa we live in michigan out in the country and we have a big woods in the back and before i was born my grandpa told me a story when i was young of what was back in the woods..

my grandpa told me that once in awhile he would see a black panther stalk out of the woods and come into the back yard now i have a big back yeard and the woods outline the back yard now he would say it would come out of the corner of the woods and stalk the outline of the woods out in the open in the middle of the day and then dispper back in the woods now i tell you my grandpa swears to this but i have played and hunted n drove back there my whole life and never once seen a black panther or even anysign at that fact of a black panther and it isnt like the thing just came out once and that was it because my grandpa says he seen it a couple times even in the winter and michigan winter are cold and unbearable some seasons now i know in facts that a black panther would get along good in michigan winters but is it possible that one lived in back of the woods and i liveing and playing back there my whole just never got the chance to catch a glimps of it or was he telling me that story when i was young so i wouldnt stray to far out into the woods and get lost i dont know i believe him but it is wierd to say the least..;.....

We live in northeast Georgia (Not near as cold as Michigan),
But we had a black panther eat all of our chickens four years ago.
Maybe they could survive up north. Being black might help them stay warm?
When they roar, it sounds like a baby crying or a terrified woman screaming.
Hope you find out without getting hurt!

well i live in indiana, which is almost as cold as michigan, and there are plenty of panther sightings around where i live, although no photographic evidence has ever come about, but the habitat seems like it could sustain a medium sized cat. haha, who really knows?

Who knows? I am a bit of a sceptic when it comes to stories like these, but I have had some personal experience with one myself so anything is possible.

There was a rumour about a panther living around the old telegraph station in Eucla, Western Australia - my family and I were in the area in 1983 and went out to take a look (at the telegraph station, not the panther). The old telegraph station is half buried in sand and pretty much a ruin.

When we arrived, there were no other people there. We got out of the car to take a look around, and the first thing we saw in the sand were very large cat-like footprints. It could have easily been put there by somebody (man-made), but to our untrained eyes the footprints looked very real and fresh. The whole area is sand dunes, so you'd expect that kind of thing to get blown away pretty quick. It's pretty remote and not visited very often either, so it's kind of difficult to imagine someone maintaining a hoax such as this for the occasional tourist.

There used to be stories of a panther living in the Grampian Mountains in Victoria (Southern Australia) too - the story was that it was a mascot that was set free by American soldiers after WWII. There's heaps of kangaroos and stuff once you get out of the cities in Australia, so a large predator would have no trouble at all finding animals to eat - they're definitely not used to a carnivore like that, so it would be easy pickings.

I'm sure there's stories like this all around the world.

Originally posted by rebeltanker
lol ok this story is from my grandpa we live in michigan out in the country and we have a big woods in the back and before i was born my grandpa told me a story when i was young of what was back in the woods..

my grandpa told me that once in awhile he would see a black panther stalk out of the woods and come into the back yard now i have a big back yeard and the woods outline the back yard now he would say it would come out of the corner of the woods and stalk the outline of the woods out in the open in the middle of the day and then dispper back in the woods now i tell you my grandpa swears to this but i have played and hunted n drove back there my whole life and never once seen a black panther or even anysign at that fact of a black panther and it isnt like the thing just came out once and that was it because my grandpa says he seen it a couple times even in the winter and michigan winter are cold and unbearable some seasons now i know in facts that a black panther would get along good in michigan winters but is it possible that one lived in back of the woods and i liveing and playing back there my whole just never got the chance to catch a glimps of it or was he telling me that story when i was young so i wouldnt stray to far out into the woods and get lost i dont know i believe him but it is wierd to say the least..;.....

I think this is the longest run on sentence I have ever seen.

A black panther is by no means native to the continental United States but you cannot rule out the possibility of escapees from private collections.

thanks wisefoolishness and clearskys as for indiana yea it does get rough n the winter to but on the contrayer when i went out in the woods like i do all the time to hunt and play and ride and stuff i never found droping footprints or carcusses so eather it cleans up after itself or i am just not paying attention to detail but that was some years ago well thanks for you input i really apprecitate it later you two as for nixie thanks for the input and i bet australia is a very nice place i would like to visit and yes this is a run on sentence too i know i know ....... lol

this is usually the case when an animal is sighted somewhere where it isn't "supposed" to be, most of the time evidence isn't found, no droppings, footprints, et c. or well, maybe the panther has gone away so to speak. usually a story or "i think i saw something" is what you have to work with.

Hmm, maybe leave out some meat for it and maybe hide a video camera nearby?

lol well i like the idea of the meat thing but i dont think its been around for a couple of years i been in the army for almost 4 and i been away from home most that time and i am in iraq now lol so i cant really do that but like i said it was a story my grandpa told me when i was young and i always looked around and heard about it from him as i was getting older but i never seen anything and i dont think i will lol he also had this story of a giant spyder he saw when he was walking out there to go shot his guns and said the thing was bigger then his foot and that was just the body the legs spred out even longer he said about a foot or so int he legs so he shoot it with his 357 mag and it did die the first shot he said so he shot it again and came back that night with 2 empty caseings but when i went out there to see it it was gone but there were bullet holes in the ground and just to see if he was playing a trick i started digging and about 7 or 8 inches done i found the slugs lol and there was a trail of goopy stuff going back into the woods but the dead spyder wasnt there i think a coon came out and grabbed up to eat lol well thanks every one on your input i really like to here it later

I have seen one in my home state of PA in the late 70's.

I'm not going to tell the whole story but I will say that there had been stories about these cats for years but I never really gave it much thought until my father and I both witnessed a black panther not 15 ft in front of our automobile while driving back up a mountain logging road.

I know what it was and will never forget it.

In the army for almost 4 years and never taught how to use a period!?! I find that hard to believe! It's unfortunate too, because I think you have something worthwhile to relay in writing, but I skipped most of your posts... Something about your grandpa feading a big cat some meat?