I was watching the movie apcolipto a couple yrs ago, it had a black cat wandering the forest, looked pretty much like the one i saw when i was about 6 or 7 yrs old. i lived in largo florida. near clearwater
back then 1961 or 62 the place wasnt too developed and had lots of bamboo and sugar cane
we lived on west bay drive, which i think is the road that runs out to indian rocks beach.
so when i got internet i thought i would look this cat up because i knew florida cats were supposed to be rare.
of course i found they arnt supposed to exist.
this cat probably weighed at least 75 lbs was black and maybe 100 ft away , so i got a good look for a couple minits, it came out of a bamboo thicket sniffed around a pile of garbage then went back in
my mom had left me home alone for a few minits to walk to the lil general
i would like to hear from others who have seen one

Strange coincidence this thread. I have just seen something like that this last Thursday, but in the Kalimantan (Indonesia) jungle. It was on a logging track and disappeared before I could get the camera out. I had no idea they were there until I looked up on the internet yesterday. Seems like it was a melanistic Leopard (cloud leopard?) from the description. It looked to me to be about a third the size of a mature leopard you would see in a zoo. Definitely looked like a panther 'though.

Had a driver and two local guides for hacking a path through the jungle with their goloks. They both saw it too (we were in a 4wd). However my lack of Indeonesian and their lack of English curtailed my attempts to ask if they saw them often, what it was etc.

I have sent an email to someone who has a website about studying the cats of Borneo, but haven't received a reply yet.

Cheers, Chris

If this vid will play for you it's pretty convincing. Big cats in GB.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sco...and_west/8172064.stm

An off-duty Ministry of Defence police dog handler has taken a video of what he claims is a panther-sized big cat.

Pc Chris Swallow was helping a friend with their garden in Helensburgh, Argyll, when he spotted the black creature on a nearby railway line.

The officer, who is stationed at the Faslane naval base on the Clyde, said the cat was as big as a Labrador dog.

It would have to have been a jaguar or leopard. There have been no documented cases of black pumas. The odds for one naturally occuring would be the same as me winning the lottery and I don't buy tickets . That said if there was ever a place a jag could hide out the everglades would be it especially in the late 50's and early 60's. Be glad you have seen something few ever will.

I posted this a year or two ago: http://forums.accuratereloadin...=355101618#355101618

Am still not sure what it was. Am sure it was a cat. Wish I'd turned on the video camera!

I think a couple were last spotted at the polling center in Pennsylvania during the last election!

quote:

Originally posted by The Specialist:
If this vid will play for you it's pretty convincing. Big cats in GB.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sco...and_west/8172064.stm

An off-duty Ministry of Defence police dog handler has taken a video of what he claims is a panther-sized big cat.

Pc Chris Swallow was helping a friend with their garden in Helensburgh, Argyll, when he spotted the black creature on a nearby railway line.

The officer, who is stationed at the Faslane naval base on the Clyde, said the cat was as big as a Labrador dog.

That is just a big house cat.
I have a Russian blue that big.

I worked in the Peruvian jungle from 1980 until 1991. One rainy day in the early 1980s I was traveling between our camps Shiviyacu to Andoas. I was driving very slow due to road conditions. There on the side of the road in front of me was a black cat with 2 kittens. The mother cat was of mountain lion size or so and the young ones were in the 8-10 pound range. These cats were completely black.
Another dark colored cat that I saw was in a cage in one of the camps. This cat had been bought from an Indian hunter who had killed it's mother. This cat was probably more very dark grey that black. This cat was in the 20-25 pound range.
The Peruvians call these dark colored cats "pantura".
During my time in the jungle I saw several other cats but these were the only ones that could be called black.
Regards, Keith

according to some website florida jaguars were hunted to extinction in the 1940's
the cat i saw was under a banana tree in a shaded area, but by no means a dark day, it was black like a black lab or black bear,
now i know that black at a distance is not always jet black up close.
black jaguars are not so uncommon but a black puma /mountain lion is maybe not impossible but is not a species, at least according to what ive read on net.
largo florida is sort of between tampa an st pete, not in the everglades
so is it more likely i saw a jag or a puma?
this was a long time ago but but one of the things you never forget

In my post above I made an incorrect statement. I said that Peruvians call black colored cats "pantura". This is incorrect. Peruvians call black colored cats "pantera".
The local name for jaguar type cats is "otorongo". I am not sure if the costal or city Peruvians use this name or not. I think that it is more a jungle word.
Regards, Keith

They're relatively rare but we've got a viable population of mostly black pumas in NE Texas. I've only marginally (that means it was so dark that I could only be 95% sure it was a cat) seen one on my ranch, but others have seen them here and in this whole area. They're fairly small (I'm guessing a big male might weigh a 100 pounds) and everyone remarks on their loooong tails.

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:
They're relatively rare but we've got a viable population of mostly black pumas in NE Texas. I've only marginally (that means it was so dark that I could only be 95% sure it was a cat) seen one on my ranch, but others have seen them here and in this whole area. They're fairly small (I'm guessing a big male might weigh a 100 pounds) and everyone remarks on their loooong tails.

Yep, the "Painters" of the Sulphur, Cypress. Sabine,and Neches River Basins.

hoping to hear from more eyewitnesses
according to web
black puma are about as controversial as sasquatch, the pics on web of melanistic jaguars really ring a bell for me, even tho it was almost 50 yrs ago i will have to go with a black jag for overall size and shape,color ect
anybody from florida out there who seen something like this?

Just for local interest, the owner of the local Q joint that I reviewed (D and J) was coming back to DeKalb from Mt. Pleasant about a week ago with his wife on 259. As they crossed the Sulphur River he jammed on his brakes and his wife asked, "What are you doing?" He said, "I saw a cat." They backed up and cat was walking, kind of playing along a tree line, they both watched it for at least a minute before it went in the woods, was kind of brown, he called it half grown and estimated wt at 50 pounds with a loooong tail.

Most of them that have been seen are black, but a man who was working for my neighbor saw a black mother with some "mousy" gray colored fairly large kittens one time and another time he saw one that was basically the tan that we associate with the normal mountain lion.

Since the Tx Parks and Wildlife biologists thinks I'm crazy, I have paid particular attention to the sightings and there is no question they are here and are some type of puma. Like I said while deer/hog hunting last Dec, I saw one on my ranch, no question in my mind that it was a cat, but it was so dark and animal was so far away, about 250 yards, that if I had to swear it was a cat I really couldn't, but it moved like a cat, and jumped around like a cat and the deer reacted to it like I've seen them react to a bobcat, a completely different reaction than they have to a coyote. I really hoped to see it again, but haven't so far. Everyone who hunts on my ranch has strict prohibitions about shooting one if one is spotted.

i google mapped the place i lived from summer 61 to summer 63, right next to largo medical clinic is now , i was setting on back porch holding neighbors little dog when this thing walked out behind the house next door, houses were close together, no mistaking this one of those times when you know if you move or breathe it will see you and run off, this was a big black jungle cat with a long tail and a body about as long as a german shepard, distance maybe 100ft
my credentials at the time were limited to sat morning tarzan
this was a full grown puma or jaguar size cat
so some 40+ years later i figure it should be easy to find on net,
hopefully somebody will document w/o shooting one

I have always been amazed how no one has ever been able to produce a "black" panther/couger/mountain lion carcass or picture anywhere in the state of Texas. I've heard several old-timers say they have seen one but no pictures, no carcass. Kind of like Bigfoot.

There are no authenticated (as in none ever shot, photographed, or bred) cases of melanistic puma.
I've got a horse that looks black in most light, but when out in the sun, she is obviously dark brown.
The color appearance of a whitetail deer varies from summer to winter, and in different light--sometimes from near black to near white.
There are occasional puma thru NW Arkansas, the last one shot being back about 1970, but I bet nearly 50% of country-folk and hunters I know claim to have seen a "black panther" or know someone who has. Game trail cameras catch them occasionally, but they're always the normal color.
Picture from the Net of a "white" (at least when the light's right)cougar:

quote:

I have always been amazed how no one has ever been able to produce a "black" panther/couger/mountain lion carcass or picture anywhere in the state of Texas. I've heard several old-timers say they have seen one but no pictures, no carcass. Kind of like Bigfoot.

The Texas Big Horn Sheep Society has functioning Web Cams on Elephant Mountain (iirc) out in West Texas. Several years ago, I remember seeing a picture of a black cougar on one of their pictures. That was three or four years ago. I thought that was pretty cool!!!

I guess one could argue about whether they are black or a REALLY dark brown but I know at least two people who are absolutely reliable who've seen the black pumas in our area, and two others, who while I wouldn't consider them to be the most upstanding of citizens, have seen them on my ranch just off the Red River. There are many others, but the number of sightings is increasing, so it won't be long until someone has one in hand. Personally, I THINK I saw one last year, but it was really late and I can't swear to it. I'd love to see one but I wouldn't consider shooting one unless I was being threatened, which seems extremely unlikely.

Just for comparison's sake, there are probably a 1000 times more bobcats than pumas in our area and I know people that have lived and hunted here all their lives who've never seen a live bobcat in the woods.

I've seen a black jaguar a friend of my father shot a long time ago, he had is full body mounted in his office. This was 20+ yrs ago, he got it in South America somewhere. It was the most beautiful animal I have ever seen!

Seen some black panthers in Chicago back in the 60s but States Attorney Ed Hanrahan and the Chicago police shot em up in a raid

Gatogordo,

I have a friend with a ranch here in Mount Pleasant That swears to seeing a black panther and caught a mountain lion on a trail camera. I will try to dig up the pic. As far as Parks and Wildlife is concerned I wouldn't put to much stock into there knowledge of what is or is not in the area. An article just came out in the paper that they spotted a pair of eagles in the area, like this was a new sighting. They, or atleast one of them(maybe a descendent) has been here for more than 5 years.

I seen one years ago in WV while riding my motorcycle. My bike was a street/trail Yamaha TW200 so it had plenty of light output. I rode nearly all day with friends. As evening broke and the sun was setting the woods was getting dark so I kicked on the headlight. My buddy was on his Kind Quad and the trail was muddy and full of large ruts. SO he could blast through them in a millisecond. Me ont he other hand had to take my time in the holes. Well as he got further in front of me and eventually out of sight. I rounded a corner where the river bed came really close to the trail. A large black cat jumped up out of the rocky creek bed and stopped in the middle of the trail looking right at me. He was probably 8-10ft in front of me with my headlight right on him. very brilliant green eyes, and it was not the reflective eyes you see while shining a light at night. I was close enough with a bright enough headlight that I could clearly see his color very easy. silky black fur with large green eyes. He was not scared of me at all, he starred at me and I think my blood pressure spiked so high I nearly passed out. My body was numb and all I could was look at him. The encounter lasted maybe 20-30 seconds. The cat calmly walked the rest of the way across the trail and up the side of the hill into some Rodedenderan bushes. I would esimate the size od the cat close to 100 lbs. I had a male boxer at the time who weighed 75 and the cat was definately large than him.

For a size comparison, Orson the melanistic jaguar at the San Diego zoo weighs 160 lbs.

http://www.sandiegozoo.org/kid..._profile_jaguar.html

The pictures do him no justice; in person he's amazing. If you use google images, you can find much better pictures than the ones above. Search on "Orson Jaguar".

I seen a bunch of them at a courthouse rally in the seventies. All wearing sunglasses and leather coats.

I remembered this and some other posts about black panthers in texas. On one I posted about seeing what looked like a little black panther. That was about 10 years ago before the area was built up as much.

Just the other day I saw what looked like the same animal, and it was really dark grey; in less light it would have looked pretty black. This time it was much closer, about 100ft away. It is unique looking because this is a really loooong cat, with a really long tail. I've seen bobcats which this is definitely not, and I've seen mounts of cougars, and this looks nothing like that. It looks like a weasle sort of. But looking at more pics I think what I saw was a jaguarundi.

In the past I have seen Jaguarundis as far north as Weatherford

Black panthers have been found in India - extremely rare though!