Louisiana "Black Panther"?

There have been recent sightings of a large black feline in Louisiana, north of New Orleans.

About nine months after a rash of supposed black panther sightings in the New Orleans area, employees of a St. Tammany Parish office building reported seeing such an animal Wednesday to the Sheriff's Office. Experts have discarded North American black panthers as myths, but the unidentified people working in a building on the service road near the Interstate 12 westbound entrance ramp from U.S. 190 south of Covington nonetheless called deputies about noon and said they had seen one in the area.

The "experts" disagree:

while some people, including local law enforcement officials, have discussed the possibility of a black cougar in our midst, experts have assuredly said that black cougars do not exist at all. They come only in tawny and fawn colors, ranging from light gray-brown to a brownish orange.

As a native of the N.O. metro, I've known these claims to be made for several years now. Usually in the same general areas.
Now, I realize it is unlikely for an animal this size to go unnoticed by science, but I also think that anyone over the age of 5, who is not mentally deficient, can tell the difference between a large housecat and a big cat.

The picture in the article is unclear as you have nothing to match scale.

In the comments below the article, someone who lives in the area described mentions that sightings are more frequent than even the article allows. If one or 2 people saw a really big housecat, maybe..maybe that's all it is. However, the commenter mentions that the locals did some of their own research and determined that it was probably a jaguarundi. A jaguarundi is a medium sized big cat native to Mexico and Southwest Texas. They feed on small game (rabbits, birds, rodents) and are very shy.

Why is it out of the realm of possibility for this species to have migrated 1 state over? Granted, Texas is a big state to migrate through undetected, but we are talking about black cats here. They are pretty good at evading detection. It's kind of their thing.

Lousiana swamps would be the perfect hunting ground for this species, too. There is an abundance of nutria, raccoon, oppossum, rabbit, all manner of water fowl, and plenty trees to climb for protection and bush to hide in.

Not saying this is a definite, but it just seems very arrogant of these so-called "experts" to poo poo all the witnesses (including law enforcement) and brush it off as a "large housecat".

I think the jaguarundi explanation is at least a plausible one.

link to article:
www.nola.com...

description of jaguarundi:
www.nsrl.ttu.edu...

reply to post by pierregustavetoutant


We had a 'big cat' attack here in North Louisiana a couple of weeks ago. A large colt was killed and the vets examining the carcass said that is was definitely a big cat (panther) that caused the fatal wounds. Our local wildlife and fisheries morons declared that there are NO panthers in this state. RIGHT......

We have all seen panthers right here. Black and tawny. I don't care what the LDW+F says. I am going to find a link to the articles on the attack in Oak Grove in our local papers.....

TextText Black
Hello...
My children and I saw a black panther in Illinois in 1997. We were in a Burger King drive-thru and on the bluff in front of us we watched the panther for a good 5 minutes. Other people also claimed to have seen them in the area. Then last winter my son was outside smoking a cigarette (now in NC) and saw a black panther walking down his street...days later his neighbor also saw it, then his landlord. I do believe there is a population of panthers across certain areas of the U.S.
Thanks for the post! S&F to you...

This quote, right here, makes me distrust any 'education' these people claim to have:

John Hanks, a biologist with the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Department, agreed cougars, or other large cats, have not been seen in north Louisiana for years.

Really? Such ignorance should not be permitted in our LDW+F!

Here is the link to the article::The NewsStar

It really burns me up that they try to deny what thousands of witnesses have reported!

i know myself tha there is (or used to be one) in Livingston Parish where I am from. used to see it from time to time along with the usualy Bobcat here and there. you can tell them apart pretty easily lol. however I havent seen or heard of any around here in 10+years so I guess they moved on. Maybe down south to you guys lol.

Back many years ago there were some Cougars released to see if they would establish themselves in the area to see if it was feasable for the Florida Panther that was becoming rare and threatened to be rereleased in the area from a breeding program. However, the Cougars they brought in were not from here. I didn't even know about it although I hunt the area often. I found out one season when on the back of the Wildlife Management Area maps we use often in the Oceola National Forest had a new map called the Pinhook Swamp Unit. We hunt all around the Okefenokee Swamp and decided to check it out.

Apparently back in the 40's and 50's loggers built these log roads covered by dirt way out through the swamp. We were driving on that road when the front of my truck busted through the old logs underneath. I was checking out my tire and went to feel the depth of the rut and it went up to my shoulder in only water! We walked around the corner of the bend and there in a little opening was several large empty cages. Very strong cages made of 1" bars. We decied that we had to walk out about 5 miles. It was Thanksgiving Day and no one was out hunting but us. We kept seeing a strange kind of scat and weren't sure what it was. About two miles out we were in luck when some local hunters came out for an afternoon drive.

They told us we were very lucky to have been picked up. That is when we found out about the release and that is what the cages had in them. They told us the big cats come up on the road at night to hunt and we would have been done for regardless of our high powered rifles because of their silent stalking ability and once a 100-200 pound cat is on you, the rifles are not any help as you are in the fight of your life.

The thing is that these Cougars were supposed to be sterilized. However, later they found a small male Cougar over a hundred miles West that had to have been one of the cubs of the released Cougars because they are not native in Florida. Here is some info on the release.

Nineteen mountain lions (Puma concolor stanleyana) were released in the area of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge/Osceola National Forest. The mountain lions were used as surrogates to evaluate the panther feasibility of re-establishing Florida panthers in the area. Eleven females and 8 vasectomized males were released. Of these, 6 were born and raised in captivity, 10 were captured in the wild in Texas, and 3 were captured in the wild in Texas and held in captivity in Florida 2-8 years prior to their release.

Source

I have a friend in South Carolina that swears he has seen a Black Panther. There have been several sightings around the Southeast of a large black cat. There are people that raise exotic wildlife and sometimes they escape. I know a guy that lives about an hour from me and he raises big cats including Panthers and one is a female Black Panther that actually lives in his house, rides in his truck, etc. It is possible that others do the same thing around the South and there have been escapes. So, IMHO there could very well be a breeding population out there. The Panthers can get to be 150-260 lbs. They would be able to take down just about anything except a bear or a human if they saw it coming and had time to take a shot before it was on them. The swamp and the woods in Florida are thick and difficult to move through in most places. It makes perfect stalking cover for a large cat. You wouldn't see it in most cases. Especially since they hunt near dusk and in low light conditions where a humans vision would be less than optimal.

Last year while hunting deer in the Quachita Mnts in western Arkansas, My freind and I were watching two deer, walking through a feild, grazing. We were setup on some high ground and could see the entire field and woods, about 300 acres. As we waited for more deer to appear, we realized we were Not the only ones stalking the deer.

Out of No where, this black animal just appeared, It obviously did not know we were there, bc we had the wind to our face, and the animal jumped out in front of us about 100 ft away. The animal was Black in color, stalked the deer like a mountain lion, but the weird thing was that it had a head like a Wolf except it was a very wide and very large head, and the Muscular body of a Big cat, probably about the size of an adult lioness. The Unknown animal had pointed ears, and a long tail, it stalked the deer kind of like, what you would see on the discovery channel when you see a big lioness take down a zebra, Low to the ground and very stealthy. It took 3 to 4 giant steps, covering about 25ft and disappeared into the field and down into some High grass. We were stunned and quite shaken up by the experience, to this day I never go down to my land without a large caliber rifle. Im conviced that if it had known we were there, it would have attacked us, bc later on that day we found one of the deers we had been watching with its throat bitten in half, and most of the body had been eaten, a typical take down for a big cat, they usually go for the throat, still scares that crap out of me just thinking how close we caim to some sort of Black panther, or mountain lion, or whatever it was. Heck it could of been some new hybrid just because the way it moved. Like a Big cat, but had the Head characteristics of a giant wolf. Has anyone else ever seen an animal that looks and moves like what I have described. We looked for tracks the animal might have left behind but the ground was dry and grassy, so we had No luck finding any footprints. Strange.

I'm okay with the black panthers inhabiting cites, so long as they don't block access to the polls and intimidate voters.

Glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks there is more to this than mistaken identity of dogs or large housecats.
There are swamplands in Louisiana, Florida, and all along the Gulf Coast that are pretty big and remote and would be ideal place for a "medium sized" big cat to hunt and live. I just don't think it's farfetched is all (and while open minded about such things, I'm not a big follower of cryptozoology).
To me, this one seems very plausible, whether it be black cougars, jaguarundi, or escaped black leopards/jaguars.

I also think that such a wide variety of witnesses tends to lend some credence. Also the fact that other parts of Louisiana have experienced similar sightings. Thanks to my fellow Louisiana ATSers for chiming in (There will be many tiger sightings between our state and Atlanta this weekend!)

Originally posted by AnonymousCitizen
I'm okay with the black panthers inhabiting cites, so long as they don't block access to the polls and intimidate voters.

Haha!
I was wondering when my thread title would draw a comment like this.

When you've seen one with your own eyes, you don't care what experts and officials have to say....

I saw one here, in Georgia....Roberta, Georgia actually....I wasn't alone....We were out shooting guns at a clearing for the power lines, (country hunters call it a 'gas line')....My father, my sister, two brothers, my mother, my aunt and uncle, and their three children....

1986 or there abouts....I was 8 years old....My father spotted it first....We were shooting bottles and whatnot...My father was an avid gun collector and taught us to shoot at a very young age....In between reloads, my dad points it out....About 100 yards out, going from one treeline across the clearing to another tree line....Solid black, looooong tail, larger than a German Sheapard....It stalked across the clearing, and easily leaped a pile of timber before disappearing into the treeline...

I remember how quiet it got while we were all watching it...Back then, as an 8 year old, i thought it was like seeing a deer....I thought, "Well, those live in the woods, and now we saw one"....i had no idea about the argument of their existence or how lucky i was to have glimpsed it until i was a teenager....

My uncle (my father's brother) and his family still live within a few miles of the sighting.....

Like i said, when you've seen it with your own eyes, what the experts and officials think mean absolutely nothing....In fact, knowing what i know and having seen what i've seen, every time they speak they just sound ridiculous....

They say that black cougers don't exist....Fine...So maybe it's not a couger...I know there are black Jaguars in south America, and the Southern US is pretty tropical in places...

One more.....

My wife claims to have seen one farther north, in Griffin, Georgia...This would have been around 1995...I'm not sure of the details (as i was not there), but she claims to have witnessed a very large black cat along a rural roadway while traveling toward a hunting club in the area...

Maybe the discarded carcasses (or pieces of carcasses) would keep a big cat in the area for the easy pickings....Hunters often gut their kills on site, and often times will decapitate and dehoof the animal before carrying it off....

So that's it...Personally, i don't feel the need for any further proof...The image is etched into my mind, and i play it back whenever i feel....like an episode of MonsterQuest.....Weather or not anyone believes me (or any of the other witnesses) isn't a concern.....

Its a fact....There are Large Black Cats roaming the wilderness of the Southern United States...

For my senior and junior years of high school I lived in a very small rural (bayou) town about an 1 1/2 outside New Orleans. Well while in my senior year (02-03) my friend and I were driving to her house (well she was driving) and the roads in Maurepas are very dark. We were of course surrounded by woods and swampland. When she made a left turn to take the road to her house a huge I mean HUGE black cat/panther walked right out in front of her car head lights. We were able to see it perfectly clear.

I know what a large house cat looks like. I know what dog looks like. I also know what foxes and other things look like and this thing was none of those other animals. It was a panther. This thing had a long black tail and it was just huge! Granted we did only see it for a few seconds before it ran off, but it was more than enough time to get a clear view.

No one has ever believed us though. They thought we were drunk or high which we were not. But I know what I saw and it was beautiful and terrifying all at the same time.

I saw a large cat in the Freeport area of Pa. I was standing on my girlfriend (at the time)'s back porch and we were looking up the hill into the housing plan's back yards and there's this big @ss cat walking along the properties. She kept saying it was just a house cat but she only looked for a second. Her dog was going nuts (and it doesn't bark at strays usually since there's a lot of them and they stay away), and it just kept walking. It was WAY bigger than any house cat and it looked all black, though it was in the shade, so it may have been a mountain lion (they've been seen recently as well). But it was impossible to not see how big it was.

Yes, IA it is something more than a large house cat! I have not seen it myself, but have heard the stories there's no way that many people can mistake a "large house cat" with a black panther!!

They showed the picture on our local news, and told us it was just a large house cat, I don't believe them! LOL

here's the deal
there has been reports of these in the trinity river areas in Dallaas for decades
i saw my first one at 15...they have the head of a dog! I had a picture that matches the op

reply to post by GBP/JPY


Have a pic you can post?
It'd be cool to see

Regardless what wildlife officials claim, we have what we call Florida Panthers around here in East-Central Louisiana. Personally I've seen two, both crossing the road near my community. The same Highway both times, LA Hwy 129. The first one was really moving, stretched out running, crossed the road and cleared a ditch. Never missed a beat. This one caught me by surprise, it took a few seconds to realize it was a large cat. After this I have been on the lookout ever since. Next time the cat was a little larger. This one was also crossing the road but didn't seem to be concerned at all that a truck was approaching. From the attitude and size I told myself this may have been a male, Who knows! The first one was a little bit darker than a mountain lion, the second was a little darker still. A store about 7 miles from my home have pictures of fish, deer, alligators, turtles and yes panthers. Pictures are posted and all you have to do is look at them. People around here know these cats are around, the wildlife folks will deny it all day. Not sure what their problem is with admitting it though. The cats I seen were not house cats! They would dwarf a domestic cat and this is an absurd argument. Pretty much a mountain lion type cat that prefers lowlands. There are very few things in the woods around here that can make the hair on the back of your neck stand up like the cry of a panther at night. These cats have been known to scratch a hole in the ground and scream into it, to throw off locating it by sound, at least that's what some old timers believe. Just my two cents.

reply to post by StormMysticD
I wrote a reply to this subject when it first came up. Now, yesterday my daughter who live is WNC too
was told by her neighbor if she heard a baby like cry to not go looking around as there is a black panther and her cubs in the woods behind their houses. He had called the animal control and local sheriffs' office to report this and that there are small children in the area. Both animal control and police said they couldn't do anything about it as they are endangered animals. I think those responses are terrible as there is danger to people in that immediate area. Also, if the panthers are endangered wouldn't they want to take them to a safe place? Many people here wouldn't think twice to shoot, so shouldn't the panther as well as the people be protected?

I grew up in the Flint Hills of Kansas and as a kid spent most of my time in the woods playing. We had a farm with every farm animal typical to the plains so it wasn't uncommon for our animals to go missing or for us to find devoured carcasses, we had mountain lions in the area. Anyways, one day my brother, a couple of my cousins and I were playing in the woods near the pond on our property. About 200 yards away was train track that ran along our fence line and out of the corner of my eye I saw a very large black cat walking along them, I pointed it out to my family, who all saw the same thing I did. It didn't seem to be concerned with us if it even noticed us but once everyone saw the cat we all freaked out and ran back to the house. No body believed we had seen a black panther but, I swear on my life that was what we saw. Apparently we weren't the only ones who reported and I have heard from friends still living in the area that over the years there had been numerous reports.

The division of wildlfe resources would never admit they are there, stictly due to the cost of the liability that exists, if they have officially gone on record stating they resided in the state, they would have to put forth studies of the environmental impact on the existing habitat, at the point they go on record, they have to take responsibility for managing them, which is a huge cost to any state, to manage, protect and regulate the population. at this point, if they " don't exist " than they don't have to take responsibility to any liability that my come of the cats, including possible human attacks, loss of cattle/domesticated animals, etc

also, public uproar based on sheer fear of the cats, in Utah have cats that are common within city limits, my backyard, when hunting, even with high powered rifles, we always have side arms, its hard to shoot a cat on top of you with a long rifle