Big cats are in Tennessee !!!

I'm in between the Hudson Valley and the Catskill Mountains in NY State. The DEC boys say there are no big cats here, but I saw one with my own eyes, crossing the road in front of my car. This was on a fairly well-traveled two-lane county road that cuts through a forest preserve. My girlfriend also saw one in the field across from her house, about 1 mile as the crow flies from where my sighting was. I'm thinking it might have been the same cat.

Some Washington Cougars.

A few more Washington Cougars,

Some more Washington Cougars.

If you put trail cams out and let them soak you will probably get a picture of a cougar.
I brought back my tral cams I use back in New York for deer images of where I hunt so I know what is there and what is left after the deer season ends.

When I get caught up here at the house I will get them set up and see if I can get a cougar or two on the trail cam to share with you guys.
We do have a huge population of them and wolves they re-introduced.
The deer & elk population is waaaaaaaaay down.

What is this one eating? A bear?
It has longer hair than any deer I've seen.

jmorris said:

https://www.wsmv.com/news/large-cat...cle_cd66939c-d0f8-11e9-8af8-671edf5b73ea.html

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Why is it always an old dude on the front porch in a rocking chair telling the story?

There is no doubt that there are big cats in many parts of the country. But I still think that MOST of the sightings in the Southeast are misidentified. Often they end up being feral house cats. If you don't have anything to use for perspective they appear bigger than they really are.

I still can't locate a better photo of the bobcat that hangs out near my brothers home. This is a photo he sent me today of one from last month. The other photo's are a side profile and that particular cat had no visible spots and was bigger than average. It was easily identified as a bobcat by the ears and lack of a tail. But for someone just catching a glimpse those features might be missed.

Patocazador said:

What is this one eating? A bear?
It has longer hair than any deer I've seen.

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It is eating off of a dead elk.
A friend about twenty miles north of where I live watches over a 650 acre parcel for a guy who

jmr40 said:

There is no doubt that there are big cats in many parts of the country. But I still think that MOST of the sightings in the Southeast are misidentified. Often they end up being feral house cats. If you don't have anything to use for perspective they appear bigger than they really are.

I still can't locate a better photo of the bobcat that hangs out near my brothers home. This is a photo he sent me today of one from last month. The other photo's are a side profile and that particular cat had no visible spots and was bigger than average. It was easily identified as a bobcat by the ears and lack of a tail. But for someone just catching a glimpse those features might be missed.



View attachment 980891

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I have actually seen several cougars and bobcats in the wild. There is a huge difference between a 40 pound bobcat and a 150 pound cougar.

Same with the wolves and ciyotes.
There is a huge diffence between a 35 to 40 pound coyote ans a 150 -160 poubd wolf.

Nature Boy said:

Why is it always an old dude on the front porch in a rocking chair telling the story?

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The younger guy, the shirtless one with the “Who farted?” hat, is at the end of the street talking to the other news crew about the tornado that passed through.

We lived in SC in the country for 33 years. My wife and I both saw a cougar cross the road two different times. We were told over and over there were no cougars in SC. I was so positive that it was a cougar that I started researching. I eventually came across info in the SC wildlife website that there were confirmed sightings of cougars two counties over from where we lived. That info was buried deep in their website and was hard to find. But there it was. Like they were trying to hide it from the people.

Our game department is full of lies over & over again. People get trail cam pictures of wolves and forwardvthem to the Game Department in Bothel and they say there are no wolves in that area. That what they are seeing is large coyotes or so.e ones house pet.

There is a huge difference between a 40 pound bobcat and a 150 pound cougar.

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This is true, but when you only see a silhouette for a couple of seconds in poor light in a setting where there is nothing to use for perspective it is easy to confuse the 2. The profile is similar. I've even seen photos of what turned out to be 5 lb housecats that were mistaken for cougar's.

That doesn't mean that all sightings are mis-identified. Some animals travel great distances and even though none may live in a certain area that doesn't mean they don't pass through.

Last summer a bear with cubs was reportedly seen crossing the road about 1/2 mile from where I live. I set my trail cam up in the yard and found this. Since I was expecting to see a bear I mistakenly thought I had a photo of one of the cubs. But the more I looked at it, the less I was convinced. A few days later I spotted a black, tailless feral cat hanging around the neighborhood. This is that cat. And it is a very small cat. But with nothing for perspective it could pass for a 20-25 lb bear cub.

I saw a coal black one about 30 yrs ago on the Pa/ NYS border. I was driving my van up a road and spotted it in a newly cut hayfield. I first thought it was a large dog until I saw the tail twitching about 3 or 4 ft behind its body. I stopped my van and got over on the passage seat, got my 30 power spotting scope out, rolled up the window to jamb the scope between the glass and door frame. I looked at it for awhile as it just laid there with the end of its tail twitching. I then looked around and saw a sawmill down the road and drove to it and told the workers to come with me, I had something to show them. We drove back to where it was and when we arrived, it got up and started slinking along. It looked like it was stalking something. I guess whatever it was stalking got away because it then stopped, stood upright, and walked into a patch of woods. I called the pa game commission and they as much told me I was seeing things. I know what is saw!! Black from head to tip of its tail. About a total of 7 to 8 ft long. Never saw another one

There are color phases in all creatures. I have shot a couple of "black" gtay squirrels.
I seen a black woodchuch in Vestal New York about thirty years ago.
Sarasota Jungle Gardens had a black mountain lion in an exhibit. (Black panther, still a mountain lion, cougar, puma)
I seen a black red tail hawk.

The reprile man in Monroe Washington has a white aligator.

Black bears come in all different colors, blond, cinimon, brown.

Keyfer 55 said:

What's the probability of a black ML or solid white ?

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AFAIK so far, the probability is zero. Lots are seen but none are verified.

crestoncowboy said:

We have an owl that makes a hell of a scream/screech too though.

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My father-in-law grew up in rural Louisiana during the Depression. He mentioned that some owls sound like mountain lions. Apparently he left his shoes out under a tree one time. His mother made him go back in the dark to fetch them, because they didn't have money to waste on carelessness. He said it was a very uncomfortable round trip, and he liked to think he was hearing owls in the dark.

AGFC said for years there were no Mountain Lions in South Arkansas but one was killed about thirty miles from where I hunt on family land.

https://www.ammoland.com/2015/06/dna-reveals-dead-arkansas-mountain-lions-origin/#axzz6niTxOQv1

H&Hhunter said:

There has never been a documented black Mt Lion in recorded history. So seeing one in an area where they are not populous or are not supposed to exist is even more unbelievable than the already almost impossible black Mt Lion in the first place.

The one that was supposedly shot in Costa Rica has not been verified.

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So the black panther (mountain lion) at Sarasota Jungle Gardens on display is a hoax?