Cats !
- Thread starter 303tom
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I'm in west central IL, 3-4 hours from there. We have been having a rash of big cat sightings here. They are describing a large, long tailed cat like the one in the pic. The word is that they are being released by DNR, but that is just local gossip.
Flintknapper
Member
Unfortunately, that photo has been going around the Internet for a couple of years now…with claims it was taken at “X” location.
The game pic is authentic (not photo-shopped)…though there ARE photo-shopped versions going around too.
The REAL story…is that this occurred on a ranch in South Texas, see articles below:
http://www.buckmanager.com/2009/05/21/mountain-lion-really-killed-this-whitetail/
http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail6162.cfm/Picture_Of_Big_Cat_Comes_With_A_Big_Story/?Id=90725
I find the above to be much more plausible….since there is a good population of Mountain Lion in many parts of South Texas, the terrain (what we see in the additional photos) looks like S. Texas, the feeder used is consistent with what you see in S. Texas (heck some States don’t even allow feeding/baiting but claims have been made this kill occurred there).
Anyway, regardless of where it happened….. it is truly an amazing photo and testimony to how powerful these big cats are.
The game pic is authentic (not photo-shopped)…though there ARE photo-shopped versions going around too.
The REAL story…is that this occurred on a ranch in South Texas, see articles below:
http://www.buckmanager.com/2009/05/21/mountain-lion-really-killed-this-whitetail/
http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail6162.cfm/Picture_Of_Big_Cat_Comes_With_A_Big_Story/?Id=90725
I find the above to be much more plausible….since there is a good population of Mountain Lion in many parts of South Texas, the terrain (what we see in the additional photos) looks like S. Texas, the feeder used is consistent with what you see in S. Texas (heck some States don’t even allow feeding/baiting but claims have been made this kill occurred there).
Anyway, regardless of where it happened….. it is truly an amazing photo and testimony to how powerful these big cats are.
I would like to add that the sightings here started with the typical drunk redneck types, but progressed quickly to well respected and sober members of the community. Most of us have little doubt that there is at least one large cat here somewhere. When I was young we never saw or heard one, but did find several clear, large, clawless tracks. Along with deep, straight claw sharpening marks head high on a branchless tree. There were no tracks around the tree besides those described above.
Flintknapper
Member
No problem, honest and simple mistake. Its easy to "pass on" mis-information and I know that was not your intent.
Had I not already seen this photo a couple of years ago...I might have been inclined to generically accept the story.
Lots of Internet "bull" out there these days.
Your credibility is still intact with me, no harm.
Had I not already seen this photo a couple of years ago...I might have been inclined to generically accept the story.
Lots of Internet "bull" out there these days.
Your credibility is still intact with me, no harm.
I don't doubt there are some big cats here and there. Some wildlife officials deny their existence for some reason. If there was ever a time that I thought I saw a big cat like that is in the picture of the first post it was back in November of this year while I was muzzle loader hunting. One still, quite morning I was in my favorite tree stand on the ridge. I was looking things over from left to right when I looked straight down the ridge and at about 90 yards I see something brown. It had just appeared out of no where and I never heard it in the leaves. It was too close to the ground to be a deer and it had a long tail like a big cat. Before I could get my rifle up to look through the scope it vanished into the thick stuff. Back at camp I told my hunting partners and they seemed to believe me.
About 4 years ago I was hunting the same area on the deer lease. It was muzzleloader season and four of us were hunting that day. It was about 3PM and I had just got settled into my stand. I heard a gun shot up near the top of the ridge, not far from where we park our trucks. I thought to myself, dang one of those guys must have jumped a deer and shot at it, not far from the truck. Later that evening one of the hunters said he was walking near some thick brush and a large black cat, the size of a panther leaped out of a pile of junk. He shot at it with a muzzleloader, but missed it. We immediately questioned the truth to this guy’s story and the land owner even shrugged it off. Well since then, the land owner’s wife has spotted that big cat crossing the road. It appears that our ol hunting buddy was probably telling the truth.
About 4 years ago I was hunting the same area on the deer lease. It was muzzleloader season and four of us were hunting that day. It was about 3PM and I had just got settled into my stand. I heard a gun shot up near the top of the ridge, not far from where we park our trucks. I thought to myself, dang one of those guys must have jumped a deer and shot at it, not far from the truck. Later that evening one of the hunters said he was walking near some thick brush and a large black cat, the size of a panther leaped out of a pile of junk. He shot at it with a muzzleloader, but missed it. We immediately questioned the truth to this guy’s story and the land owner even shrugged it off. Well since then, the land owner’s wife has spotted that big cat crossing the road. It appears that our ol hunting buddy was probably telling the truth.
langenc
Member
The local DNR denied the exhistance of large cats for a long time. I think they now acknlwledge one now.
I guess best way is just shoot one and deposit it on their doorstep and see what that does.
I guess best way is just shoot one and deposit it on their doorstep and see what that does.
With it so dry here in Texas this year there have been a rash of big cat sightings up close to houses. A friend of mine had a large black cat coming to his dogs water bowl all summer. My friend was startled one day to see the cat on the back porch drinking out of the dogs bowl 
. Both the dogs were trying to hide on the front porch. Never really bothered anything, seems the cat didn't want to be on my buddies back porch as much as my buddy didn't want him on the porch
ID
. Both the dogs were trying to hide on the front porch. Never really bothered anything, seems the cat didn't want to be on my buddies back porch as much as my buddy didn't want him on the porch ID
woodsrunner38
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Panthers....Minnesota has had at least 11 confirmed sightings in the last several years. Missouri at least 20. The big cats are definately making a come-back, and it's correlated with the successful re-establishment of the Whitetail Deer in the central, eastern and southern states. What we are seeing is one of the most basic laws of wildlife biology at work: "Nature Abhors A Vacuum"! Somewhat favorable habitat exists in these states for big cats, a basic food supply has been rejuvinated, and Nature is running its natural course of filling a void! This void will continue to be filled, and over the next 20 or so years we will see many more Panthers to the east with breeding populations being re-established where none have been for well over 100 years.
At present DNA evidence shows that the big cats are coming mostly from the Black Hills Area of South Dakota, from a residual population in northwest North Dakota, an area in west central Iowa and, in the case of the cats coming into Arkansas and Louisiana, from the Big Bend area of Texas. Our own Florida cats are expanding also thanks to the strengthened gene pool from a small number of released panthers from Texas. (To the best of my knowledge these Texas cats released in south Florida is the only case of a state or federal agency releasing panthers. It is not necessary to do so, it's a waste of time and money, and there is no conspiracy to release the big cats)
At present DNA evidence shows that the big cats are coming mostly from the Black Hills Area of South Dakota, from a residual population in northwest North Dakota, an area in west central Iowa and, in the case of the cats coming into Arkansas and Louisiana, from the Big Bend area of Texas. Our own Florida cats are expanding also thanks to the strengthened gene pool from a small number of released panthers from Texas. (To the best of my knowledge these Texas cats released in south Florida is the only case of a state or federal agency releasing panthers. It is not necessary to do so, it's a waste of time and money, and there is no conspiracy to release the big cats
)MCgunner
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paintballdude902
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i know for a fact they released them into florida, did a paper on it in college. they had a solid reason too, they needed to add some genetic diversity to the breeding population of panthers in florida.
i say its a good thing the big cats are coming back. more big cats would mean less yotes and less critters going through my trash. and if i find a panther in my trash im moving to new york city.....
i say its a good thing the big cats are coming back. more big cats would mean less yotes and less critters going through my trash. and if i find a panther in my trash im moving to new york city.....
Art Eatman
Moderator In Memoriam
They do travel, for sure. Texas Parks&Wildlife released a radio-collared tom down in Black Gap. Two nights later a rancher shot it in his sheep pen, north of Marathon. About eighty miles from the release point...
alsaqr
Member
In 2006 i killed a cougar on our property. Was tracking a wounded hog in a gully, when something got my attention. There was a big male cougar crouched on the bank about 20-25 yards away looking at me and licking his face. He ate a bullet from my muzzleloader.
MCgunner
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SimplyChad
Member
Dont forget the one that was killed in downtown el paso this year. And back home in east tx there hearing the calls more and more
Art Eatman
Moderator In Memoriam
McG, back in the early 1980s, Roy McBride was hired to do a lion trapping program in BBNP. It was guesstimated that he might find two pair. Wrong. By the time he was done, he'd put radio collars on twenty-two lions. And that was just in the Chisos.
Wuz meddling around up on the Three Bars Ranch, not far north of my house. Found a young male's scrape, not far from Payne's Watering Hole. A half-mile east, by the old coal mine, were the tracks of a mama and a cub. Then, another mile east were the tracks of a pair of young grown lions. All the tracks had been made within the previous fifteen to twenty-four hours.
We're bum-deep in lion poop, around Terlingua. For that matter, one year up in the Davis above the Observatory, I saw more lion tracks than deer tracks in the Elbow Canyon area.
Wuz meddling around up on the Three Bars Ranch, not far north of my house. Found a young male's scrape, not far from Payne's Watering Hole. A half-mile east, by the old coal mine, were the tracks of a mama and a cub. Then, another mile east were the tracks of a pair of young grown lions. All the tracks had been made within the previous fifteen to twenty-four hours.
We're bum-deep in lion poop, around Terlingua. For that matter, one year up in the Davis above the Observatory, I saw more lion tracks than deer tracks in the Elbow Canyon area.
woodsrunner38
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The area of Texas that you are talking about has a healthy breeding population of the big cats. All the way down the Rio Grande Valley from the BBNP to about Edinburg. The cats that are moving into east Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas are originating from there. Those in Missouri, a significant number of confirmations, are originating in the Black Hills area of South Dakota. When these two sources establish a breeding population the offspring should be very healthy and excel due to hybred vigor from mixing the two gene sources. As a related point of possible interest, the last Jaguar killed in the USA was shot very close to my wife's farm in Olmito, Cameron County, Texas, but that was in 1945!
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