Black Panther

[evenstargirl]

In southern Illinois, we now have a nice population of bobcats. They are adorable. We have had supposed cougar sightings. But the best was a bulletin from the IDNR at our local feed store. It basically said "THERE ARE NO WOLVES IN ILLINOIS. HOWEVER, IF YOU SEE ONE, IT IS ILLEGAL TO SHOOT IT."

 

[corgiscatsandchickens]

Really hard to tell by the photo, I would suspect housecat. That's not to say that there aren't cougars/panthers/catamounts/mountainlions/pumas (golly how can one cat have so many names?) in the area. Biologists and wildlife officials have been saying for *ages* that other than the Florida Panther and escaped exotic pets, there are no cougars in the east. Everyone who lives in rural areas in the east knows that is completely false. Perhaps that myth is perpetuated because officials are afraid folks will panic at the thought of living around large cats. Hard to say.

I can tell youu that growing up in WV, cougars were a commonplace fact of life. I've seen tracks, seen cubs, seen adults and heard the screams. Generations of my family have, neighbors have, etc. I've seen enough bobcats to be able to tell the difference between bobcats and cougars. I've never personally seen a black cougar, but know of plenty of folks who have. Don't know if that's due to melanisim or not. It would seem wierd to have a completely melanistic phase of the cougar be fairly common, and yet the books don't mention it. Equally unusual to have a completely undocumented subspecies out there in this day and age. If you read the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, you'll find a story of her father seeing a "black panther, as black as Susan over there" (indicating thier black housecat) in the "Big Woods" of Wisconsin.

 

[woodmort]

Yup and here is another one just escaping into the brush where it'll await some unsuspecting toddler.

ETA-- BTW, that's my DW's two-year old cat.

 

[chickened]

I have seen many cougars that is not a cougar the tail is too short and is in the wrong poise. A cougars tail is almost as long as his body that ones tail is less than half. In the OP picture not Morts'.

 

[lethldragon]

Could be a house cat, but see if you can't find a pic of a mountain lion at about the same angle and look at the shape of the body, the shape actually looks more like a cougar than a house cat but like some said it is a bad picture and really can't tell. Just my .02

 

[harveyhorses]

I can't tell from that picture, but don't you think MAYBE, the GW, sheriff, DNR, whoever, went by something more that a bad picture. Hey lets go see if there are tracks? Scat?

 

[lethldragon]

Quote:
Probably not since non of them think that there are black cougars anywhere in the us, lol

 

[annep]

I have a black cat that compared to others is pretty dang big...I would go with house cat on that pic..Just judging from the height of the weeds, etc..That could easily be my cat

 

[darkmatter]

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, there are out of place and unknown animals out there. I've seen a few mundane ones like an Emu running down the gravel road and no one knows of anyone within miles owning any. I've seen a giant tortoise loose and no one claimed him either. I'm not a track expert, but I'm familiar with the local wildlife tracks and have seen some along the creek bed once that didn't fit anything I knew. Another local found a 6 foot Iguana dead from the cold. So far my game cam has only captured images of the local varmints and feral cats and dogs I want to shoot.

 

[StevenW.]

Quote:
Yep. There has also been some stupid rumor saying there's a Cougar running around here in Effingham County.

Wouldn't surprise me if there were wolves here! There "use" to be wolves around Beecher City since there's a Creek that's named..... Wolf Creek!


Oh and that "Black Panther" looks like a Black Domestic cat to me.