Anyone heard of a "Wampus Cat"

Here in the southeast we have a creature called the "Wampus cat" It is suppose to be a mountain lion, wild cat something. I can't find any thing on line and was wondering if anyone has heard of it. All I really know about it is Native Americans knew about it.
We have had to possible sightings close to my home by some hunters and both say just a pitch black cat, that could almost disappear into the woods in a split second.
Any help would be greatly appreciated

Another legend of the Wampus Cat comes from the Eastern part of Alabama. Supposedly, a secret program was carried out by the government in the 1940s to create an agile, fierce message carrier to be utilized on the European front during World War II, much like passenger pigeons were used in World War I.

This program was based near Cheaha Mountain in the Talladega Forest, an area that was and remains very sparsely settled. The creature was part Mountain Lion and part Gray Wolf. However, several male and female specimens of the newly created species escaped and were never captured. Sightings of these hybrid creatures have been reported in the area ever since, with (supposed) sightings occurring as far south as the Everglades and as far north as the Great Smoky Mountains. They have also been blamed for breaking into chicken coops, mauling livestock, and even stalking humans. Several instances have been recorded of actual attacks, but most are believed to have been mountain lion attacks

www.monstropedia.org...

This is the only non-legend information I have found.

I swear I saw something of this sort in CT...

Friends of mine from the South (Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky) have mentioned this critter to me before, all of them describing it as a large black cat. None of them claimed to have actually seen the thing, putting it firmly in the FOAF category of crypto tales.

For my money, it sounds like a mountain lion/cougar/Florida panther, possibly melanistic individuals or a darker-shaded sub-population. Alternatively, it could be a folk memory of the dire wolf or other large, extinct predator. The hybrid wolf/big cat suggestion sounds entirely bogus to me, as such a genetic feat is not known to be possible (unless I've missed some important news in that field).

Indeed. Unless they have comparable DNA sequences (of an equal number) they would not be able to be here today.
Even if they were able to create live offspring, the new creature would most likely be sterile.

Hey there, Yes there are many American indian storys on the Wapus cat,

They were said to come from the Tennasee mountain's
The Story


Other rumours are that the wampus cat was used in WW2 as some form of secret project, kinda like passanger pidgions, based near Cheaha Mountain....