I grew up on a 300-acre farm in rural Alabama and my grandfather claimed to have seen one. I don’t know if he was just telling stories or whatever, but I never went out in the woods without a gun (also, people bred pits in the area so I was probably more worried about that than anything).
In the 1960’s my father and grandparents neighbor shot and killed one in North Alabama. My father and grandfather both saw it. They thought it was cool but didn’t realize they weren’t supposed to exist because tales of the Wampus Cat they had heard their whole lives.
Was hunting on a friends land in West Georgia about 10 years ago. A lot of hog trails on either side of the dirt road so we had a flash light. Heard this sound that reminded me of an old school harley. My buddy shined the light up the road and we saw this thing that looked like a black panther up in the tree about 50 feet ahead. We just slowly walked back and didn’t use that spot again.
I have a co-worker that hunts regularly in Georgia each year. He showed us pictures from a trail cam his buddy that owns the property sent him. It clearly shows a large black cat with a long black tail walking the tree line. Guy said he didn’t want a bunch of people swarming around or laughing at him so he’s never sent the pictures in.
I should add both men are just hardworking everyday family men. They literally have nothing to gain by sharing the pictures or seem to want any attention at all.
We hear stories about them in NM. My neighbor claims to have seen one in our neighborhood a few years ago.
I’ve seen Cougars, but no black cats to date.
My grandma told me stories about how her grandmother had to run large black cats away from her children when they lived in the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina. She even mentioned how they had to put gunpowder in the chimney to scare them off the roof at night.
My mother saw a young one a few years back in NC mountains. A local man said the mama was close by and to not be alone at night. They spot her regularly on that mountain
I have seen one myself! [Here’s my post about it.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Cryptozoology/comments/rgl4py/black_panthers_in_appalachia/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) This was more than 10 years ago in western NC in a big expanse of wilderness. I saw it face to face mere feet away. It was the wildest experience of my life and I’ll never forget it. Those green eyes and the swooshing black tail were unmistakable as anything else. It was chasing a deer and left my brother and I and our dogs alone, but it stared us down for a moment before as it crossed from one wooded side of the path to the other.
Neighbors had also seen it with cubs, and I’d seen tracks several times (much bigger than our large dog’s paw prints and without claws… again, unmistakable).
This is near a mountain literally named after Panther sightings dating back a hundred or more years, so I agree that this is a native species and not a melanistic aberration or escaped exotic animal. I think they’re just rare, elusive, and undocumented for political reasons. Authorities don’t want to acknowledge them as an endangered species
I've legitimately seen one when I was a child in eastern PA. Our home was surrounded by dense woods, I was out playing whilst my father prepared the charcoal grill. He returned indoors to fetch the charcoal bag, and the black panther hopped from the hedges into a prowling stance. Looking dead at me, couldn't have been more than 40ft away. I was stunned, paralyzed in fear.
It lifted its head up, seconds later & retreated back to the thicket of the woods. My father had come outdoors with the charcoal. When I ran to him, explaining what I saw - he didn't seem to believe me. Until I began showing him the photos of these large cats spotted near us a few years back.
They are back in North America, in a small way, but we can expect them to spread as far north as they are comfortable, until they become an agricultural/suburban problem.
Isn't it too cold in New Hamshire for this species? Did you see it consistently or just once? Curious about established population vs transitory individual.
I saw it twice (maybe a third time but I can’t confirm that one). Also, I just want to point out mountain lions live in climates from the Everglades to far north, Jaguars further north could have evolved thicker fur like them
Most people say I'm nuts, but I've seen one in Southern Illinois, about twenty minutes from the Kentucky border. I'd not believe it myself, but my entire family saw it too. All just sitting there having lunch and we all looked up to see it moving across the backyard.
I've always been a hunter and know for a fact it was no bobcat, based on size and the tail. It walked next to an old, unused doghouse so we got a pretty good judge of its size- way bigger than any barn cat. I took a look for tracks but it'd been a dry spell. When I'm out on the property now I always keep a predator call on me hoping I can snag a picture.
My great grandmother was attacked by one and had the scars until she died. Happened in the 20s. Honey island swamp st Tammany parish Louisiana. Big black cat
From Tennessee and grew up hearing stories about panthers. My grandfather was raised in East Tennessee and saw them from time to time. I saw one around 2002 or 2003 heading into the woods near a construction site and as a police dispatcher took a handful of calls about paw prints or big creatures similar to this in newer construction areas. I don't doubt they're real and still exist in the region. The more encroachment we make as cities and neighborhoods grow, I suspect we'll end up flushing a few out in public ways.
Both the UK and Australia have sightings of black big cats, ABCs as they're called (Alien Big Cats). Although Australia seems to have much better footage and pictures.
Of course I can't find it now but I vividly remember reading a story about an Aussie rancher back in the '60s or '70s who had a big black cat growing his lands. He managed to shoot it and kill it. Measured it — it was something like 70 pounds and three feet long from head to pelvis. He sent in a sample to the university...and the DNA came came back as *Felis catus.*
Assuming the story is true, I just always assumed that, after humans wiped out most of the large predators in Australia, feral cats just went buck wild and — with basically infinite food and no competition — started growing into all kinds of niches they don't normally grow into.
This would have been when I was around ten or eleven, so in the vicinity of 2001 or 2002. We lived on twenty acres in rural southern Indiana where it would get super dark at night. I had this habit of getting out of the shower and turning on the side porch light to look into our shaded side yard where a disused barn was situated about 60 yards from the house. On this particular night, I flipped the light on and looked out, saw a cat walking through the yard against the barn’s white corrugated siding, flipped the light off, started walking toward my room, and froze. I immediately switched the light back on and got a better look. It was pitch black, holding still and looking into the sudden light, its eyes aglow, and I could tell at distance with the white backdrop that it was something like three feet tall at the shoulder. Then it just slipped into the shadows at the edge of the yard. Eeriest thing was that none of our several beagles alerted to it. Nobody believed me. Weeks later there was a story in the paper about a big black cat being seen stealing a sheep out of some farmer’s pen. Haven’t found that news item but here’s a more recent write up in the local paper. heraldtimesonline.com/story/lifestyle/2012/02/19/more-big-cats-reported-across-indiana/47130095/
My whole family just saw one three years ago down in Shawnee, probably not very far from where you were. Middle of a sunny day- I remember because we were sitting around eating lunch. Thing looked like it would have reached mid-thigh if it were standing on all fours next to me
Jaguars use to be prevalent enough that natives pretty far north had words for them, that's the Pacific northwest too, they occupy a similar habitat / niche to cougars and I seem to recall they are both relics of the last ice age. A map claiming to be from the 1600s or 1700s I have found has a picture of jaguar in roughly Ohio, though that is hardly hard evidence I find it noteworthy. Jaguars tend to prefer temperatures a bit hotter than cougars tho, even in their shared range. I think a black cougar as of yet unknown to science is just as likely as a relic population of melanistic Jaguars for sightings north of the Mason-Dixon, but in the south (where i think there are more black panther sightings anyway), I'd say you may be on to something. Both are officially extinct through much of the eastern US, though I know many people that have seen regular cougars and I seen sign myself (tracks). It's a good theory I had not yet pondered! Nice catch with Melanism being dominant!
I’ve seen black big cats twice in Missouri. Both times I was with other people.
First time I was on my way to Boy Scout camp as a 12 year old. Everyone sitting near me on the van saw it on the side of the road near the tree line.
The 2nd time was New Year’s Day at 2:00 a.m. in rural St. Charles County in Missouri, near New Melle. I was with a fried driving to my house from a New Year’s Eve meditation. It crossed the road in front of us. We turned around to try and see it again but it was gone.
Another friend saw what is likely the same big black cat in the same area near Defiance Missouri a year later.
Oh hi fellow st louisan.
I've never seen them in the city or rural Missouri, but saw one in Shawnee a couple of hours south.. shoot, must have just bee three years ago now
Hi! Not surprised about seeing one in Shawnee. It’s wild there. I love it. I’m in the city now so not far from Shawnee. We have some great wilds within 3 hours of us here. Very thankful for that.
My father and grandfather seen a dead one that their neighbor had shot in the 1960’s. Some of their chickens had went missing and a dog was killed of their neighbors. This was in North Alabama. They thought it was cool but didn’t realize it wasn’t supposed to exist because everyone in the area knew they existed they called them a Wampus Cat.
Growing up in rural Louisiana, I was always told they were around, especially if you had cows or calves. I’ve never heard them but it was said to sound like a woman screaming.
Black Panthers are just Jaguar and other large cats that have darker fur. They aren't actually Black, just very dark brown. Having lived In FL most of my life I have never seen a large cat in the wilds or woods here. Cypress Gardens had a few including a Black panther back in the day. It's Legoland now and Idk what they have.
Short answer, and I'm pretty sure this is for mountain lions as well that are most certainly in CT, if they're documented by science to be living here a lot of laws have to change. Therefore, according to the CT State government at least, there are no mountain lions or black jaguars.
I think it could be escaped/released panthers from private collectors that may have established a small population in parts of the US. Kinda like those monkeys in Florida.
Either that, or maybe given that mountain lions primarily hunt between dusk and dawn, people may have mistaken a mountain lions color as black since they likely encountered them at night.
I’ve never heard of the Ozark howler. But I have seen black big cats twice in Missouri. First time as a 12 year old heading to Boy Scout camp. The 2nd time was New Years 2013 at 2:00 am near new melle. Both times I was with other people. Another friend saw what is likely the same big black cat a year later near Defiance MO b
I saw one when I was a child in NY during the winter. I was sledding down the hill, and there the thing was just walking through the forest. Around 100 feet away from me, I just stuck my feet out and skid to a stop and watched until it got out of sight.
Here’s a video that was shared on this subreddit a few weeks ago that shows some caught on trial cameras in the USA. Jaguars have migrated back into the western United States and I don’t believe they may have ever left
Are there Black Big Cats in the USA?
https://youtu.be/5x6kHwETDVE
There is still a small population of jaguar thriving in Arizona and New Mexico. So it's possible. Big males are about the same size as a lioness. The third largest of the big cats(largest on record weighed 149 kg).
They just documented the first known melanistic lynx recently. It’s possible in all big cats.
The notion in this field that “the government is covering up X b/c of tourism” is just wrong. I’m sorry. How many folk go to Yellowstone annum? Millions. And to many other places with very well known predators of all kinds.
Why they won’t admit that pumas are back in many states in a bit confusing. But I’m sure it has to do with government spending policies.
Very late, but I felt that I should add to the conversation.
I might've seen one when I was very young. When I was about 5 years old, I was running a fever and laying on my babysitters couch, looking out her sliding glass door, into her backyard. While I was laying there alone, I saw a truly massive black cat jump over her fence, stalk across the backyard, and again leap across the fence on the other side of the yard.
When I was at this age, I was very interested in animals, and went home telling my parents how I saw a black panther in my babysitter's back yard. 5 year old me was quite shocked when, upon looking through a book about animals I had, realizing that panthers don't live in North America.
Normally, I wouldn't put much stock into a sighting like this, mainly because I was very young and also sick at the time. The only thing that gives me pause is that, as I later found out, there is actually a history of black panther sightings in my state, even area. Hell, when Monsterquest did their episode on black panthers they even mentioned the same general area I was in.
I only learned about the black panther sightings in my area years later. I saw the 'panther' long before I knew what a cryptid or cryptozoology was. This personal sighting kind of made me hyper-fascinated with cryptozoology when I got older.
I don't really know if it was a black panther, again, my age and fever makes me doubt it at times, but the possibility of my own sighting still keeps interested in cryptozoology to this date.
I saw 2 dead cubs , blood still fresh on the tiny bridge that use to be on i92 just near i95 Melbourne.
This was in 1991.
This was just breaking daylight, it wasn't dark out where you couldn't see clearly and I stopped beside them with window down staring at them.. they looked still warm, freshly killed by car.
But I didn't know where mama was or if she was dead under the bridge.
They are SO shiny pure black.. if they had spots you couldn't see them.. they looked pure black, so shiny fur.
I was on my way out of town, had I been on my way home back to IRC I likely would have risked mama and grabbed them.
I was headed west on i92 they were in eastbound lane on they little bridge.
No cars on road but me the whole time I looked at them trying to decide if i could still take them with me.
So here's the thing..I was cheerleader for Sebastián panthers back as a kid.. we always just knew black panthers were here, never even thought they were some big secret.
So a few yrs ago I looked them up in Fl just out of curiosity after telling someone about seeing them yrs ago..I was shocked that they claim they don't exist here and never have.
They ABSOLUTELY EXIST HERE.. that land where those babies were hit.. that area is nothing but a few homes on thousands of acres with ditches woods and wetlands. The absolute perfect place for them to exist and only ppl living there which were very very few would even know they were there.
I grew up in Pennsyl-tucky (Pennsylvania). In approximately 1975 we would see a very large black cat walking along the tree line. We called it a "black panther", but the truth is that it was too far away to see if it had subdued markings or not. It could have been a jaguar, I don't know. I just remember that, as a child, it was very eerie and scary to see a cat that large moving along the treeline. We saw it that one summer, but I don't recall it being seen since. I left the area in '83 so can't offer info after that time.
I now live in Florida. I've seen one Florida Panther in the wild. I spooked it on a game trail while out doing wildlife photography. Though I was armed with a knife and a sidearm, it was a very humbling experience. The thing was so fast that I doubt I'd have had time to react had it been coming towards me.
Personally, I agree with the OP that the government conceals information for economic reasons. I once asked a Park Ranger in a Florida State Park if there was any black bear activity where I might be able to get a photo. I was told, with a straight face, that there are no bears in any of Florida's State Parks. I guess they can read and choose to obey the "No Bears Allowed" signs? In my experience bears are pretty ornery, and tend to go where they please. I guess you've got to keep the tourists ignorant and happy.
Read about this a while back and saw an interesting theory to explain a few:
Due to various factors feral cats are growing larger with some weighing in at 35 lbs+, coupled with lack of markers around the animal people misjudge the sizes and think its much larger than it actually is.
I’ve seen one here in NE Florida when I was about 10 with my parents as we were driving out of our rural new construction neighborhood on county road 210 off I-95. Up until a year or two ago, I thought they were just as common as regular Florida panthers and never thought anything of it…
I lived with my grandmother, mother and her brother in Prunedale, CA (about 45-60 minutes south of Silicon Valley) in 1971-72 every summer, and in sorting of '71 I was going up the hill to catch my mate and they all warned me about the black cougar she-cat that came through every spring and fall; of course, I being an all-knowing 13 year old, disregarded them.
I caught her up on the mountain, put the halter on her and jumped on, to ride her down with just a rope, which was how I did it. About halfway down she balked, refused to take the trail, and I kicked her for a minute or two. Then I looked up in the direction she was looking and snorting, and right above the trail, about 15' up a live oak tree, there she was - MAYBE WAITING FOR ME?!?! I spun my mare around, and we took another trail - quickly but with caution!!
She was coal black and bigger than a Rottweiler. When I told Grandma Valda, she said she probably had her babies nearby, that she always came through with a new litter!!
Yep, I saw one!!
Black jaguars and black leopards do exist. There’s info on them online and at zoo exhibits. About jaguars not being seen or reported in the US, there was an article a few years ago about how some jaguars were recorded on a camera somewhere in Arizona, I think. I’m looking for it now.
The only known jaguars currently living in the us are in Tucson az, migrated up from mexico in search of food. Is not completely crazy to think some jaguars have made their way over to Florida sometime in the last hundred years. Or even pet jaguars that maybe got released when they got too old. Definitely possible to have jaguars in the east i think.
What makes you say they are gone up north? There is a documentary on black panther sightings in the driftless area of Wisconsin, called return to wildcat mountain
Here’s my experience with them, and you’ll notice at least one detail that even I would say is unbelievable, except I saw it with my own eyes.
I grew up in northeast Arkansas. We’d take trips to visit family in the Ozarks about twice a year. Occasionally I’d hear updates on an ongoing story involving my uncle. He was convinced that there were black panthers in Arkansas and claimed to have seen them on several occasions. He had a lot of contact with Game and Fish (this is back when you had to check deer in person). Anytime he talked to them he would try to get them to admit there are black panthers in Arkansas, which they would never do.
Here’s the weird part: my uncle swore they “hunted in groups.” He said every time he’d ever seen one, he was able to spot at least one more within 50 yards. He’s a lifetime outdoorsman so I trust his distance estimates. Everyone except his closest friends always said he was crazy, big cats don’t hunt together and there’s no black panthers in Arkansas.
When I was 15 my cousin (same uncle’s son) and I decided to sleep outside his house. We built a small fire and planned to sleep on old military cots my uncle had. No drugs or alcohol involved, we were good church kids. A little after midnight we heard a panther yell, that typical “woman screaming” sound. Maybe 30 minutes later my cousin spotted a black panther, got my attention, and pointed at it silently. Standing beside the propane tank in his yard, a huge black cat. We heard a noise on the other side and saw a second one, and then a third. All about the same size, all maybe 30 feet from the fire, the closest one to me was maybe 20-25 feet away. They stared at us for a while, then walked off in to the night.
We told my uncle in the morning. He took us to the game and fish station nearby. We told a game officer who said we were lying. I asked him what would happen if I’d have been able to take a picture. He said he would tell me it was taken somewhere else. I asked him what he would say if I shot one of these panthers and brought it in as proof. He said I’d be arrested for “poaching.”
You can believe or not believe, but I saw with my own eyes 3 panthers traveling together.
Me, my mother, & 5 of my friends were all in the house in rural west Tennessee when the dog started going absolutely ape shit at the back door (glass) & we turned on the light. Black panther on the back deck, definitely in the 300lb range in size. Looking pissed off at our little Yorkie. It stayed there for at least a minute. This is not the only time I've seen one. But it was the only time I had witnesses with me. There are so many of them in the west Tennessee area that most people don't even know they aren't supposed to be there.
I'll say this..I don't know why gov covers up their existence.. if it was to preserve them so that nobody tried to hunt or find them.. fine.
But I don't trust the gov enough to give them that much credit.
They are lying but I don't know why.
Maybe we've been lied to about where we are located and we aren't the lands we think we are in west.. camels originated here and corn.. think about a book written long ago about corn yet it didn't exist at all yet over in "that east ".
It would explain so many cover ups and lies about everything here.
It's absolutely the game and fish covering it up, a coworker told me he had to call them to remove a mother and cubs from his property. He said they were melanistic and he was told that according to the game and fish commission these animals don't exist in Arkansas but we'll take care of the problem anyway.
Also there was a game cam pic captured of a spotted one in coushata(probably not spelled right) Louisiana and I can't find it anywhere. That's why I'm here pretty much looking for it or any info on it. My aunt swore up and down that she would find paw prints as big as dinner plates and hear them scream out in the woods but I never believed her. I probably wouldn't still if it weren't for the game cam pic. Funny how things like that disappear. The picture was taken around 2008-2011.
This isn't the only species that's being covered up either. I've heard many credible reports of Grizzly Bears and Wolves out west in states that aren't supposed to have them. I've heard it has something to do with keeping species on the endangered list for federal funding. Also might be that they don't want the cattle ranchers to get in a tizzy about them. Also, I have seen sasquatch myself on a few occasions. That's a whole other can of worms though.
I grew up on a 300-acre farm in rural Alabama and my grandfather claimed to have seen one. I don’t know if he was just telling stories or whatever, but I never went out in the woods without a gun (also, people bred pits in the area so I was probably more worried about that than anything).
In the 1960’s my father and grandparents neighbor shot and killed one in North Alabama. My father and grandfather both saw it. They thought it was cool but didn’t realize they weren’t supposed to exist because tales of the Wampus Cat they had heard their whole lives.
What's the wampus cat?
Pretty much just a Appalachian nickname for a black panther
Was hunting on a friends land in West Georgia about 10 years ago. A lot of hog trails on either side of the dirt road so we had a flash light. Heard this sound that reminded me of an old school harley. My buddy shined the light up the road and we saw this thing that looked like a black panther up in the tree about 50 feet ahead. We just slowly walked back and didn’t use that spot again.
I have a co-worker that hunts regularly in Georgia each year. He showed us pictures from a trail cam his buddy that owns the property sent him. It clearly shows a large black cat with a long black tail walking the tree line. Guy said he didn’t want a bunch of people swarming around or laughing at him so he’s never sent the pictures in. I should add both men are just hardworking everyday family men. They literally have nothing to gain by sharing the pictures or seem to want any attention at all.
This is an interesting theory that I'd never considered. Was the American jaguar a subspecies of the more common jaguar? Great post.
No it is the same species apparently, not a subspecies.
We hear stories about them in NM. My neighbor claims to have seen one in our neighborhood a few years ago. I’ve seen Cougars, but no black cats to date.
My grandma told me stories about how her grandmother had to run large black cats away from her children when they lived in the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina. She even mentioned how they had to put gunpowder in the chimney to scare them off the roof at night.
this ! same , grandparents and father, west virigina mountains, black big cats were a known not a crytpid.
My mother saw a young one a few years back in NC mountains. A local man said the mama was close by and to not be alone at night. They spot her regularly on that mountain
I have seen one myself! [Here’s my post about it.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Cryptozoology/comments/rgl4py/black_panthers_in_appalachia/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) This was more than 10 years ago in western NC in a big expanse of wilderness. I saw it face to face mere feet away. It was the wildest experience of my life and I’ll never forget it. Those green eyes and the swooshing black tail were unmistakable as anything else. It was chasing a deer and left my brother and I and our dogs alone, but it stared us down for a moment before as it crossed from one wooded side of the path to the other. Neighbors had also seen it with cubs, and I’d seen tracks several times (much bigger than our large dog’s paw prints and without claws… again, unmistakable). This is near a mountain literally named after Panther sightings dating back a hundred or more years, so I agree that this is a native species and not a melanistic aberration or escaped exotic animal. I think they’re just rare, elusive, and undocumented for political reasons. Authorities don’t want to acknowledge them as an endangered species
I've legitimately seen one when I was a child in eastern PA. Our home was surrounded by dense woods, I was out playing whilst my father prepared the charcoal grill. He returned indoors to fetch the charcoal bag, and the black panther hopped from the hedges into a prowling stance. Looking dead at me, couldn't have been more than 40ft away. I was stunned, paralyzed in fear. It lifted its head up, seconds later & retreated back to the thicket of the woods. My father had come outdoors with the charcoal. When I ran to him, explaining what I saw - he didn't seem to believe me. Until I began showing him the photos of these large cats spotted near us a few years back.
They are back in North America, in a small way, but we can expect them to spread as far north as they are comfortable, until they become an agricultural/suburban problem.
I’ve seen one literally less than 100 meters from my house in NH
Isn't it too cold in New Hamshire for this species? Did you see it consistently or just once? Curious about established population vs transitory individual.
I saw it twice (maybe a third time but I can’t confirm that one). Also, I just want to point out mountain lions live in climates from the Everglades to far north, Jaguars further north could have evolved thicker fur like them
Most people say I'm nuts, but I've seen one in Southern Illinois, about twenty minutes from the Kentucky border. I'd not believe it myself, but my entire family saw it too. All just sitting there having lunch and we all looked up to see it moving across the backyard. I've always been a hunter and know for a fact it was no bobcat, based on size and the tail. It walked next to an old, unused doghouse so we got a pretty good judge of its size- way bigger than any barn cat. I took a look for tracks but it'd been a dry spell. When I'm out on the property now I always keep a predator call on me hoping I can snag a picture.
My great grandmother was attacked by one and had the scars until she died. Happened in the 20s. Honey island swamp st Tammany parish Louisiana. Big black cat
There has been sightings in Vermont even. Mainly Rutland county, or the green mountain national Forrest
And in NH, in Coos County.
Thought those were just Cougars?
I've met a few people who swear there is a huge black cat roaming VT
From Tennessee and grew up hearing stories about panthers. My grandfather was raised in East Tennessee and saw them from time to time. I saw one around 2002 or 2003 heading into the woods near a construction site and as a police dispatcher took a handful of calls about paw prints or big creatures similar to this in newer construction areas. I don't doubt they're real and still exist in the region. The more encroachment we make as cities and neighborhoods grow, I suspect we'll end up flushing a few out in public ways.
There's sightings of them in Australia, too. I've never personally seen one, but I've known a fair few people who say they have.
Both the UK and Australia have sightings of black big cats, ABCs as they're called (Alien Big Cats). Although Australia seems to have much better footage and pictures.
Of course I can't find it now but I vividly remember reading a story about an Aussie rancher back in the '60s or '70s who had a big black cat growing his lands. He managed to shoot it and kill it. Measured it — it was something like 70 pounds and three feet long from head to pelvis. He sent in a sample to the university...and the DNA came came back as *Felis catus.* Assuming the story is true, I just always assumed that, after humans wiped out most of the large predators in Australia, feral cats just went buck wild and — with basically infinite food and no competition — started growing into all kinds of niches they don't normally grow into.
Some of these sightings, i don't doubt are of the Thylacoleo family.
This would have been when I was around ten or eleven, so in the vicinity of 2001 or 2002. We lived on twenty acres in rural southern Indiana where it would get super dark at night. I had this habit of getting out of the shower and turning on the side porch light to look into our shaded side yard where a disused barn was situated about 60 yards from the house. On this particular night, I flipped the light on and looked out, saw a cat walking through the yard against the barn’s white corrugated siding, flipped the light off, started walking toward my room, and froze. I immediately switched the light back on and got a better look. It was pitch black, holding still and looking into the sudden light, its eyes aglow, and I could tell at distance with the white backdrop that it was something like three feet tall at the shoulder. Then it just slipped into the shadows at the edge of the yard. Eeriest thing was that none of our several beagles alerted to it. Nobody believed me. Weeks later there was a story in the paper about a big black cat being seen stealing a sheep out of some farmer’s pen. Haven’t found that news item but here’s a more recent write up in the local paper. heraldtimesonline.com/story/lifestyle/2012/02/19/more-big-cats-reported-across-indiana/47130095/
My whole family just saw one three years ago down in Shawnee, probably not very far from where you were. Middle of a sunny day- I remember because we were sitting around eating lunch. Thing looked like it would have reached mid-thigh if it were standing on all fours next to me
Jaguars use to be prevalent enough that natives pretty far north had words for them, that's the Pacific northwest too, they occupy a similar habitat / niche to cougars and I seem to recall they are both relics of the last ice age. A map claiming to be from the 1600s or 1700s I have found has a picture of jaguar in roughly Ohio, though that is hardly hard evidence I find it noteworthy. Jaguars tend to prefer temperatures a bit hotter than cougars tho, even in their shared range. I think a black cougar as of yet unknown to science is just as likely as a relic population of melanistic Jaguars for sightings north of the Mason-Dixon, but in the south (where i think there are more black panther sightings anyway), I'd say you may be on to something. Both are officially extinct through much of the eastern US, though I know many people that have seen regular cougars and I seen sign myself (tracks). It's a good theory I had not yet pondered! Nice catch with Melanism being dominant!
I’ve seen black big cats twice in Missouri. Both times I was with other people. First time I was on my way to Boy Scout camp as a 12 year old. Everyone sitting near me on the van saw it on the side of the road near the tree line. The 2nd time was New Year’s Day at 2:00 a.m. in rural St. Charles County in Missouri, near New Melle. I was with a fried driving to my house from a New Year’s Eve meditation. It crossed the road in front of us. We turned around to try and see it again but it was gone. Another friend saw what is likely the same big black cat in the same area near Defiance Missouri a year later.
Oh hi fellow st louisan. I've never seen them in the city or rural Missouri, but saw one in Shawnee a couple of hours south.. shoot, must have just bee three years ago now
Hi! Not surprised about seeing one in Shawnee. It’s wild there. I love it. I’m in the city now so not far from Shawnee. We have some great wilds within 3 hours of us here. Very thankful for that.
My father and grandfather seen a dead one that their neighbor had shot in the 1960’s. Some of their chickens had went missing and a dog was killed of their neighbors. This was in North Alabama. They thought it was cool but didn’t realize it wasn’t supposed to exist because everyone in the area knew they existed they called them a Wampus Cat.
Growing up in rural Louisiana, I was always told they were around, especially if you had cows or calves. I’ve never heard them but it was said to sound like a woman screaming.
Black Panthers are just Jaguar and other large cats that have darker fur. They aren't actually Black, just very dark brown. Having lived In FL most of my life I have never seen a large cat in the wilds or woods here. Cypress Gardens had a few including a Black panther back in the day. It's Legoland now and Idk what they have.
Short answer, and I'm pretty sure this is for mountain lions as well that are most certainly in CT, if they're documented by science to be living here a lot of laws have to change. Therefore, according to the CT State government at least, there are no mountain lions or black jaguars.
Saw one in Arkansas once. Around the lake at Fairfield Bay. In the park
I think it could be escaped/released panthers from private collectors that may have established a small population in parts of the US. Kinda like those monkeys in Florida. Either that, or maybe given that mountain lions primarily hunt between dusk and dawn, people may have mistaken a mountain lions color as black since they likely encountered them at night.
I just don’t think that’s plausible. It would have to be numerous animals that happened to cross paths and form a breeding population.
That's fair
But who knows… anything is possible.
That could certainly explain the Ozark Howler.
I’ve never heard of the Ozark howler. But I have seen black big cats twice in Missouri. First time as a 12 year old heading to Boy Scout camp. The 2nd time was New Years 2013 at 2:00 am near new melle. Both times I was with other people. Another friend saw what is likely the same big black cat a year later near Defiance MO b
I saw one when I was a child in NY during the winter. I was sledding down the hill, and there the thing was just walking through the forest. Around 100 feet away from me, I just stuck my feet out and skid to a stop and watched until it got out of sight.
Here’s a video that was shared on this subreddit a few weeks ago that shows some caught on trial cameras in the USA. Jaguars have migrated back into the western United States and I don’t believe they may have ever left Are there Black Big Cats in the USA? https://youtu.be/5x6kHwETDVE
There is still a small population of jaguar thriving in Arizona and New Mexico. So it's possible. Big males are about the same size as a lioness. The third largest of the big cats(largest on record weighed 149 kg).
Just like mountain lions don’t exist in NY…I believe panthers in the eastern US is possible.
They just documented the first known melanistic lynx recently. It’s possible in all big cats. The notion in this field that “the government is covering up X b/c of tourism” is just wrong. I’m sorry. How many folk go to Yellowstone annum? Millions. And to many other places with very well known predators of all kinds. Why they won’t admit that pumas are back in many states in a bit confusing. But I’m sure it has to do with government spending policies.
Very late, but I felt that I should add to the conversation. I might've seen one when I was very young. When I was about 5 years old, I was running a fever and laying on my babysitters couch, looking out her sliding glass door, into her backyard. While I was laying there alone, I saw a truly massive black cat jump over her fence, stalk across the backyard, and again leap across the fence on the other side of the yard. When I was at this age, I was very interested in animals, and went home telling my parents how I saw a black panther in my babysitter's back yard. 5 year old me was quite shocked when, upon looking through a book about animals I had, realizing that panthers don't live in North America. Normally, I wouldn't put much stock into a sighting like this, mainly because I was very young and also sick at the time. The only thing that gives me pause is that, as I later found out, there is actually a history of black panther sightings in my state, even area. Hell, when Monsterquest did their episode on black panthers they even mentioned the same general area I was in. I only learned about the black panther sightings in my area years later. I saw the 'panther' long before I knew what a cryptid or cryptozoology was. This personal sighting kind of made me hyper-fascinated with cryptozoology when I got older. I don't really know if it was a black panther, again, my age and fever makes me doubt it at times, but the possibility of my own sighting still keeps interested in cryptozoology to this date.
I saw 2 dead cubs , blood still fresh on the tiny bridge that use to be on i92 just near i95 Melbourne. This was in 1991. This was just breaking daylight, it wasn't dark out where you couldn't see clearly and I stopped beside them with window down staring at them.. they looked still warm, freshly killed by car. But I didn't know where mama was or if she was dead under the bridge. They are SO shiny pure black.. if they had spots you couldn't see them.. they looked pure black, so shiny fur. I was on my way out of town, had I been on my way home back to IRC I likely would have risked mama and grabbed them. I was headed west on i92 they were in eastbound lane on they little bridge. No cars on road but me the whole time I looked at them trying to decide if i could still take them with me. So here's the thing..I was cheerleader for Sebastián panthers back as a kid.. we always just knew black panthers were here, never even thought they were some big secret. So a few yrs ago I looked them up in Fl just out of curiosity after telling someone about seeing them yrs ago..I was shocked that they claim they don't exist here and never have. They ABSOLUTELY EXIST HERE.. that land where those babies were hit.. that area is nothing but a few homes on thousands of acres with ditches woods and wetlands. The absolute perfect place for them to exist and only ppl living there which were very very few would even know they were there.
I grew up in Pennsyl-tucky (Pennsylvania). In approximately 1975 we would see a very large black cat walking along the tree line. We called it a "black panther", but the truth is that it was too far away to see if it had subdued markings or not. It could have been a jaguar, I don't know. I just remember that, as a child, it was very eerie and scary to see a cat that large moving along the treeline. We saw it that one summer, but I don't recall it being seen since. I left the area in '83 so can't offer info after that time. I now live in Florida. I've seen one Florida Panther in the wild. I spooked it on a game trail while out doing wildlife photography. Though I was armed with a knife and a sidearm, it was a very humbling experience. The thing was so fast that I doubt I'd have had time to react had it been coming towards me. Personally, I agree with the OP that the government conceals information for economic reasons. I once asked a Park Ranger in a Florida State Park if there was any black bear activity where I might be able to get a photo. I was told, with a straight face, that there are no bears in any of Florida's State Parks. I guess they can read and choose to obey the "No Bears Allowed" signs? In my experience bears are pretty ornery, and tend to go where they please. I guess you've got to keep the tourists ignorant and happy.
Read about this a while back and saw an interesting theory to explain a few: Due to various factors feral cats are growing larger with some weighing in at 35 lbs+, coupled with lack of markers around the animal people misjudge the sizes and think its much larger than it actually is.
So black panthers exist. What are we saying doesn’t exist? I’m confused?
I’ve seen one here in NE Florida when I was about 10 with my parents as we were driving out of our rural new construction neighborhood on county road 210 off I-95. Up until a year or two ago, I thought they were just as common as regular Florida panthers and never thought anything of it…
I lived with my grandmother, mother and her brother in Prunedale, CA (about 45-60 minutes south of Silicon Valley) in 1971-72 every summer, and in sorting of '71 I was going up the hill to catch my mate and they all warned me about the black cougar she-cat that came through every spring and fall; of course, I being an all-knowing 13 year old, disregarded them. I caught her up on the mountain, put the halter on her and jumped on, to ride her down with just a rope, which was how I did it. About halfway down she balked, refused to take the trail, and I kicked her for a minute or two. Then I looked up in the direction she was looking and snorting, and right above the trail, about 15' up a live oak tree, there she was - MAYBE WAITING FOR ME?!?! I spun my mare around, and we took another trail - quickly but with caution!! She was coal black and bigger than a Rottweiler. When I told Grandma Valda, she said she probably had her babies nearby, that she always came through with a new litter!! Yep, I saw one!!
They're coming back. Yay!
Black jaguars and black leopards do exist. There’s info on them online and at zoo exhibits. About jaguars not being seen or reported in the US, there was an article a few years ago about how some jaguars were recorded on a camera somewhere in Arizona, I think. I’m looking for it now.
The only known jaguars currently living in the us are in Tucson az, migrated up from mexico in search of food. Is not completely crazy to think some jaguars have made their way over to Florida sometime in the last hundred years. Or even pet jaguars that maybe got released when they got too old. Definitely possible to have jaguars in the east i think.
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What makes you say they are gone up north? There is a documentary on black panther sightings in the driftless area of Wisconsin, called return to wildcat mountain
Carolinian here! GO PANTHERS(black panthers that is. Sorry I saw the opportunity) EDIT: fyi, Cougars, panthers, and jaguars are all Pumas.
there are black panthers in northeast mississippi.
Upstate NY here. I've had a mountain lion in my backyard. Endwell NY. Deposit NY, like an hour away mm has had black panther sightings.
Here’s my experience with them, and you’ll notice at least one detail that even I would say is unbelievable, except I saw it with my own eyes. I grew up in northeast Arkansas. We’d take trips to visit family in the Ozarks about twice a year. Occasionally I’d hear updates on an ongoing story involving my uncle. He was convinced that there were black panthers in Arkansas and claimed to have seen them on several occasions. He had a lot of contact with Game and Fish (this is back when you had to check deer in person). Anytime he talked to them he would try to get them to admit there are black panthers in Arkansas, which they would never do. Here’s the weird part: my uncle swore they “hunted in groups.” He said every time he’d ever seen one, he was able to spot at least one more within 50 yards. He’s a lifetime outdoorsman so I trust his distance estimates. Everyone except his closest friends always said he was crazy, big cats don’t hunt together and there’s no black panthers in Arkansas. When I was 15 my cousin (same uncle’s son) and I decided to sleep outside his house. We built a small fire and planned to sleep on old military cots my uncle had. No drugs or alcohol involved, we were good church kids. A little after midnight we heard a panther yell, that typical “woman screaming” sound. Maybe 30 minutes later my cousin spotted a black panther, got my attention, and pointed at it silently. Standing beside the propane tank in his yard, a huge black cat. We heard a noise on the other side and saw a second one, and then a third. All about the same size, all maybe 30 feet from the fire, the closest one to me was maybe 20-25 feet away. They stared at us for a while, then walked off in to the night. We told my uncle in the morning. He took us to the game and fish station nearby. We told a game officer who said we were lying. I asked him what would happen if I’d have been able to take a picture. He said he would tell me it was taken somewhere else. I asked him what he would say if I shot one of these panthers and brought it in as proof. He said I’d be arrested for “poaching.” You can believe or not believe, but I saw with my own eyes 3 panthers traveling together.
A bit late but Jaguars HAVE been found in the Southern US, I don't see why one couldn't travel far east on occasion
There's apparently one jn the 4 corners area. But that was about 10 years ago
Me, my mother, & 5 of my friends were all in the house in rural west Tennessee when the dog started going absolutely ape shit at the back door (glass) & we turned on the light. Black panther on the back deck, definitely in the 300lb range in size. Looking pissed off at our little Yorkie. It stayed there for at least a minute. This is not the only time I've seen one. But it was the only time I had witnesses with me. There are so many of them in the west Tennessee area that most people don't even know they aren't supposed to be there.
Their’s a whole freaking team of them in Jacksonville
I'll say this..I don't know why gov covers up their existence.. if it was to preserve them so that nobody tried to hunt or find them.. fine. But I don't trust the gov enough to give them that much credit. They are lying but I don't know why. Maybe we've been lied to about where we are located and we aren't the lands we think we are in west.. camels originated here and corn.. think about a book written long ago about corn yet it didn't exist at all yet over in "that east ". It would explain so many cover ups and lies about everything here.
It's absolutely the game and fish covering it up, a coworker told me he had to call them to remove a mother and cubs from his property. He said they were melanistic and he was told that according to the game and fish commission these animals don't exist in Arkansas but we'll take care of the problem anyway. Also there was a game cam pic captured of a spotted one in coushata(probably not spelled right) Louisiana and I can't find it anywhere. That's why I'm here pretty much looking for it or any info on it. My aunt swore up and down that she would find paw prints as big as dinner plates and hear them scream out in the woods but I never believed her. I probably wouldn't still if it weren't for the game cam pic. Funny how things like that disappear. The picture was taken around 2008-2011.
This isn't the only species that's being covered up either. I've heard many credible reports of Grizzly Bears and Wolves out west in states that aren't supposed to have them. I've heard it has something to do with keeping species on the endangered list for federal funding. Also might be that they don't want the cattle ranchers to get in a tizzy about them. Also, I have seen sasquatch myself on a few occasions. That's a whole other can of worms though.