Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Readers Report More Black Panther Sightings

Here are the latest sighting reports I’ve received from readers regarding black panthers they claim to have spotted all across the Lone Star State. Most of the reports have been submitted anonymously so I can’t vouch for their veracity. Having said that, there is nothing in these particular accounts that strikes me as being a red flag. I present them as I received them.

From northeast Texas:

"I saw a large black cat in Dekalb, Tx (which is 2 1/2 hours north east of Dallas) during July 2010. There is a lot of open land and a river is close to here. I was driving and it crossed the road in front of me. I had to slow down to avoid a collision, as well as to get a good look at the creature. My wife was with me. I have done some extensive research on the topic of these cats being in this region of Texas. I would have to say that it was probably a black cougar. A lot of people refer to them as panthers in this area as well. But it was definitely not a bobcat. It was indeed a slick, smooth black coat, with a big square head. The muscular tone of the beast was spectacular. One of the biggest I have seen in the wild or captivity."



This one comes from McDade, Texas:

"Several sightings of a large dark cat. Supposedly we have a pair with 2 cubs, estimated to be last year’s offspring on the neighboring land. She could possibly have new cubs also. I live in a populated campground and I have seen it 2 times this summer and heard it scream this past week. Many pet cats have gone missing and it was seen taking a cat from a porch. Large footprints have been found as we have sandy soil. We have game cams set up trying to get a good picture."

The next report comes from Mesquite, Texas:

"Wow. I am so happy that others have seen what my daughter and I saw in October 2008. We live in Mesquite Texas right next to Sunnyvale.It was early evening around 4:30 pm. The road we were on had many potholes so we were traveling very slow, under walking speed. We were located right next to the Dallas water treatment plant when all of sudden this large black cat came out of a big drainage pipe, turned left, and came up to the road crossing right in front of my car 12 feet from us. I stopped the car and we both sat there in awe. The cat was over 5 feet long, stood 3 feet high, had a tail over 3 feet long, and was black with some grey mud dirt from the pipe. It turned towards us and I rolled up the windows. The funny part in this is when we first spotted this cat my daughter remarked, “Daddy, that’s not a bobcat,” which we had seen before in the area. Well it walked up to us and it opened its mouth and we saw its wonderful set of teeth. Large canines and a pink tongue. The cat walked closer to us and I called 911 and told them what we both were looking at and of course they did not believe us. The 911 operator told us we were looking at a large raccoon, to which I replied “With a 3 foot long tail and standing 3 feet high? Are you kidding?” She told me she would call back. The cat then stopped and I moved the car forward and we came within 4feet of it and it turned and walked halfway off the road then jumped from the middle to the far side and into the tall grass. 911 called back and told me that the local police knew of the cat."



From the Texas Cryptid Hunter Facebook page in response to the recent horse kills in Bell County:

"I'm a former student at UMHB, the university in Belton just down the road from Temple. I can truthfully state that I have seen at least on big cat up in that area late at night while driving back roads. I now live about 4 hours south of Belton and have seen big cats near the area I'm living now. Have spotted a particular black cat about 50 yards from the back porch of my house and watched him hurdle my 5 wire fence that surrounds my pasture. Just from the cats I've seen in person, I can say that I think that these horses were attacked by a big cat and nothing else."

Again, I do not know any of these people and can’t possibly know if they are all telling me the truth but find it interesting that reports of large black panthers, which are not supposed to exist, continue to roll in from all parts of the state.

What are these people seeing?

29 comments:

  1. Hey, Mike. One more thing I forgot to report about my Mesquite recon, which leads even more credence to the story above: While investigating the drainage pipe, all the mud was a gray, clay-like mud. That's something the person reporting the sighting wouldn't really know if he fabricated that story, unless he first investigated the mud around that pipe

    -Justin

    ReplyDelete
  2. FWIW (For What It's Worth) - my one and only Bigfoot sighting was when I was a child (5 years old) on my grandparent's farm not far from DeKalb, TX (the nearest real town). As a child, one could still hear timber wolves (saw one once) howl at night. My grandfather said he saw panthers when he was younger, though I never did. He also spoke of "the wooly booger" which as near as I can tell was the Bigfoot creature, later made popular via the Fouke sightings not 30 miles from their farm.

    ReplyDelete
  3. We live just south of Bartlett in northern Williamson County. There have been 7 lg. cat sightings near Granger Lake since mid Aug. A horse was killed by a cougar here in Aug. (confirmed by a Veterinarian). In one sighting a light colored & darker colored Cougars were seen together.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 10/5/2011 Sighting in McLoud, Newalla, Stella area of Oklahoma. We are in Rural McLoud closer to Newalla. Sighting was made by my brother around 11:00 p.m. on 10/5/2011. He was east bound on Memorial road headed to the gas station. In his lane headed straight for him was a black panther with green glowing eyes from the headlights. The Panther stayed in the lane not concerned that a vehicle was approaching it. My brother had both of his windows down in his small car and so for his own safety drove around the big cat as fast as possible and continued east. Just in case the cat had decided to jump into his car. My brother was shook up by this sighting. Even though we are in a rural area it is also a dense residential area. Road kill was on the road that night and could have drawn the cat to the area. Residents should keep watch over pets and children.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I can't believe we took our picture card out of our camera and a hunter on our ranch saw what they thought was a black panther!We live near Hillsboro, Texas!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Coming up HWY 285 south of Fort Stockton, TX. I saw a black panther crouched down on the side of the road waiting to cross. I slowed down and saw it clearly and am positive it was a black panther. A local rancher told me he has seen them in that area as well.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hello i live between Mart and Groesbeck texas off hwy 164 and raise mini horses. 2 years ago my son and me saw 2 golden tan cougars we walked up on them accidentally of course and were about 75 feet from them and we just stood there in disbelief. The cougars did not seem to be afraid of us just annoyed. They have since killed 7 of our little horses over 2 tears time, i have pictures of the kills. I have not been able to spot them again but i know they are here. Texas parks and wildlife say they are not in central texas even though thier own website shows a cougar killed in Mclennnan county.I am afraid to go outside without a gun.

    ReplyDelete
  8. About a year ago, my daughter and I were driving north on hwy 271 in the northern part of Titus county when a lrg cat approximately 3ft tall and the body was about 4ft long with a long tail darted out of the wood line half way across the rode stopping about 5ft in front of us. I slammed on the brakes as soon as I caught the movement to my left, stopping completely in the road. I guess we stopped bout the same time, it turned its head toward us for just seconds and quickly darted across in front of car and into woods. I have seen big cats around our area before, but this one had a very strange coloring. Its body was a silver-gray color fading into the tan coloring of a cougar near its head and toward its back end down its legs. It was amazing, wish we had had time to get a picture.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I live in Austin, Texas and about ten years ago there was a housing development that had been recently built around Hwy 71 and Bee Caves Road. I remember hearing a few of the neighbors reporting having seen a black panther in the vicinity. One gentleman in particular saw one run off into the woods in the evening as he was sitting on his deck. The area sits in the Texas hill country along a creek/ravine and Ashe Juniper covers the hills and low lying areas.

      Delete
  9. they (black panthers) have been sighted countless times in an area Hunt co. texas, by wood cutters. living in the area, I beleive them. Know these men personally. have a large population of deer, feral hogs, small game to feed upon.. when I was younger, saw a Red wolf that had been shot..not a coyote..I beleive they are around these bottoms..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Saw a small black panther by a creek in my backyard 11-11-2014 in hunt county. Looking for prey and got a rabbit.

      Delete
  10. we thought we saw a panther but after the sighting we looked up on the computer and the size the movement the color and the shape it turned out 2 be a phisher with 2 babys grapeland TX over 7yrs i've seen 4 adults and each time i say oh panther but after calming down and examing the features it's a phisher or fisher

    ReplyDelete
  11. Just 10 minutes ago I got the crap scared out of me, I park my truck in the front yard and had left my phone in my truck, decided while I was out there to listen to some music, my emergency brake doesn't work so I park in reverse, I was standing outside the door and hear a huge snapping tree branch and quickly turned the ignition on, saw a huge panther jump off of a low branch and run south towards a heavily wooded area, I've heard their calls in the pastures north of my house but never thought they'd venture so close to houses roads ect.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Me and my wife have lived on the outer most western suburb of Fort Worth, Tx and a couple of years ago we had about three sightings of a mountain lion sized black cat. Any thought?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Tiger Hunter, please email me and let me know what you would like to discuss.

    Thanks.

    Mike

    ReplyDelete
  14. I live in Greenville Texas, 6 Years ago we had a black panther cross infront of our car right before we drove into Miller Grove. And then Just last friday driving down a back road toward Campbell from Lone Oak another crossed in front of us!!!

    ReplyDelete
  15. In 1988 my sister had a sighting of a big black panther mom with 2 cubs while she was driving on county road 426 to Thornale,Tx She lived off of county road 426 near Hare and Sandoval,Tx. This is approximately 10-12 miles south east of Lake Granger.

    ReplyDelete
  16. We have seen a momma with three babies and several other confirmed sightings in north hunt county. Tonight the horses panicked while riding by our pond. Saw two coyotes running away from the pond and a jack rabbit so panicked it ran under my horse. Guess it's back. They hunt in a big circle. Seems we see or hear it about every six months. Pretty cool. But if I ever felt threatened by it...different story.

    ReplyDelete
  17. The ones I've seen are a very dark shade of brown and it could be described as a charcoal brown color, the cats were seen and heard twice in 2011 and many more times in 2012 just North Cooper Lake, all the ones I've seen was while I was in my tree stand just before dusk or just after the sun set, I'm always in full scent free camo gear and its during deer season.

    I've only told a few people about it and I don't think they really believe me, all I can say to the non believers is, if you only knew how real the danger is, you wouldn't be going in any woods in Texas without a gun in hand.

    Take care...

    ReplyDelete
  18. Just in the last couple of days there has been bunnies killed in our fenced back yard and found hair and blood on our back porch, by the rabbit hole big big foot prints like a Bobcat or something, I live in the eagle moutain ranch area, anyone ever seen a big cat in this area?

    ReplyDelete
  19. I spotted a dark colored huge cat with some buff, mottled spots on his back sitting in the middle of a hiking trail at Fort Parker State Park near Groesbeck, Texas in September of 2011. He was on his haunches and just turned his head and stared at me , I being about 75 feet away. I backed off and shouted and when I went around the bend he was gone. It was only 50 yards from the trailhead.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I would also like to add that a lady who come into my restaurant, who lives about 5 miles from this location (Shiloh Community) at Fort Parker SP sighted what I believe to be the same cat close to the same time frame that I saw mine.I still hike this trail and always keep my head on a swivel. It was not a bobcat, I know bobcats. It was huge, but I have not seen any images that would fit his color dark with some lighter patches on back up close to it`s neck.

    Randy Hyden , Teague , Texas

    ReplyDelete
  21. I live in east Montgomery County tx. I have 5 acres and it's pretty wooded all around us. Several nights now I have seen a large animal (cat like) but I don't see its face. I found a paw print that scared me. I'm not sure what to do. I have ducks, dogs a cat and horse outside plus I'm a mother of 5 small children.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Black panther sited in Lone Oak Texas in Hunt County on 11/16/2018. It was on a friends land.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Thomas
    I live in Galveston County Texas, in Port Boliver. My girlfriend and I were coming back from dinner around 7pm. When all of a sudden this huge black Cat crosses the road in front of us in lighting speed. It was panther sized. 7ft long x 3 ft tall - jumped 6-7 feet over a fence. It was not a little bobcat or a deer, period! Close to Boliver wild life Refuge. Never seen a cat that big,WOW.

    ReplyDelete
  24. I know this is an old post, but I bought a piece of property just outside of Plaestime. The old property owner told us of a story that he was in his deer stand and shot a big black cat. I think we were all a bit skeptical until the big black cat I saw last night on a country road next to our house.

    I was driving home, it was about 8pm and dark (it is December) I saw the cat cross the road then start walking in the ditch for a few seconds until my car passed it.
    I am not for sure exactly what kind of cat it was, it wSmore muscular than a bobcat, but had a big, long fuzzy black tail (the entire thing was black as well)

    ReplyDelete