Art Eatman
Moderator In Memoriam
Cougar/Panther/Mountain Lion: Allee-samee critter, here in North America.
My wife knows what a panther looks like: There is a panther rug draped over the back of our living room couch. She is also an artist, with a very good eye for color.
Of three cougars she has seen in the general vicinity of Thomasville, Georgia, one, seen in daylight, was a rather dark brown.
South Brewster County, Texas, is a haven for cougars, mostly due to Big Bend National Park and the Big Bend Ranch State Park. Bacon grease on a rag that's wired to my pasture fence will regularly result in big-kitty tracks at the bait. (Bulk catnip helps, also.)
I have seen rather-light-tan cougars, and I and a friend baited a big male in which was very similar in coloring to a Seal-point Siamese cat.
A couple of locals who are quite credible about wildlife have seen heavy-melanin cougars at their garbage bit near their house. Seen at night by flashlight led to, "I saw a black panther!" Other credible locals have also on occasion seen heavy-melanin cougars. Not many, of course. Maybe a half-dozen sightings in the twenty-seven years of my living here. It's not "bar talk", but comments from folks who have lived here in the desert for many years and regularly see wildlife.
Travelling cougars? Texas Parks & Wildlife folks released a young male lion with a radio collar. Two days later that lion was killed in a rancher's sheep pen, eighty miles north of the release point. My flight instructor flies for the wildlife folks, tracking radio-fixed birds, bears and cougars. One cougar had a regular circuit from the Glass Mountains north of Marathon, Texas, to the southern end of the Del Carmen Mountains down in Mexico and then back. A travel path of some 250 miles, north to south.
Cougar meat is very tasty. A slow-cooked barbecued ham is a definitely yummy treat.
My wife knows what a panther looks like: There is a panther rug draped over the back of our living room couch. She is also an artist, with a very good eye for color.
Of three cougars she has seen in the general vicinity of Thomasville, Georgia, one, seen in daylight, was a rather dark brown.
South Brewster County, Texas, is a haven for cougars, mostly due to Big Bend National Park and the Big Bend Ranch State Park. Bacon grease on a rag that's wired to my pasture fence will regularly result in big-kitty tracks at the bait. (Bulk catnip helps, also.)
I have seen rather-light-tan cougars, and I and a friend baited a big male in which was very similar in coloring to a Seal-point Siamese cat.
A couple of locals who are quite credible about wildlife have seen heavy-melanin cougars at their garbage bit near their house. Seen at night by flashlight led to, "I saw a black panther!" Other credible locals have also on occasion seen heavy-melanin cougars. Not many, of course. Maybe a half-dozen sightings in the twenty-seven years of my living here. It's not "bar talk", but comments from folks who have lived here in the desert for many years and regularly see wildlife.
Travelling cougars? Texas Parks & Wildlife folks released a young male lion with a radio collar. Two days later that lion was killed in a rancher's sheep pen, eighty miles north of the release point. My flight instructor flies for the wildlife folks, tracking radio-fixed birds, bears and cougars. One cougar had a regular circuit from the Glass Mountains north of Marathon, Texas, to the southern end of the Del Carmen Mountains down in Mexico and then back. A travel path of some 250 miles, north to south.
Cougar meat is very tasty. A slow-cooked barbecued ham is a definitely yummy treat.
