My son, who is an excellent hunter and marksman looked eye to eye with what he said looked like a cougar east of Como this past spring. He called the state biologist to report what he saw and they basically told him he didn't see a cougar. He was checking cows when he had the encounter and didn't have his phone on him to take a picture. He swears it was a cougar/mountain lion of some sort.
OT Mississippi Panther
- Thread starter amcdan2000
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My son, who is an excellent hunter and marksman looked eye to eye with what he said looked like a cougar east of Como this past spring. He called the state biologist to report what he saw and they basically told him he didn't see a cougar. He was checking cows when he had the encounter and didn't have his phone on him to take a picture. He swears it was a cougar/mountain lion of some sort.
We have a few here in the large greenbelts and hills, but they are very rarely seen. We've only had one alert in my area (which is surrounded by a very large green belt and the Colorado River) for a big cat sighting and I've only seen a couple of videos of a real mountain lion from this area.
We did have one mountain lion frenzy here that eventually showed the prowling cat was just a 3D bow target.
There IS an abundant population of cougars here. If you want to see them in action just go to the Steiner Ranch Steakhouse bar area on Wednesday night.
I was good friends with a wildlife biologist who told me he could never say there were cougars in Mississippi. I had seen a brown big cat cross the road in front of my car on a rural road about 2 am and was asking him what it could be.
After he said no way, he gave me a smile and wink and said, "Understand?"
Never saw anything again like that but I heard something that was no bobcat. I actually saw a bobcat and heard it catterwail or whatever you call it.
I do remember recently that Tenn G&F sending out an article officially stating cougars were now in the southern part of their state.
1. Panther, mountain lion, cougar, catamount, puma, etc. are all the same thing. The Florida panther is too, but based on greography it’s considered a subspecies and an endangered one at that (same thing with American Black Bear and Louisiana Black Bear).
2. There has never been a black one photographed, killed, run over, found, or used as a mascot at Ole Miss. Ever. In the history of mankind.
3. They were extirpated from Mississippi through the 20th century.
4. Western mountain lions have been expanding their range and moving eastward. They have been verified in Northern Arkansas and one was verified somewhere in Tennessee.
5. It is quite plausible that a male could wander into Mississippi because they have a large range. It is plausible that, like the Black Bear, they will one day end up with a small population along the Mississippi River. But they prefer seclusion and avoiding humans. We don’t have the hundreds of square miles of wilderness that they prefer.
6. That “field” in the Hernando video is little more than a yard. It’s probably 50 yards wide. That housecat would have been 20 or 30 yards from the man taking the video.
7. The man that took the video said the cat was nowhere near the size of a mountain lion.
2. There has never been a black one photographed, killed, run over, found, or used as a mascot at Ole Miss. Ever. In the history of mankind.
3. They were extirpated from Mississippi through the 20th century.
4. Western mountain lions have been expanding their range and moving eastward. They have been verified in Northern Arkansas and one was verified somewhere in Tennessee.
5. It is quite plausible that a male could wander into Mississippi because they have a large range. It is plausible that, like the Black Bear, they will one day end up with a small population along the Mississippi River. But they prefer seclusion and avoiding humans. We don’t have the hundreds of square miles of wilderness that they prefer.
6. That “field” in the Hernando video is little more than a yard. It’s probably 50 yards wide. That housecat would have been 20 or 30 yards from the man taking the video.
7. The man that took the video said the cat was nowhere near the size of a mountain lion.
So, there are admittedly cats in AR, LA, TN and there is no way there are any in MS? Sounds legit!****
Haha. Yeah. But I party with those biologists that are wrapped up in this huge 17n conspiracy, so ...
As I said earlier. The game wardens are not technically lying when they say “there are no black panthers in Mississippi.” There’s no such thing as a black panther. Unfortunately no one ever asks one if there is proof of any big cat in Mississippi.
My Dad and his brother killed one (Black Panther) while deer hunting back in maybe 1936 on land adjoining Leroy Percy State Park in Hollandale, MS. It was stuffed and displayed in the park office ranger station until maybe 10 years ago when the building burned down one night.
He is gone now for maybe 4 years. One time, he told me that they were extremely lucky that they didn't go to jail the night they shot it. I always believed they were in the park when it happened. He was a little close mouthed about it. The story was that it came out of a clearing (at night) and his brother dropped it about 10 feet from them.
Place whatever emphasis you like on the "In the park" and "hunting at night" parts of the story. I do know that they were two sons of a share cropper and really-really poor. Perhaps those things saved them from jail.
Anyhow, I know they were around in the 30s.
He is gone now for maybe 4 years. One time, he told me that they were extremely lucky that they didn't go to jail the night they shot it. I always believed they were in the park when it happened. He was a little close mouthed about it. The story was that it came out of a clearing (at night) and his brother dropped it about 10 feet from them.
Place whatever emphasis you like on the "In the park" and "hunting at night" parts of the story. I do know that they were two sons of a share cropper and really-really poor. Perhaps those things saved them from jail.
Anyhow, I know they were around in the 30s.
I think they've always said there are none so no one would try to hunt or trap one. I think its like the brown bears. It's like when people run across brown bears in MS. The last bears that were in area that I lived were killed by someone who wanted to kill bears so they could say they killed a bear. A mom and two cubs. I think that's why they deny there are panthers, cougars or whatever. I just know that big cats stroll from AR to MS when the river is down in the Delta.
I mean, I saw something at the edge of the high beams one night that looked like a big cat. Common sense tells me it was not. It certainly was not black.
Bears are all over the place now and the state has been outspoken about efforts to re establish them for about 20+ yrs. delta dan is confused.
Half the damn state is surveilled by a trail camera pointed at a corn pile. A feline predator would have his photo taken before he'd been in MS 12 hours.
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I'm sure dude. I've saw a big cat years ago. I's just 17ing widya.
It wasn't black and the only big black cats would have to be escaped exotics.
I could have included this in the last post, but where is the fun in that?
The wife and I spent a bit of time in Lower Alabama, specifically in Foley and Orange Beach, Alabama. One day we had left Walmart in Foley, headed toward Bon Secour taking the back roads. On county road 65, just above Brewer Road, we were going along maybe 10:30 in the morning. when we both started shouting, "Look at that!" it was a big (Maybe 90 pounds), short buckskin haired cat with a heavy tail a tuff of dark hair on the end of the tail. It left the trees on the east side of the road, ran across a small cleared field, crossed the highway and into the trees on the other side. There was absolutely no doubt. I have seen bobcats, whatever.
It was there and as funny as it sounds, not a hundred yards from a house.
The wife and I spent a bit of time in Lower Alabama, specifically in Foley and Orange Beach, Alabama. One day we had left Walmart in Foley, headed toward Bon Secour taking the back roads. On county road 65, just above Brewer Road, we were going along maybe 10:30 in the morning. when we both started shouting, "Look at that!" it was a big (Maybe 90 pounds), short buckskin haired cat with a heavy tail a tuff of dark hair on the end of the tail. It left the trees on the east side of the road, ran across a small cleared field, crossed the highway and into the trees on the other side. There was absolutely no doubt. I have seen bobcats, whatever.
It was there and as funny as it sounds, not a hundred yards from a house.
I can confirm the scream. I was in school in Santa Cruz CA and lived in married family housing, right in the middle of the redwoods, and we had plenty of cougars around. One night I was woken by what sounded like a woman screaming. Thought somebody was killling or beating a woman in one of the units, so I grabbed a baseball bat and ran out into the parking lot to try and figure out where it was coming from - then I heard it again - it was loud as hell, and goes on way longer than a person could scream. A hiker had her dog taken when she was running the trails the week before by a cougar (big signs telling you not to do that because of the cougars at every trail head, but some people are just ********), and at that moment it occured to me what I was hearing. Needless to say, i got back to my appartment real quick like.
My bother caught a picture of a lynx or something on his deer camera last year in Columbia, MS. It was pretty neat.
All due respect, but all wildlife biologists and departments of wildlife are adamant that a black phase mountain lion/panther/cougar has never been documented. I would think that a mounted one displayed in a state park would have been publicized quite a bit.
Are you sure about this story?
If you guys don’t believe there’s black panthers in MS, you are the biggest fools on earth. Just last year, I was deer hunting and heard something that sounded like a woman screaming in between some loud grunts. I’ll be damned if Bigfoot didn’t run into my food plot with a pair of black panthers chasing him like hell. True story.
Check your geography; plenty of jaguars in North America.(hint-Central America is part of North America)
So you are trying to say a stuffed black panther was displayed in a state park for 70 years and not a single picture of it was ever taken? No proof of it still exists and it burned down 10 years ago, cementing the fact that no proof will ever exist.
What state park did this fairy tale supposedly happen at?
agree 100
I roam with a thermal in Tensas Parish at night for pigs. We have seen everything. Everything. Never a cat lager than a coyote....and all bobcats.
Bearpigboy but never a big cat.
Think about it. Not one body ever recovered. Not one reliable video. Not one car accident involving a black big black cat....ever. Add all of that together....and this is what you get....
A lot of good story tellers in MS.
I roam with a thermal in Tensas Parish at night for pigs. We have seen everything. Everything. Never a cat lager than a coyote....and all bobcats.
Bearpigboy but never a big cat.
Think about it. Not one body ever recovered. Not one reliable video. Not one car accident involving a black big black cat....ever. Add all of that together....and this is what you get....
A lot of good story tellers in MS.
sometimes it's just too easy to call out the wobble headed
you beat me to it
For some reason this topic has me triggered AF.
sorry not sorry
you beat me to it
For some reason this topic has me triggered AF.
sorry not sorry
Yes, but are different subspecies within the same genus. The native MS panthers were genetically almost identical to the existing Florida panther. The western mountain lion is a different subspecies, and 30-40 percent larger.
Four years ago my dad came back to our camp in Wayne County pretty spooked saying he say a cougar while he was in the stand. We gave him a tough time, not completely believing him. Then two years ago, we caught this on one of our cameras...
I listened to the "coon hunt" story this AM because this thread got me thinking about it. It has been several years since I heard the whole thing. I honestly laughed out loud. If you want to start your day off with a good laugh do the same...it's still damn funny.
Worked at Stennis in 2001-2002. Lived in Bay St Louis. Big cat crossed the road in front of me on the way to work. Near the backwaters and river. It was barely daylight, probably 100 yards in front of me. Saw the tail. Saw the long stride. It wasn’t a house cat. It looked black, but due to the light, it could have been brown. MDWFP can say what they want. I know what I saw. I always carry a pistol with me in the woods, just in case.
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