Large Black Cats

GSPHUNTER

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I was in the desert in Az. and saw a real big black cat looking animal at dawn. It turn out to be a rare black Kit Fox.
 

Oregon

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My Grandfather told me many times about seeing one cross the road at night
near his house once. This was in E. Central AL., (St.Clair Co.) prolly back in the mid 60's.
I dont know what it was, but in his mind he saw a Large Black Cat the size
of a Whitetail deer. I never argued with him, I wasnt there.
He had no reason to lie.
Yeah. He saw an otter
 

grfox92

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Mar 14, 2017
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NW WY
I’ve lived overseas and in several states and I grew up in west central Al and this is where I had these sightings
People can ridicule all they want but it doesn’t change what I saw and really I’m too old to care what anyone thinks
I'm not going to ridicule you. But for example I've lived in Wyoming for 3 years now and have never seen a mountain lion. I see the tracks, I know they are there. I've seen trail camera pictures of them in the areas I hunt. I've still never seen one and there are thousands of them.

I know guys who guided for 20+ years and never laid eyes on one.

You live in a state that doesn't even have mountain lions and have seen 3 black ones?



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OP
Y

Yarak

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I'm not going to ridicule you. But for example I've lived in Wyoming for 3 years now and have never seen a mountain lion. I see the tracks, I know they are there. I've seen trail camera pictures of them in the areas I hunt. I've still never seen one and there are thousands of them.

I know guys who guided for 20+ years and never laid eyes on one.

You live in a state that doesn't even have mountain lions and have seen 3 black ones?



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Actually we do have mountain lions
They are rare to see but we do have them
We also have bears and more hogs than we know what to do with
 
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My brother-in-law claims (he swears he did) to have seen a mountain lion on their property last year while deer hunting. They have several game cams on the property and have photos of deer, coyotes, raccoons, etc. but never a mountain lion; why is that???

He says the animal "had a long tail"; I think he probably saw a coyote with mange that most of the tail hair was gone.

People see what they want to see.

CllearCreek
 

49ereric

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Jun 21, 2022
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Bus driver saw the black cougar-puma at least a couple of times and others saw it as well in the same area and reliable people. i think it was seen for a 2-3 years but forget as it was @25 years ago.
no black cats seen since then though.
probably as rare perhaps rarer than a Silver fox.
 

ethan

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Just my two cents, but I‘ve read about the way the human mind will fill in the blanks if we see or experience something and we’re not sure what it was. And I totally agree with grfox02, an animal that thrives in extremely open country in the west and 98% of the residence there never see, can not inhabit the thick, timbered regions of the east and be seen by so many people. The Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency has published on their website that there are a handful of confirmed mountain lions (not black panthers) in the state. But, I think the odds of someone that spends an inordinate amount of time in the woods like myself has maybe a one in a million chance of seeing one.

I think bobcats, young bears, otters, and **possibly** an extremely rare cougar sighting accounts for 99.9999999% of sightings.
 

49ereric

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And I totally agree with grfox02, an animal that thrives in extremely open country in the west and 98% of the residence there never see, can not inhabit the thick, timbered regions of the east and be seen by so many people.

they are seen crossing the road never see one in the woods unless it is hunting you.
 
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There was a city cop who called wildlife officers in for a mtn lion in an urban back yard.
It was a big house cat with a collar. Homeowners called it in as a mt lion.
Our minds can play tricks on us for sure.
I thought the first barrel we saw north of the brooks range was 100% a caribou through the spotter.
 

GSPHUNTER

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I have spent a lot of time hunting in the MTs. of Ca. I have called two Mt lions into my turkey set ups, and walked up on one on the Side of a hill while quail hunting. I never had any thoughts other than, that's a Mt. lion. The two I called into my turkey decoys never knew I was there as far as I know. Once they realized the decoys weren't going to be worth eating they just walled away. I kept a real good eye on them, just in case I was wrong about them not knowing I was there.
 

def90

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I'm not going to ridicule you. But for example I've lived in Wyoming for 3 years now and have never seen a mountain lion. I see the tracks, I know they are there. I've seen trail camera pictures of them in the areas I hunt. I've still never seen one and there are thousands of them.

I know guys who guided for 20+ years and never laid eyes on one.

You live in a state that doesn't even have mountain lions and have seen 3 black ones?



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Yeah, I've lived in Boulder for 22 years and the number of lions here prompted the publishing of a book called "The Beast in the Garden of Eden" yet I have yet to see one. Can't imagine seeing multiple black cats.

Look up feral cats in Australia. It's legal to hunt them there. Feral cats in Australia are often twice the size of a standard house cat. People are seeing feral black cats most likekely if they aren't seeing something else entirely and their brain is telling them it's a black cat. Our brains are great at filling in details that we miss or just aten't there, just watch any video online or read any text out there that explains how individual eyewitness testimony in criminal cases is so unreliable.
 
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When I lived in southern WV, I knew two people that claimed to have seen black panthers. The first was an old feller that saw one in the 80's. The other was a social worker that drove around a lot for her job and saw two on a bluff above the highway.

I was close to both people and never knew them to embellish or lie. That doesn't mean what they saw was actually black panthers. Like some of you said, our eyes do like to play tricks on us.

On a side note: While living in the Appalachian mountains, I saw some of the biggest feral cats I've ever seen. Not strays, they were feral. One of them was a big bodied white cat with a short tail. Definitely weighed over 30 lbs, well muscled with no fat and short fur. I seen a few that were black and white with really long tails too. Easily 20+ lb cats.

Makes me wonder if some of these black panther sightings are big feral cats with dark fur?
 
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Maybe there are more Jaguarundis than what scientists think. Seen one 30 years ago but that was in STX. STX is actually historic range though
 
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I've seen more mountain lions in the wild than probably most guys on Rokslide. I can tell you that even an overcast day can make a cat look almost black at times from a distance of 100 yards or more, and that's not too mention if you saw one in grey light in the morning or evening or during actual night time for that matter. The way the available light hits their fur can change everything. It's actually pretty remarkable. I once saw a large bobcat in the afternoon on a very gloomy and overcast Fall day here in WA at about 80 yards that looked jet black until I looked at it through my Swaros and could see its actual colors, and then it was clear as day. It was a pretty eye opening experience. And not all Bobcats have super short tails either. They're virtually always shorter than a cougars tail, but they're not always "short".
 

crich

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Jul 7, 2018
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AK
They're around. My dad showed me a photo a few years back his neighbor sent him of a black panther looking cat in their yard in Weztel County WV. It was probably 5.5ft nose to tail if I had to guess. That sucker was jet black theres no doubt that it wasnt a shaded photo of a cougar... or an otter.
 
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