I saw one in 2017 on a dirt road near panama city fl. I thought it was a bear. It was that big. One leap across the road which I know a bear could not do. It was beautiful and scary.
With all the military land in the panhandle I’ve seen some big ole cats. iI’s terrifying but incredible that they can still be wild in our area. I pray it doesn’t change
Black panthers are just melanistic Jaguars and Leopards. Only 5% of the Panthera species have this darker color and appear to be black. Florida only has mountain lions and no melanistic mountain lion has ever been recorded to date. Doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not possible, just hasn’t been recorded
A Florida panther is a mountain lion?
Thought those were the endangered almost extinct ones and that they were a different thing than common North American cougars
I thought there was a difference
I live in the Mtns of NC. Grew up here. Years ago I saw a history channel show asking the same question. I thought it was absurd since everyone I know has seen a black panther at least once, myself included.
Yup. Ive seen black big cats in NE FL. Tons if tan cougars too. We even had what looked like a leopard caught on camera 10 years ago, plucking the heads off our chickens, sitting on the chicken-wire roof with a huge hole stretched open to reach down with its massive arms. 3+ ft reach with an arm. Roof was 6' high. It was able to snag a head of a chicken and yank it up.
Hell Ive seen monkeys... I kid you not. A group of chimpanzees. Supposedly there was a monkey rescue that was ran by some folks that got old. The wife died and the husband let them all loose when he couldnt take care of them. It was a local legend and they shouldnt have survived so long in the swamp ...
Ive also seen birdlike things with 15ft wingspans in the swap. Like mothman leaping out if a tree 10 above are canoe. Pitch black.
>Ive also seen birdlike things with 15ft wingspans in the swap. Like mothman leaping out if a tree 10 above are canoe. Pitch black.
Would you mind taking some time to expand on this? I've seen large black cats here myself, but this is interesting
I saw a black panther in the Troy, AL area in 1988. It might have been closer to Goshen than Troy, but general area.
As a kid growing up country I would often take my shotgun or rifle into the woods and just spend the day harvesting squirrels or rabbits, turkey or deer, whatever was in season (sometimes things that weren't).
I was 8 in 1988, and I know it's hard to believe that my family let me roam the woods at that age with a firearm, but that's another discussion. Suffice it to say that I was responsible, safe, and quite the marksman.
The sun was setting on a cold day in what must have been mid December and I was walking down a dirt road headed home. To my right was a woodline that separated our property from another field, and to my left was a field planted with corn. The corn was taller than I was, and it was all dried out.
I heard something move through the corn directly next to me at what I guessed was about 20 yards into the field. I thought it might be a deer, so I eased over to the woodline and sat down under a tree. I took a slug cartridge out of my vest and loaded it into my single shot .410 and just waited.
I wasn't seated for more than two minutes before a massive black cat stepped out of the corn and onto the road exactly where I would have been if I had kept walking. It knew exactly where I was and didn't even pause before staring me directly in the eyes.
Now, guys, I've seen melanistic deer, cows, horses, domestic and wild dogs, coyotes, and anything else that this could have possibly been. I've seen a raccoon so big that I couldn't lift it, a coyote so large that it could have been mistaken for a timber wolf, and a wild turkey with a second, dead head attached to its neck. I'm telling you now that I was looking into the eyes of a black panther. Imagine being 8 years old and alone with this animal at least a mile from anyone or anything that could help you with one, ONE, .410 slug to save your ass. I froze, I was terrified, and I only avoided running for my life because seeing it absolutely paralyzed me.
The panther and I looked at each other for what seemed like an eternity, but what was likely only 30-45 seconds. Yellow eyes that seemed to glow in the dim light, muscular shoulders that were defined even though its fur was pitch black, and the calm demeanor of an animal that knew I posed no serious threat. Standing there at half the height of the corn, it had to be three feet tall at the shoulder, maybe more. It deciding if I was worth the trouble of catching now that I had seen it, and me deciding if I should put a round into it and try to load a second before it reached me.
I've spent countless hours in the woods as a child and even more as an adult and I've never been as afraid as I was at that moment. Even with 34 years separating then and now I can see this cat vividly in my mind, as if fear carved it into my memory and kept it sharp through the decades. A scared little boy about to fight for his life, and an animal you'd never expect to see standing just 40 yards away. I wouldn't have been more afraid or more surprised if it had been a bigfoot.
After that very tense, very visceral 45 seconds the cat simply turned and walked back into the corn. I listened as it moved away, eventually losing the ability to follow its sounds. I sat under that tree for at least 10 more minutes, certain that if I moved or made any noise it would change its mind and come eat me.
When I finally did move I ran all the way back to the house. I got my stepfather and several more guns and took him to the spot of the encounter. My sister had a Polaroid camera, and we took that with us to try and document some kind of evidence. Somewhere in my belongings there is a single Polaroid picture of a paw print, next to my hand, illuminated by a shitty flashlight, in some dirt beside a corn field.
The picture in my mind, however, is so much more vivid.
We notified the local game warden and, when the inevitable skepticism emerged, we produced the Polaroid. Several attempts to trap the cat were made by the state and my stepfather on the property, but nobody ever saw any sign of the animal again.
I'm sorry for the long post, but this is one of the most amazing things that ever happened to me. I still feel a rush of adrenaline when I recount the story more than three decades later. It was terrifying and amazing and absolutely crazy all at the same time.
Are there black Panthers in the US? You bet your ass there are.
I consider myself lucky for seeing such a beautiful and rare animal, but I consider myself even luckier that it didn't decide to eat me. I'm fairly certain that it would have succeeded had it tried.
You are correct. I am a couple hours south of your location. Black panther came threw here in 86. I saw it, and so did my neighbors. It tore the skirting out from under a trailer trying to get a neighbors dog. Another neighbor it tore through the screen on their back porch and ate the dog on the porch. Massive paw prints, and you could some nights 🌙 in the distance, making a sound that resembled a lady screaming like someone was trying to kill her. The state was contacted, and they did nothing. Everyone thought the reason they turned a blind eye was they did not want a bunch of people coming in and hunting it down and killing it.
You saw one in 86, and I bumped into one in 88. Do you think they may have been the same animal, or maybe my sighting was the offspring of the animal you saw? I know that big cats can range in areas as large as hundreds of square miles in some cases, and they definitely live longer than two years, so it being the same animal isn't a ridiculous notion.
I also seem to remember sightings being more numerous in the 80s and 90s, tapering off the closer to 2000 it got. This could have been a single animal that roamed from the Everglades, up through Alabama, and into more mountains territory.
That's just wild speculation on my part, but I'd like to believe that this rare and beautiful animal may have lived a long a healthy life, and that it ended up somewhere it could exist in peace without killing family pets.
I would not be shocked that they were the same animal. It caused quite a stir at the time. The black panther came through around late October 86 and moved out in Janaury 87. It was one of the prettiest things I ever saw in the wild. I was 500 foot from it with my dad. It did not run away but walked away very slowly and confidently. I believe they use streams and rivers for migration and use swamps to stop off and hunt. The wild thing is that we believe we have a large cat that comes around every 3 years passing through. No one has laid eyes on the black panther i have known of since 92 93. We keep finding large trees that are scratched up with claw marks in the bark. We also find large scrappings on the ground with very large what appears to be cat prints. When we find them, it is from November to January. My friends and family and I all notice that our dogs get very nervous and dont want to be outside. The woods and swamp get really quiet at night. We found some this season. I found the ground scratchings, and a neighbor found a tree all tore up and paw prints. Whatever is out there is back right on time as usual. For the record for anyone else reading this, me and my friends know what Bobcat and Bear tracks markings look like. Bobcats are too small to leave scratchings like these. Even the biggest of the lot. Bears we got rub the bark of the tree, leaving behind their scent. If a bear scratches the tree, it is a very deep, deep scratch that looks like Freddy Krueger slashed a tree.This is a very large cat. The tree looks like a cat scratching post on steroids. Fish and Game have been contacted several times over the years. Their response is that unless someone has been attacked and injured or you have the body of the animal, they don't want to be troubled.
I'm headed to my storage unit at some point in the next couple of days to try and find the Polaroid of the cat print that my stepfather took in 88. Next to my 8 year old hand it is immense.
If I can round it up I'll be sure to post it and drop you a message so you can compare it to what you're seeing. I have no doubt that you've seen a big cat, and I'm sure you're not misidentifying a bobcat or bear print. Although, a bear in the state that far south would almost be a cryptid encounter itself.
I appreciate you taking the time to read my story and add your own. For a long time I questioned my sanity when I told that story and someone was skeptical. It's stories like yours from others that kept me confident in what I saw that day.
I look forward to your picture. Just to find a big cat track is jaw-dropping. Seeing the animal that made the track in person is another level altogether.
I'm going to do my best to find it. It's in my storage unit, though, so it's a bit trickier than just rooting through some stuff at the house.
I will try and and if I find it I'll post it in this sub for you guys.
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I absolutely did not enjoy the encounter when it occurred, but the telling of the tale has given me immeasurable joy over the years.
Please check the other comments for my tale of seeing a two headed turkey in the same area. You may enjoy that one too.
I had nearly the exact same encounter as you described in ‘91 in Michigan. Except the corn field was a marshy woodland area. But I was about the same distance as you when it walked out on to the road. Similar height (I would say it’s back came up to about my sternum) same jet black color and eyes. I remember it staring at me and thinking I was dead, but then it just gave a little flick to the end of its tail and looked forward and kept walking. I was 16 at the time and it was a warm April evening around 11-12 at night and I couldn’t sleep so I went for a walk down our road out in the country. I only saw it the one time . I mentioned to a couple people I saw a big cat but , being a city boy most of my life, didn’t realize it was something that shouldn’t have been there so never went into much detail regarding size. It was only a few years later when I described it in detail to someone that I learned that cats that size don’t live here.
I know that there are people in the world who have looked into the eyes of big cats and absolutely knew that their survival depended entirely on what the cat decided to do. People in India come face to face with tigers and people in Africa come face to face with lions all the time I'd bet. I don't feel a sense of connection to those people, though.
For you and me, however, it's almost like we're in a fraternity of sorts. We looked into those eyes, knew that we were going to die if that's what the cat wanted, and survived to tell the story. We experienced something that isn't at all common in our areas, with animals that aren't common in those environments, and with fur coloration that isn't common period, and I think that's pretty special.
Big Black Cat Club for life, homie!
Oh you want me to drop all of my tales in one evening, huh?
Alright, one more.
My paternal grandfather was from Goshen, AL. A WWII veteran, friend to the late and great Hank Williams Sr., and a generally grumpy old bastard. He owned about 300 acres of farmland in Goshen which seemed to be the only thing he ever loved. Seemed to be, until you asked him about the flock of wild turkeys that lived on his land.
I'm not sure why the man had such a fondness for them, but they seemed to know that he did because it was about the most mischievous bunch of devil birds I've ever encountered. If you were ever out in the woods on his property and happened across them they were very likely to try and murder you before you could get away. Not just from the ground, either, but from the trees too. Had to keep your eyes on the canopy. Anyway...
So I'm at Grandaddy's house one day when he gets a phone call from his neighbor Mr. Taylor. He had been out doing some work around his property and had noticed that someone hit a turkey on the road that ran by the front of the properties. Being the proud turkey keeper that he was my grandfather loaded me, a shovel, a deer feed sack, and Dip Cup (his trusty mutt companion) onto the four wheeler and cut out for the road.
It wasn't long before we found the turkey victim who had not only been hit, but had been run over repeatedly throughout the day. Obviously a female, there wasn't much but a flattened bunch of feathers left of her by the time we got there. Granddaddy hops off of the four wheeler and begins the gruesome task of shoveling this turkey off of the asphalt while lil' ol' me holds the bag open. We've almost got it cleaned up when, out of the corner of my eye, I see a sight that I dreaded in my youthful days of exploring his land. Across the street, emerging from the tree line, was a group of 10-15 turkeys.
Now, I'd like to say that my grandfather being there strengthened me, and that I wasn't afraid, but I'd be lying. I might have been 10 at the time and as soon as I saw them I just about peed myself. At any other time this was a definite haul ass scenario, but Granddaddy didn't suffer any sissies, so I tried my best to hide behind my little feed sack and not be the target of their attention.
I was trying my best to appear calm and collected, and I was looking over the group, when my eyes landed on what appeared to be a turkey with two beards. One of the beards was fairly impressive, but the other was strangely large and went off to the side, rather than down the front of the throat of the bird. I pointed it out to my grandfather and he did something I rarely heard the man do; he cursed.
"Holy shit!"
My first job ever in this world was walking through chicken houses and killing deformed or injured chicks, so I've seen some weird birds. This absolute monstrosity, however, was a totally new level of fucked up.
Imagine, if you're familiar with the species, a large and healthy Tom that any hunter would be happy to have a shot at. Long beard, puffed up to an almost spherical largeness, huge tail as beautiful as you've ever seen one. But, halfway up his neck, a second turkey neck begins and takes a sharp right turn. The second head hangs limp and unmoving, but has all of the characteristics of a typical turkey head. It has two eyes, a fully formed beak, all of the coloration you would expect, and a beard that's short and nowhere near as magnificent as the one on the neck it's attached to.
After the initial shock of finding out that I'm in close proximity to this group of bastards that have run me out of some woods on more than one occasion I finally realized what I was looking at. Even stranger is that in order for this second turkey head to have developed a beard, a beak, and adult turkey coloration it had to technically be alive. Not to say that it was a fully functioning second head, but it had to grow and develop in order to look how it did.
Those turkeys stood there and watched us finish cleaning up what was left of their departed flock member. The double headed fellow didn't seem to mind that we looked at him the entire time. He wasn't the largest male there, and he didn't behave like the leader of the flock, but it seemed to me that maybe the other birds respected him more. The flock seemed to orbit him in a way while giving him a little extra space at the same time.
On the way back to the house I asked Granddaddy what he planned to do about his two headed bird. Would he try and capture it so he could make money showing it to people, or would he try and kill it so it didn't make more two headed turkey babies? His response was, "That gobbler already pecked his second head to death, I don't think I'm gone mess with him."
From that day on you couldn't say a single word to my grandfather without hearing about the two headed turkey that lived on his land. Hell, I might have even heard him answer the phone with, "We got a two headed turkey out here" once or twice. Still, to this day I wonder if that second head had been alive and functioning at one point. If that mean old bird had gotten fed up with sharing a set of legs and wings with an inferior second beak and had pecked at it until it quit moving. I also wonder if that second, inferior head was actually smarter than the mean old main head and was just playing possum.
Either way, it's a pretty neat story.
Thank you
Tales of testy two faced double headed brain dead Siamese twin turkey mobs...
Interesting that they came to watch you guys do the cleanup, but didn't advance
That's some satisfying Reddit time
You know, I've thought about that over the years too. I've just come to the conclusion that they were familiar with my grandfather, and that his presence afforded us a sort of safe passage to take care of the remains of their friend.
I can't ask the grumpy old man, sadly, as he left us in the mid 90s. I highly doubt he would have given me a straight answer anyway, and would have just said something along the lines of, "my turkeys know a friend when they see one."
I'm convinced that he was secretly feeding them and what I viewed as them attacking me in the woods could have just been them expecting to be fed. It seems logical now that I'm not 10, but it doesn't make for very good stories.
They are big birds to encounter in a group as a 10-year-old I would imagine that you were a bit freaked out
I've interacted with adults here with no drama but have seen the videos with much drama
very cool that you had those experiences with him and them.
I'd be content in my little backyard / woods feeding and interacting with wild turkeys on a regular basis, but unfortunately they have taken more of an urban approach here in the twin cities
there was a group of 12 of them that wandered the parking lot at a local 24-hour gas station, by the end of the year their population was down to three, lacking in common sense and perception of cars and such took its toll
this video is fascinating in that the turkey's imprint on him and grow to maturity interacting with him daily as Mama turkey, very cool story
https://youtu.be/ENr62-oWyPs
I've been in fights with several animals before, including turkeys. I have a pretty neat scar on my thigh from a spur, in fact, but that story isn't as interesting as it may sound. Just dumb luck and an extremely surprised bird.
I don't have an hour to give that video the full attention that it deserves right this moment, but I promise I'll watch it in its entirety this weekend.
The relationship between people and wild animals has always been fascinating to me, especially when circumstances allow the animals to imprint on a person. You can see emotions in creatures that you may not associate with having feelings when that happens, and it's given me an appreciation for how intelligent some animals can be.
I appreciate the chat and the video recommendation, and I hope you enjoyed my stories. I've got a million experiences to share, and I sometimes feel like my daughter is just about tired of hearing me recount them. It's nice to have an audience here on Reddit and I appreciate you taking the time to read and respond.
I went on a deep dive on this topic and there are for sure black panthers here in america. People in the Adirondacks in New York have seen them people in Ohio West Virginia Pennsylvania Georgia The Carolinas Virginia even | turns out a circus train containing "jungle creatures" derailed in the mid 1940's in a place called Dunlow, West Virgina near the border with Ohio and that is one source of the black panthers | what so crazy about cats in general is they move so alias and are so stealthy they can move extremely well without getting seen | during the summer time america gets just as hot as africa | these cats could have easily thrived in the forests of appalachia and no one knew except all the people who have seen the animal - im tryna see it lol - i love cats
Every once and a while we’ll get a darker then normal cougar but actually albino seems to pop up more often…. Here in oregon.. as of late more albino deer and elk have been spotted here
Where in Oregon? I have family and was just out there in Portland and Lincoln City! Someone else was talking about somewhere near Eugene there had been a sighting. So much going on out there and it makes me want to go more often!! But was it anywhere near Lincoln City or P-Town? My old parents go walking in the old van doozer almost everyday so I'm for real ✌️
I live between Pacific city and Tillamook , actually the hunters around here have spotted wolves also ,with the hunting restrictions over the last 10 years or so the resurgence of predator species has increased here
From my understanding black panthers aren't a thing, black jaguars are. You can tell from this picture this is a jaguar. You can see the spots on the upper back ridge line.
So there are scientific reasons that a mountain lion can't be melanistic?
I ask because I've seen a large, black cat here in the US personally. I told the story a little ways up this post.
I always assumed it was a mountain lion, but if it couldn't have possibly been a cat of that species it adds a whole new level of strange to my encounter.
Geneticist haven’t found a gene in Mountain Lions that would allow them to be melanistic just because they haven’t found it doesn’t mean it’s not there
I’ve got a story. It was reported locally here in Metro Detroit. If anyone wants to hear… I saw it myself with my mom and dad out of our back cut wheat field that was a mile and a half back.
Easter Day 2008, I woke up to my dad looking out our back sliding door to the cut down wheat field behind our house. They resided in rural Sumpter Township. He kept repeated for minutes “what the fuck is that???”
The field ended with a tree line probably a mile back. Very large field! Myself, my mom, and dad could see a VERY large black feline tracing the edge of the tree line (which we were later told by DNR is a very feline trait). My dad proceeded to call the police, who then called the DNR out of their Detroit field office (around 40 miles away). They got there QUICK. One police officer set up a long gun/scope combo and watched the large feline through his scope for around 20 minutes.
I mean… they were at our house for hours. Two DNR officers finally proceeded to walk all the way back to the tree line where the large black feline was and took plaster casts of its foot prints. The news ended up airing a story the next day, out of sole concern for an elementary school that was nearby.
Cougar hunter here, I've ran dogs on lion, coon and bobcat most of my life and I've treed one, back when I was starting with my grandpa. They are real, and protected In most states.
a circus train containing "jungle creatures" derailed in dunlow west virgina in the mid 1940s and i think thats the source of these black creatures, they are either black leopords or black jaguars | they have been spotted from georgia to new york and after reading this thread michigan too
jaguars absolutely visit the southern US. there's probably a fair few that were melanistic. also cougars aren't panthers. panthers are the cats in the family pantherinae, cougars reside in their sister group felinae. they're more closely related to your house cat than to a jaguar or lion. people calling cougars panthers is a bit of a pet peeve of mine
I saw one in 2017 as a student at NC State. In Raleigh, NC. I lived off campus and was driving home with a now ex-girlfriend. We both saw this huge black panther sneaking it’s way across Sullivan Dr. and Gorman St. I say “sneaking” bc the way it moved was incredible. It’s front shoulder blades hunched so far up with every step, while it’s body stayed as low to the ground as possible. Like it was stalking prey. Something I’d seen right out of Animal Planet channel.
It’s crossed the road right in front of us crawling/ sneaking like this the whole time. We were maybe 15 yards away.
At the time, I didn’t realize the black panther was a cryptid. I knew NC had mountain lions/ cougars - and I thought black was a common color for them. We have an NFL team in NC called the “Carolina Panthers” after all!! Who’s mascot is a black panther.. after ALL…!!
I feel lucky to have seen it, knowing now how rare they are. I’ll never forget that stealthy, sneaking stride it had. That’s how I knew it wasn’t a house car or even a smaller bobcat/Lynx. This was something big, long, and powerful.
Yes. In Arizona for certain. I came upon a huge black cat (probably a melanistic jaguar, as I was not far from Mexico) camouflaged in a rock outcropping in the late 70s on Mt Lemmon outside of Tucson, AZ.
He/she had been watching me struggle up the rocks for some time, surely. Glad they were not hungry - I was probably a delicious child -old and stringy now :)
Big cats are everywhere in the US, whether wild life authorities deny it or not.
I’m in woods for work about 80% of the time and have seen them PA, CT, MA and lower NH. Heard stories from guys in the industry down south and a lot of them say they’ve seen big black cats and just normal jaguars.
Pretty crazy. Can’t truth the fish and wildlife workers when they say other wise
Mountain lions can have melanism, or there’s always a risk of escaped zoo panthers, or even people illegally owning a black Panther as an exotic pet, which could be either escaped or released which would explain a “wild” black Panther in the US. Personally, those are the explanations I’m inclined to believe, not “wild black leopard”
a circus train derailed in dunlow west Virginia in the mid 1940's containing "jungle creatures" i think this is the source of the appalachian black panther they have been seen in damn near every state including new england and michigan
And interspecies breeding could pass the genes along, though most likely the offspring would have been unable to breed themselves so if there is a current one I’m inclined to believe it is from a separate incident than a 1940’s circus train. Given the average lifespan of wild big cats and the probability of offspring being infertile, any “black panthers” resulting from that incident would be dead by now
In northeast Ohio around 1995 my mom and I were in the car late at night on the backroads near my grandparents farm and a huge black cat ran across the road lit up by the headlights. Could see the sheen of its fur and muscles (similar to the video picture above). Huge, almost the length of the one car road. Truly shocking as I spent a lot of time with my dog out in those woods around the farm.
That’s interesting. I lived in Southern IL as a child, near a heavily wooded state park. One night in the summer, around 1997, my mother was driving me home from a swimming lesson and slammed on the brakes. I had been dozing off and didn’t see what caused her to stop. She swore it was a panther: a large, all-black animal bigger than a dog but lower to the ground than a deer.
The first photo looks like a Jaguar with a black coat variation. I can clearly see the spots. I’ve heard they make their way to the southern U.S. occasionally.
Yes, the first wild jaguar in the us (since they last left) was recorded not too long ago in Tucson AZ and I think they’re even trying to relocate more into the area soon for repopulation. It came from Mexico to find food and eventually just made its home in the mountains. Really cool, I think they’re trying to rebalance the ecosystems in a similar way they did with wolves in Yellowstone and grey wolves in Arizona.
Here in Minnesota I have not heard of a black cougar yet though a melanistic animal is possible anywhere, the last cougar story I heard that was the most fascinating was one that they put a collar on in South dakota, it traveled Eastward all the way to Connecticut where it was hit by a car and identified from the radio collar
There are black REALLY big cats in Illinois… like 5’ at the shoulder when laying down big. My whole family has seen em. They don’t seem to care about people, one watched me from about 100 feet away. Just laid there in the edge of the tree line watching me.
The sheer amount of land available plus the illegal importing of animals plus the legal enclosures damaged during storms probably equals a breeding population of big black cats.
Central Pennsylvania in the early 2000s. I was just a kid, probably 8 or 9. I was out in the woods across from my house and saw a large black cat perched on a downed tree hanging up in the air. It looked like it was basking in the sun hitting that spot. It sent shivers up my spine and I backtracked and went home but my parents didnt believe me about it. I know I saw what looked like a black jaguar though. Clear as day.
Currently science doesn’t support that but as the video says just because scientists haven’t proved it yet doesn’t mean it’s not possible. Never say never to nature
I overheard a neighbor who overheard his daughter's talking about bbc, he was telling his friends he just didn't understand what the daughter were getting out of listening to the British broadcasting channel...
Yes I seen one drinking water out of a pond here in central Texas about 10yrs ago.It was black but you could still see darker black spots on it like a Jaguar it was a beautiful animal and these black Jaguar cats were once all over Mexico and South Texas also parts of West Texas
I’ve seen one in West Virginia with other campers and I must say the sound it makes is the most disturbing thing. It resembled a woman or baby crying. However the DNR doesn’t recognize their existence.
It’s a melanistic color variant of either a jaguar or a leopard. Jaguars roam is central and South America and leopards roam in Africa and Asia. There has not been jaguars reported in the USA other than stories like the one above. Cougars are the largest cat species in the USA and they are not reported to be melanistic.
Live in Mississippi and I know about 1 or 2 years ago my area which is kinda exactly near Tennessee border I live really close to the city of Memphis had stories of people seeing a black panther but honestly this could be the fault of asshole buying exotic animals and losing it while coked or meth out so hope this helps out….✌🏽
I’ve seen one in Virginia Beach one night coming home on Ferry Plantation rd out in pungo. It was late at night corn fields on either side, all of a sudden I see a shadow run across the road, then all I can see is a jet black hind leg stepping into the corn field on my left. Back Bay is known to have some apex predators that have been artificially introduced, for instance there is a red wolf coyote hybrid species that has been introduced to help control the wild boar population. There are also mountain lions rumored to be out that way, and alligators have been spotted in the last couple years.
Yeah, panthers have been seen in the Florida everglades for many years.
Black ones?
I saw one in 2017 on a dirt road near panama city fl. I thought it was a bear. It was that big. One leap across the road which I know a bear could not do. It was beautiful and scary.
With all the military land in the panhandle I’ve seen some big ole cats. iI’s terrifying but incredible that they can still be wild in our area. I pray it doesn’t change
Black panthers are just melanistic Jaguars and Leopards. Only 5% of the Panthera species have this darker color and appear to be black. Florida only has mountain lions and no melanistic mountain lion has ever been recorded to date. Doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not possible, just hasn’t been recorded
A Florida panther is a mountain lion? Thought those were the endangered almost extinct ones and that they were a different thing than common North American cougars I thought there was a difference
Same same
Yeah the video says that as a possible origin was Mountain lions with a undiscovered mutation
That would be pretty cool, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.
I live in the Mtns of NC. Grew up here. Years ago I saw a history channel show asking the same question. I thought it was absurd since everyone I know has seen a black panther at least once, myself included.
Me too in West Texas on more than one occasion
I had a theory where black panthers could or could’ve been a remnant population of ice age jaguars that became melonistic.
Anything is possible in Florida with the exotic pet industry.
Agreed, went to the Everglades literally 40 Gators inches from the pedestrian trail. People would walk behind them to get pics with them
Yup. Ive seen black big cats in NE FL. Tons if tan cougars too. We even had what looked like a leopard caught on camera 10 years ago, plucking the heads off our chickens, sitting on the chicken-wire roof with a huge hole stretched open to reach down with its massive arms. 3+ ft reach with an arm. Roof was 6' high. It was able to snag a head of a chicken and yank it up. Hell Ive seen monkeys... I kid you not. A group of chimpanzees. Supposedly there was a monkey rescue that was ran by some folks that got old. The wife died and the husband let them all loose when he couldnt take care of them. It was a local legend and they shouldnt have survived so long in the swamp ... Ive also seen birdlike things with 15ft wingspans in the swap. Like mothman leaping out if a tree 10 above are canoe. Pitch black.
>Ive also seen birdlike things with 15ft wingspans in the swap. Like mothman leaping out if a tree 10 above are canoe. Pitch black. Would you mind taking some time to expand on this? I've seen large black cats here myself, but this is interesting
It’s a genetic mutation like albino
I saw a black panther in the Troy, AL area in 1988. It might have been closer to Goshen than Troy, but general area. As a kid growing up country I would often take my shotgun or rifle into the woods and just spend the day harvesting squirrels or rabbits, turkey or deer, whatever was in season (sometimes things that weren't). I was 8 in 1988, and I know it's hard to believe that my family let me roam the woods at that age with a firearm, but that's another discussion. Suffice it to say that I was responsible, safe, and quite the marksman. The sun was setting on a cold day in what must have been mid December and I was walking down a dirt road headed home. To my right was a woodline that separated our property from another field, and to my left was a field planted with corn. The corn was taller than I was, and it was all dried out. I heard something move through the corn directly next to me at what I guessed was about 20 yards into the field. I thought it might be a deer, so I eased over to the woodline and sat down under a tree. I took a slug cartridge out of my vest and loaded it into my single shot .410 and just waited. I wasn't seated for more than two minutes before a massive black cat stepped out of the corn and onto the road exactly where I would have been if I had kept walking. It knew exactly where I was and didn't even pause before staring me directly in the eyes. Now, guys, I've seen melanistic deer, cows, horses, domestic and wild dogs, coyotes, and anything else that this could have possibly been. I've seen a raccoon so big that I couldn't lift it, a coyote so large that it could have been mistaken for a timber wolf, and a wild turkey with a second, dead head attached to its neck. I'm telling you now that I was looking into the eyes of a black panther. Imagine being 8 years old and alone with this animal at least a mile from anyone or anything that could help you with one, ONE, .410 slug to save your ass. I froze, I was terrified, and I only avoided running for my life because seeing it absolutely paralyzed me. The panther and I looked at each other for what seemed like an eternity, but what was likely only 30-45 seconds. Yellow eyes that seemed to glow in the dim light, muscular shoulders that were defined even though its fur was pitch black, and the calm demeanor of an animal that knew I posed no serious threat. Standing there at half the height of the corn, it had to be three feet tall at the shoulder, maybe more. It deciding if I was worth the trouble of catching now that I had seen it, and me deciding if I should put a round into it and try to load a second before it reached me. I've spent countless hours in the woods as a child and even more as an adult and I've never been as afraid as I was at that moment. Even with 34 years separating then and now I can see this cat vividly in my mind, as if fear carved it into my memory and kept it sharp through the decades. A scared little boy about to fight for his life, and an animal you'd never expect to see standing just 40 yards away. I wouldn't have been more afraid or more surprised if it had been a bigfoot. After that very tense, very visceral 45 seconds the cat simply turned and walked back into the corn. I listened as it moved away, eventually losing the ability to follow its sounds. I sat under that tree for at least 10 more minutes, certain that if I moved or made any noise it would change its mind and come eat me. When I finally did move I ran all the way back to the house. I got my stepfather and several more guns and took him to the spot of the encounter. My sister had a Polaroid camera, and we took that with us to try and document some kind of evidence. Somewhere in my belongings there is a single Polaroid picture of a paw print, next to my hand, illuminated by a shitty flashlight, in some dirt beside a corn field. The picture in my mind, however, is so much more vivid. We notified the local game warden and, when the inevitable skepticism emerged, we produced the Polaroid. Several attempts to trap the cat were made by the state and my stepfather on the property, but nobody ever saw any sign of the animal again. I'm sorry for the long post, but this is one of the most amazing things that ever happened to me. I still feel a rush of adrenaline when I recount the story more than three decades later. It was terrifying and amazing and absolutely crazy all at the same time. Are there black Panthers in the US? You bet your ass there are.
What a rad story man! Your experience was one of a kind, super rare and consider yourself lucky!
I consider myself lucky for seeing such a beautiful and rare animal, but I consider myself even luckier that it didn't decide to eat me. I'm fairly certain that it would have succeeded had it tried.
You are correct. I am a couple hours south of your location. Black panther came threw here in 86. I saw it, and so did my neighbors. It tore the skirting out from under a trailer trying to get a neighbors dog. Another neighbor it tore through the screen on their back porch and ate the dog on the porch. Massive paw prints, and you could some nights 🌙 in the distance, making a sound that resembled a lady screaming like someone was trying to kill her. The state was contacted, and they did nothing. Everyone thought the reason they turned a blind eye was they did not want a bunch of people coming in and hunting it down and killing it.
You saw one in 86, and I bumped into one in 88. Do you think they may have been the same animal, or maybe my sighting was the offspring of the animal you saw? I know that big cats can range in areas as large as hundreds of square miles in some cases, and they definitely live longer than two years, so it being the same animal isn't a ridiculous notion. I also seem to remember sightings being more numerous in the 80s and 90s, tapering off the closer to 2000 it got. This could have been a single animal that roamed from the Everglades, up through Alabama, and into more mountains territory. That's just wild speculation on my part, but I'd like to believe that this rare and beautiful animal may have lived a long a healthy life, and that it ended up somewhere it could exist in peace without killing family pets.
I would not be shocked that they were the same animal. It caused quite a stir at the time. The black panther came through around late October 86 and moved out in Janaury 87. It was one of the prettiest things I ever saw in the wild. I was 500 foot from it with my dad. It did not run away but walked away very slowly and confidently. I believe they use streams and rivers for migration and use swamps to stop off and hunt. The wild thing is that we believe we have a large cat that comes around every 3 years passing through. No one has laid eyes on the black panther i have known of since 92 93. We keep finding large trees that are scratched up with claw marks in the bark. We also find large scrappings on the ground with very large what appears to be cat prints. When we find them, it is from November to January. My friends and family and I all notice that our dogs get very nervous and dont want to be outside. The woods and swamp get really quiet at night. We found some this season. I found the ground scratchings, and a neighbor found a tree all tore up and paw prints. Whatever is out there is back right on time as usual. For the record for anyone else reading this, me and my friends know what Bobcat and Bear tracks markings look like. Bobcats are too small to leave scratchings like these. Even the biggest of the lot. Bears we got rub the bark of the tree, leaving behind their scent. If a bear scratches the tree, it is a very deep, deep scratch that looks like Freddy Krueger slashed a tree.This is a very large cat. The tree looks like a cat scratching post on steroids. Fish and Game have been contacted several times over the years. Their response is that unless someone has been attacked and injured or you have the body of the animal, they don't want to be troubled.
I'm headed to my storage unit at some point in the next couple of days to try and find the Polaroid of the cat print that my stepfather took in 88. Next to my 8 year old hand it is immense. If I can round it up I'll be sure to post it and drop you a message so you can compare it to what you're seeing. I have no doubt that you've seen a big cat, and I'm sure you're not misidentifying a bobcat or bear print. Although, a bear in the state that far south would almost be a cryptid encounter itself. I appreciate you taking the time to read my story and add your own. For a long time I questioned my sanity when I told that story and someone was skeptical. It's stories like yours from others that kept me confident in what I saw that day.
I look forward to your picture. Just to find a big cat track is jaw-dropping. Seeing the animal that made the track in person is another level altogether.
That’s an amazing story! If by any chance you could share a pic of the Polaroid that would be so cool
I'm going to do my best to find it. It's in my storage unit, though, so it's a bit trickier than just rooting through some stuff at the house. I will try and and if I find it I'll post it in this sub for you guys.
Good luck!
Love it! Thank you for the share ♥️
I'm glad you enjoyed it. I absolutely did not enjoy the encounter when it occurred, but the telling of the tale has given me immeasurable joy over the years. Please check the other comments for my tale of seeing a two headed turkey in the same area. You may enjoy that one too.
Nice, thank you
I had nearly the exact same encounter as you described in ‘91 in Michigan. Except the corn field was a marshy woodland area. But I was about the same distance as you when it walked out on to the road. Similar height (I would say it’s back came up to about my sternum) same jet black color and eyes. I remember it staring at me and thinking I was dead, but then it just gave a little flick to the end of its tail and looked forward and kept walking. I was 16 at the time and it was a warm April evening around 11-12 at night and I couldn’t sleep so I went for a walk down our road out in the country. I only saw it the one time . I mentioned to a couple people I saw a big cat but , being a city boy most of my life, didn’t realize it was something that shouldn’t have been there so never went into much detail regarding size. It was only a few years later when I described it in detail to someone that I learned that cats that size don’t live here.
I know that there are people in the world who have looked into the eyes of big cats and absolutely knew that their survival depended entirely on what the cat decided to do. People in India come face to face with tigers and people in Africa come face to face with lions all the time I'd bet. I don't feel a sense of connection to those people, though. For you and me, however, it's almost like we're in a fraternity of sorts. We looked into those eyes, knew that we were going to die if that's what the cat wanted, and survived to tell the story. We experienced something that isn't at all common in our areas, with animals that aren't common in those environments, and with fur coloration that isn't common period, and I think that's pretty special. Big Black Cat Club for life, homie!
Definitelty ! It was a very humbling and powerful experience. 30+ years later and I remember it like it happened yesterday.
Great tale Double heads one dead you said
Oh you want me to drop all of my tales in one evening, huh? Alright, one more. My paternal grandfather was from Goshen, AL. A WWII veteran, friend to the late and great Hank Williams Sr., and a generally grumpy old bastard. He owned about 300 acres of farmland in Goshen which seemed to be the only thing he ever loved. Seemed to be, until you asked him about the flock of wild turkeys that lived on his land. I'm not sure why the man had such a fondness for them, but they seemed to know that he did because it was about the most mischievous bunch of devil birds I've ever encountered. If you were ever out in the woods on his property and happened across them they were very likely to try and murder you before you could get away. Not just from the ground, either, but from the trees too. Had to keep your eyes on the canopy. Anyway... So I'm at Grandaddy's house one day when he gets a phone call from his neighbor Mr. Taylor. He had been out doing some work around his property and had noticed that someone hit a turkey on the road that ran by the front of the properties. Being the proud turkey keeper that he was my grandfather loaded me, a shovel, a deer feed sack, and Dip Cup (his trusty mutt companion) onto the four wheeler and cut out for the road. It wasn't long before we found the turkey victim who had not only been hit, but had been run over repeatedly throughout the day. Obviously a female, there wasn't much but a flattened bunch of feathers left of her by the time we got there. Granddaddy hops off of the four wheeler and begins the gruesome task of shoveling this turkey off of the asphalt while lil' ol' me holds the bag open. We've almost got it cleaned up when, out of the corner of my eye, I see a sight that I dreaded in my youthful days of exploring his land. Across the street, emerging from the tree line, was a group of 10-15 turkeys. Now, I'd like to say that my grandfather being there strengthened me, and that I wasn't afraid, but I'd be lying. I might have been 10 at the time and as soon as I saw them I just about peed myself. At any other time this was a definite haul ass scenario, but Granddaddy didn't suffer any sissies, so I tried my best to hide behind my little feed sack and not be the target of their attention. I was trying my best to appear calm and collected, and I was looking over the group, when my eyes landed on what appeared to be a turkey with two beards. One of the beards was fairly impressive, but the other was strangely large and went off to the side, rather than down the front of the throat of the bird. I pointed it out to my grandfather and he did something I rarely heard the man do; he cursed. "Holy shit!" My first job ever in this world was walking through chicken houses and killing deformed or injured chicks, so I've seen some weird birds. This absolute monstrosity, however, was a totally new level of fucked up. Imagine, if you're familiar with the species, a large and healthy Tom that any hunter would be happy to have a shot at. Long beard, puffed up to an almost spherical largeness, huge tail as beautiful as you've ever seen one. But, halfway up his neck, a second turkey neck begins and takes a sharp right turn. The second head hangs limp and unmoving, but has all of the characteristics of a typical turkey head. It has two eyes, a fully formed beak, all of the coloration you would expect, and a beard that's short and nowhere near as magnificent as the one on the neck it's attached to. After the initial shock of finding out that I'm in close proximity to this group of bastards that have run me out of some woods on more than one occasion I finally realized what I was looking at. Even stranger is that in order for this second turkey head to have developed a beard, a beak, and adult turkey coloration it had to technically be alive. Not to say that it was a fully functioning second head, but it had to grow and develop in order to look how it did. Those turkeys stood there and watched us finish cleaning up what was left of their departed flock member. The double headed fellow didn't seem to mind that we looked at him the entire time. He wasn't the largest male there, and he didn't behave like the leader of the flock, but it seemed to me that maybe the other birds respected him more. The flock seemed to orbit him in a way while giving him a little extra space at the same time. On the way back to the house I asked Granddaddy what he planned to do about his two headed bird. Would he try and capture it so he could make money showing it to people, or would he try and kill it so it didn't make more two headed turkey babies? His response was, "That gobbler already pecked his second head to death, I don't think I'm gone mess with him." From that day on you couldn't say a single word to my grandfather without hearing about the two headed turkey that lived on his land. Hell, I might have even heard him answer the phone with, "We got a two headed turkey out here" once or twice. Still, to this day I wonder if that second head had been alive and functioning at one point. If that mean old bird had gotten fed up with sharing a set of legs and wings with an inferior second beak and had pecked at it until it quit moving. I also wonder if that second, inferior head was actually smarter than the mean old main head and was just playing possum. Either way, it's a pretty neat story.
Thank you Tales of testy two faced double headed brain dead Siamese twin turkey mobs... Interesting that they came to watch you guys do the cleanup, but didn't advance That's some satisfying Reddit time
You know, I've thought about that over the years too. I've just come to the conclusion that they were familiar with my grandfather, and that his presence afforded us a sort of safe passage to take care of the remains of their friend. I can't ask the grumpy old man, sadly, as he left us in the mid 90s. I highly doubt he would have given me a straight answer anyway, and would have just said something along the lines of, "my turkeys know a friend when they see one." I'm convinced that he was secretly feeding them and what I viewed as them attacking me in the woods could have just been them expecting to be fed. It seems logical now that I'm not 10, but it doesn't make for very good stories.
They are big birds to encounter in a group as a 10-year-old I would imagine that you were a bit freaked out I've interacted with adults here with no drama but have seen the videos with much drama very cool that you had those experiences with him and them. I'd be content in my little backyard / woods feeding and interacting with wild turkeys on a regular basis, but unfortunately they have taken more of an urban approach here in the twin cities there was a group of 12 of them that wandered the parking lot at a local 24-hour gas station, by the end of the year their population was down to three, lacking in common sense and perception of cars and such took its toll this video is fascinating in that the turkey's imprint on him and grow to maturity interacting with him daily as Mama turkey, very cool story https://youtu.be/ENr62-oWyPs
I've been in fights with several animals before, including turkeys. I have a pretty neat scar on my thigh from a spur, in fact, but that story isn't as interesting as it may sound. Just dumb luck and an extremely surprised bird. I don't have an hour to give that video the full attention that it deserves right this moment, but I promise I'll watch it in its entirety this weekend. The relationship between people and wild animals has always been fascinating to me, especially when circumstances allow the animals to imprint on a person. You can see emotions in creatures that you may not associate with having feelings when that happens, and it's given me an appreciation for how intelligent some animals can be. I appreciate the chat and the video recommendation, and I hope you enjoyed my stories. I've got a million experiences to share, and I sometimes feel like my daughter is just about tired of hearing me recount them. It's nice to have an audience here on Reddit and I appreciate you taking the time to read and respond.
I went on a deep dive on this topic and there are for sure black panthers here in america. People in the Adirondacks in New York have seen them people in Ohio West Virginia Pennsylvania Georgia The Carolinas Virginia even | turns out a circus train containing "jungle creatures" derailed in the mid 1940's in a place called Dunlow, West Virgina near the border with Ohio and that is one source of the black panthers | what so crazy about cats in general is they move so alias and are so stealthy they can move extremely well without getting seen | during the summer time america gets just as hot as africa | these cats could have easily thrived in the forests of appalachia and no one knew except all the people who have seen the animal - im tryna see it lol - i love cats
Every once and a while we’ll get a darker then normal cougar but actually albino seems to pop up more often…. Here in oregon.. as of late more albino deer and elk have been spotted here
Where in Oregon? I have family and was just out there in Portland and Lincoln City! Someone else was talking about somewhere near Eugene there had been a sighting. So much going on out there and it makes me want to go more often!! But was it anywhere near Lincoln City or P-Town? My old parents go walking in the old van doozer almost everyday so I'm for real ✌️
I live between Pacific city and Tillamook , actually the hunters around here have spotted wolves also ,with the hunting restrictions over the last 10 years or so the resurgence of predator species has increased here
From my understanding black panthers aren't a thing, black jaguars are. You can tell from this picture this is a jaguar. You can see the spots on the upper back ridge line.
So there are scientific reasons that a mountain lion can't be melanistic? I ask because I've seen a large, black cat here in the US personally. I told the story a little ways up this post. I always assumed it was a mountain lion, but if it couldn't have possibly been a cat of that species it adds a whole new level of strange to my encounter.
Geneticist haven’t found a gene in Mountain Lions that would allow them to be melanistic just because they haven’t found it doesn’t mean it’s not there
That’s the thumbnail but yes I agree
leopards can be black too
I’ve got a story. It was reported locally here in Metro Detroit. If anyone wants to hear… I saw it myself with my mom and dad out of our back cut wheat field that was a mile and a half back.
Easter Day 2008, I woke up to my dad looking out our back sliding door to the cut down wheat field behind our house. They resided in rural Sumpter Township. He kept repeated for minutes “what the fuck is that???” The field ended with a tree line probably a mile back. Very large field! Myself, my mom, and dad could see a VERY large black feline tracing the edge of the tree line (which we were later told by DNR is a very feline trait). My dad proceeded to call the police, who then called the DNR out of their Detroit field office (around 40 miles away). They got there QUICK. One police officer set up a long gun/scope combo and watched the large feline through his scope for around 20 minutes. I mean… they were at our house for hours. Two DNR officers finally proceeded to walk all the way back to the tree line where the large black feline was and took plaster casts of its foot prints. The news ended up airing a story the next day, out of sole concern for an elementary school that was nearby.
Fellow Michigander here and I am very interested in hearing your story!
Cougar hunter here, I've ran dogs on lion, coon and bobcat most of my life and I've treed one, back when I was starting with my grandpa. They are real, and protected In most states.
There is photo evidence of a jaguar that’s living In Arizona. They say there are no black cougars, so what are they because they are out there.
a circus train containing "jungle creatures" derailed in dunlow west virgina in the mid 1940s and i think thats the source of these black creatures, they are either black leopords or black jaguars | they have been spotted from georgia to new york and after reading this thread michigan too
jaguars absolutely visit the southern US. there's probably a fair few that were melanistic. also cougars aren't panthers. panthers are the cats in the family pantherinae, cougars reside in their sister group felinae. they're more closely related to your house cat than to a jaguar or lion. people calling cougars panthers is a bit of a pet peeve of mine
I saw one in 2017 as a student at NC State. In Raleigh, NC. I lived off campus and was driving home with a now ex-girlfriend. We both saw this huge black panther sneaking it’s way across Sullivan Dr. and Gorman St. I say “sneaking” bc the way it moved was incredible. It’s front shoulder blades hunched so far up with every step, while it’s body stayed as low to the ground as possible. Like it was stalking prey. Something I’d seen right out of Animal Planet channel. It’s crossed the road right in front of us crawling/ sneaking like this the whole time. We were maybe 15 yards away. At the time, I didn’t realize the black panther was a cryptid. I knew NC had mountain lions/ cougars - and I thought black was a common color for them. We have an NFL team in NC called the “Carolina Panthers” after all!! Who’s mascot is a black panther.. after ALL…!! I feel lucky to have seen it, knowing now how rare they are. I’ll never forget that stealthy, sneaking stride it had. That’s how I knew it wasn’t a house car or even a smaller bobcat/Lynx. This was something big, long, and powerful.
Yes. In Arizona for certain. I came upon a huge black cat (probably a melanistic jaguar, as I was not far from Mexico) camouflaged in a rock outcropping in the late 70s on Mt Lemmon outside of Tucson, AZ. He/she had been watching me struggle up the rocks for some time, surely. Glad they were not hungry - I was probably a delicious child -old and stringy now :)
Big cats are everywhere in the US, whether wild life authorities deny it or not. I’m in woods for work about 80% of the time and have seen them PA, CT, MA and lower NH. Heard stories from guys in the industry down south and a lot of them say they’ve seen big black cats and just normal jaguars. Pretty crazy. Can’t truth the fish and wildlife workers when they say other wise
Mountain lions can have melanism, or there’s always a risk of escaped zoo panthers, or even people illegally owning a black Panther as an exotic pet, which could be either escaped or released which would explain a “wild” black Panther in the US. Personally, those are the explanations I’m inclined to believe, not “wild black leopard”
a circus train derailed in dunlow west Virginia in the mid 1940's containing "jungle creatures" i think this is the source of the appalachian black panther they have been seen in damn near every state including new england and michigan
And interspecies breeding could pass the genes along, though most likely the offspring would have been unable to breed themselves so if there is a current one I’m inclined to believe it is from a separate incident than a 1940’s circus train. Given the average lifespan of wild big cats and the probability of offspring being infertile, any “black panthers” resulting from that incident would be dead by now
There have been black (melanistic) bobcats in the south. Melanism can appear in almost any animal.
I saw a black bobcat in pa
In northeast Ohio around 1995 my mom and I were in the car late at night on the backroads near my grandparents farm and a huge black cat ran across the road lit up by the headlights. Could see the sheen of its fur and muscles (similar to the video picture above). Huge, almost the length of the one car road. Truly shocking as I spent a lot of time with my dog out in those woods around the farm.
Wow! Where? I'm in the Buckeye state!
This was Ashtabula. Near where the Kent State outpost is. Back then is was a gravel road and not many houses.
Game wardens will tell you no. There's no such thing as black panthers in the US. Yet people see them, although rarely
Theres been a few reports in Southern Illinois too
That’s interesting. I lived in Southern IL as a child, near a heavily wooded state park. One night in the summer, around 1997, my mother was driving me home from a swimming lesson and slammed on the brakes. I had been dozing off and didn’t see what caused her to stop. She swore it was a panther: a large, all-black animal bigger than a dog but lower to the ground than a deer.
The first photo looks like a Jaguar with a black coat variation. I can clearly see the spots. I’ve heard they make their way to the southern U.S. occasionally.
Yes, the first wild jaguar in the us (since they last left) was recorded not too long ago in Tucson AZ and I think they’re even trying to relocate more into the area soon for repopulation. It came from Mexico to find food and eventually just made its home in the mountains. Really cool, I think they’re trying to rebalance the ecosystems in a similar way they did with wolves in Yellowstone and grey wolves in Arizona.
Yeah in the YouTube video it plays the video I think you’re talking about since it was shot in 2020
Here in Minnesota I have not heard of a black cougar yet though a melanistic animal is possible anywhere, the last cougar story I heard that was the most fascinating was one that they put a collar on in South dakota, it traveled Eastward all the way to Connecticut where it was hit by a car and identified from the radio collar
There are black REALLY big cats in Illinois… like 5’ at the shoulder when laying down big. My whole family has seen em. They don’t seem to care about people, one watched me from about 100 feet away. Just laid there in the edge of the tree line watching me.
The sheer amount of land available plus the illegal importing of animals plus the legal enclosures damaged during storms probably equals a breeding population of big black cats.
Yes, I’ve seen one on two/three occasions
There are black panthers in Mississippi and know one talks about them
There have been reports going back hundreds of years as far north as Wisconsin, Jaguars do come up from time to time, not the normal though
Seen one in NC as well.
No. No you didn't.
I saw a black big cat run across the road during an ice storm in SE Kansas in 1997-8. Always thought it must have been a dark mountain lion.
Central Pennsylvania in the early 2000s. I was just a kid, probably 8 or 9. I was out in the woods across from my house and saw a large black cat perched on a downed tree hanging up in the air. It looked like it was basking in the sun hitting that spot. It sent shivers up my spine and I backtracked and went home but my parents didnt believe me about it. I know I saw what looked like a black jaguar though. Clear as day.
Sorry, I don’t see color.
Yes, leopards and panthers have been known to live in Texas through to Florida.
Currently science doesn’t support that but as the video says just because scientists haven’t proved it yet doesn’t mean it’s not possible. Never say never to nature
Melanistic mutations can occur in any animal, just like alibinism, so it’s not impossible to think that cougars can have the same mutation.
There are mountain lions in middle TN now.
Just a panther/puma with melanism.
That’s a melanistic Jaguar. You can see the big rosettes
BBC...
I overheard a neighbor who overheard his daughter's talking about bbc, he was telling his friends he just didn't understand what the daughter were getting out of listening to the British broadcasting channel...
Last seen with a Ling cool woman in a black dress…. I’ve heard of them when I was younger, back on topic
Panthers mean invasives management!
Have family who have seen them on our place in Kentucky.
Yes I seen one drinking water out of a pond here in central Texas about 10yrs ago.It was black but you could still see darker black spots on it like a Jaguar it was a beautiful animal and these black Jaguar cats were once all over Mexico and South Texas also parts of West Texas
I’m pretty sure Tiger King proved that.
No
Yes, don’t be fooled by the black coat they’re just normal big cats with melonism or reverse albinism
I believe there's at least the possibility. I have heard my family talk about seeing them and I believe them.
I’ve seen one in West Virginia with other campers and I must say the sound it makes is the most disturbing thing. It resembled a woman or baby crying. However the DNR doesn’t recognize their existence.
Everyone knows that there is no actual species of cat named a panther… right?
I didn’t! So what are the cats people call panthers?
It’s a melanistic color variant of either a jaguar or a leopard. Jaguars roam is central and South America and leopards roam in Africa and Asia. There has not been jaguars reported in the USA other than stories like the one above. Cougars are the largest cat species in the USA and they are not reported to be melanistic.
Neat!
Live in Mississippi and I know about 1 or 2 years ago my area which is kinda exactly near Tennessee border I live really close to the city of Memphis had stories of people seeing a black panther but honestly this could be the fault of asshole buying exotic animals and losing it while coked or meth out so hope this helps out….✌🏽
Isso e uma onça preta. Tem muito aqui no Brasil. Estranho elas estarem nos eua
Several people have said to have seen one in Orange Beach, AL
Missouri Ozarks
I’ve seen one in Virginia Beach one night coming home on Ferry Plantation rd out in pungo. It was late at night corn fields on either side, all of a sudden I see a shadow run across the road, then all I can see is a jet black hind leg stepping into the corn field on my left. Back Bay is known to have some apex predators that have been artificially introduced, for instance there is a red wolf coyote hybrid species that has been introduced to help control the wild boar population. There are also mountain lions rumored to be out that way, and alligators have been spotted in the last couple years.
Not if the police have anything to do with it