Seen around Georgetown
- Thread starter BoDawg.sixpack
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I’ve seen a big black cat in Monroe county twice, granted it was 40 years ago. The one I got the best look at was as large or larger that a full grown Labrador retriever Growing up in the 70s at certain times of the year we sometimes would hear a blood curdling scream from a nearby creek bottom. The older folks always said that Panthers migrated along the creek bottom a certain times of the year.
I live in Monroe county and almost hit one on 45 in front of Tronox. It crossed the road before the bridge.
When I was 13 years old (53 years ago) my grandfather and I were on a gravel road out near Lake Monroe. A big black panther crossed the road about 25 yards in front of us. There was no mistaking it for a black cat. It was about 5 times bigger than the largest cat I had ever seen. I told a few people about it and was told that I didn't really see one. They said it was probably someone's house cat. I quit telling people because they acted like I had lost my mind.
There are trail cams spread all throughout the 'Sip and SE. The fact that no one has gotten a legit pic of a panther is a good indication that they do not exist here. There are not large sections of untouched land here for them to hang out in and not be discovered.
99.99% of bigfoot sightings are bears (the other .01% are fakes) and 100% of black panther sightings are black labs.
one of my sightings was about 200 yards below the Lake Monroe dam along the creek from the spillway. The other sighting was in my dads cow pasture that’s about a mile west of Lake Monroe as the crow flies.
One of the cats I saw was 8’ up a tree, I’ve never seen a Lab that could climb a tree but I guess anything is possible. A few years ago a nearby farmer found multiple tracks at the edge of a muddy soybean field. Game and Fish came and did plaster casts of the tracks. They identified the tracks as those of a black bear. Farmer still has one of the casts. I’ve been running game cams since they had rolls of film in them. I’ve been hunting and talking with other hunters in this county for fifty years. My BIL is a retired game warden. I’ve never seen or heard of a bear being photographed by a game camera in this county or any county in this part of the state.There are trail cams spread all throughout the 'Sip and SE. The fact that no one has gotten a legit pic of a panther is a good indication that they do not exist here. There are not large sections of untouched land here for them to hang out in and not be discovered.
99.99% of bigfoot sightings are bears (the other .01% are fakes) and 100% of black panther sightings are black labs.
The difference between the Florida panther and a mountain lion/cougar is the difference between an Osceola and eastern turkey. It's the same thing with minor physical differences caused by adaptation.
Don't know about all that, but with 100% certainty, I can assure you are no bigfoots, cougars, mountain lions or black panthers in the 'Sip. There is not even a such animal as a black panther. Every redneck I know has a blank panther story, including me. I "saw" a blank panther dart across the road in from of my car (at night) in the early 80s, looking back it is most likely a black lab.
There are trail cams spread all throughout the 'Sip and SE. The fact that no one has gotten a legit pic of a panther is a good indication that they do not exist here. There are not large sections of untouched land here for them to hang out in and not be discovered.
99.99% of bigfoot sightings are bears (the other .01% are fakes) and 100% of black panther sightings are black labs.
I was literally 10 feet from it when it walked under my stand. It was mountain Lion colored with a long tail. Had the long oval like face of a mountain Lion and was much bigger than a bobcat. It was before cell phone cameras or I would have 100 percent clear evidence of a big cat in NW Mississippi.
It’s ironic to me that three random people on a message board in 2022 all independently claim to have seen a big cat in the same Ms county in the 1970’s. I’ll admit that both my sightings were at dawn in limited light so the color of the cats is likely distorted but I’ll go to my grave believing that I saw a huge cat with a tail in excess of 3 feet in length. I too believe that Black Panthers don’t exist and that the Florida Panther has never ranged this far north but I also know that I saw something. I wonder if there was an escaped “pet” large cat that roamed the area during That time because I can’t recall ever hearing of a panther sighting post around 1980 or so.
There are no differences, other than environmental or small hereditary ones like slight differences in coloration.
They aren’t even a subspecies, the cougar only has two, South American and North American. The Florida Panther is literally just a different population of North American Cougar.
There was at least one bear in Oktibbeha county recently.
I saw one in Monroe County on Hatley - Smithville Road. It was dark, dark brown, very large and crossed the road in two bounces. It was about 2 o'clock in the morning, and I turned my friend sitting in the seat next to me, and said, "Was that what I think it was?" He said, "I'm not sure I want to tell anyone, but I think I saw a mighty big cat." I said, "Me too and I don't think I'll tell folks either."
There is actually no proof we've had a panther in Mississippi in 60 years or more. Unless you consider witness testimony proof.
Nice that we have a wildlife expert on the board. Never heard one so certain before. What's this?
We haven't had a good crypto thread in a while.
We haven't had a good crypto thread in a while.
I remember when this video first came out. I'm by no means an expert, but my guess is a gorilla. The video is allegedly taken in Tunica County, but we really don't know where it was filmed. Bigfoot hunters use drones, high-resolution cameras, night/heat vision, etc., and no one has ever gotten a clear pic, yet some jabrone in North MS is just gonna happen upon a bigfoot and film it for several minutes with the bigfoot unaware?
If you ever see a black "panther", you didn't see a panther. You saw a melanistic jaguar or melanistic leopard. The Florida panther is always tan. With no exceptions.
FYI I was watching Jack Hannah in Costa Rica float down a river with a guide when they saw a jaguar. The guide said they are rarely seen and was excited. Jack said he knew a Jaguar field researcher who has never seen one in the wild in the 10 years he’s been in the field looking for them. I’ve heard several eye witnesses to cougars/mountain lions/panthers including a doctor in Desoto county, a wildlife professor at MSU, my Uncle, my old boss, my brother, etc. Mississippi has them but they have a 100 mile home range. The chances of running into one are very, very low. Mississippi will not recognize them as a native species until one is hit by a car and turned in to MDWFP. It’s illegal to shoot one so if you see one try to run over it so we can quit speculating 
He claimed it was taken inside the Tunica Cutoff. I find that hard to believe.
If they don’t exist here, why/how is it illegal to shoot them?FYI I was watching Jack Hannah in Costa Rica float down a river with a guide when they saw a jaguar. The guide said they are rarely seen and was excited. Jack said he knew a Jaguar field researcher who has never seen one in the wild in the 10 years he’s been in the field looking for them. I’ve heard several eye witnesses to cougars/mountain lions/panthers including a doctor in Desoto county, a wildlife professor at MSU, my Uncle, my old boss, my brother, etc. Mississippi has them but they have a 100 mile home range. The chances of running into one are very, very low. Mississippi will not recognize them as a native species until one is hit by a car and turned in to MDWFP. It’s illegal to shoot one so if you see one try to run over it so we can quit speculating
And I think the last evidence of any jaguar in Mississippi in the wild is about 10,000 years old.
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I don’t know the answer, but that’s what I was told by my college professor who’s the expert in these areas. Perhaps because it’s not listed as a nuisance species or game animal. It’s probably outside the law to go stomping toad frogs on purpose, but I doubt you’d get turned in. My luck I’d shoot a panther and it would be radio collared
I thought the official position is that we don’t have any breeding population here but that they do roam a long way and we get mountain lions/panthers that come from west of the ms but almost assuredly not from the Florida population.
For them to be so rare, a lot of folks claim to have seen them.FYI I was watching Jack Hannah in Costa Rica float down a river with a guide when they saw a jaguar. The guide said they are rarely seen and was excited. Jack said he knew a Jaguar field researcher who has never seen one in the wild in the 10 years he’s been in the field looking for them. I’ve heard several eye witnesses to cougars/mountain lions/panthers including a doctor in Desoto county, a wildlife professor at MSU, my Uncle, my old boss, my brother, etc. Mississippi has them but they have a 100 mile home range. The chances of running into one are very, very low. Mississippi will not recognize them as a native species until one is hit by a car and turned in to MDWFP. It’s illegal to shoot one so if you see one try to run over it so we can quit speculating
My understanding is basically the same, although I don't think there has been any concrete evidence of a panther in Mississippi anytime recently. I think maybe Louisiana has a confirmed one in the last few years, but didn't research it.
Black Cat
This is what I saw in Monroe county. I watched a video about black Panthers that said it was politically incorrect to call them that so I apologize to those I offended. They are actually pigment challenged cats from the three major categories of big cats and make up only 2.6% of their population. I've talked with several people around here that have seen and even filmed cougars. A friend of mine that is a trapper has had multiple sightings. He said after his first sighting he told his dad who said he had seen them here in Monroe County.
Don't forget about Jaguarundis as they extend as far north as Northern Mexico like the Jaguars.
Jaguarundi
HB Length: 53-76 cm (21-30″) Tail Length: 31-52 cm (12-20″) Height: 25-30 cm (10-14″) Weight: 3-7 kg (6.6-15 lbs) Pop. Trend: Decreasing Jaguarundi Herpailurus yaguarondi are one …
wildcatconservation.org
Don't forget about Jaguarundis as they extend as far north as Northern Mexico like the Jaguars.
Jaguarundi
HB Length: 53-76 cm (21-30″) Tail Length: 31-52 cm (12-20″) Height: 25-30 cm (10-14″) Weight: 3-7 kg (6.6-15 lbs) Pop. Trend: Decreasing Jaguarundi Herpailurus yaguarondi are one …wildcatconservation.org
I almost posted about these. I'd never even heard of them until recently.
They are one of the 6 cats still found wild in the US (not including feral housecats).
The common ones are bobcats. Less common, but pretty widespread are cougars. Confined to the far north are lynx
Uncommon to very rare are jaguars, ocelots and jaguarundis. All found in the far south.
Yeah, I think they haven't been able to document one in America. They followed up a few reports of one in Texas in Arizona but I don't think they've ever been able to actually find one
As for the previous conversation about the differences between the Florida panther and the Mountain Lion yes, they are virtually the same cat however, there are quite a few differences. I don't think you've ever seen a Florida panther grow as large as a mountain lion often are. There are subtle differences between them physically but yes, biologically they're the same thing.
Some of that is due to climate. The mountain lions live in areas where the climate is much colder and they tend to be a little bulkier whereas the Florida panther lives in an obviously warmer climate.
Same thing goes for white tail deer. Midwest white tails tend to be much bulkier than their southern counterparts.
Regarding jaguars in the US, check out the Bear Grease podcast Series on Warner Glenn.
Yup, they've definitely been documented in the US in the recent past.
And here's Warner Glenn in his mid 80's, in case you considered yourself a bad ***...
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