Getting ready to send in the final revision of my book on the black panther phenomenon to the publisher. If you have ever sent in a photo and do not want it included please let me know ASAP. On the flip side, if you have sent in a photo and want to make sure you are properly credited let me know that, too.
If you have a picture you think is good enough for publication and would like me to consider it, it is pretty much now or never,
Tuesday late afternoon, about 5:30 pm my daughter was hiking along the northern and eastern perimeter of our farm laced with pecan orchards and groves , the older groves being almost 90 years old trees. there is an bundance of hardwood forests and black locust thickets where deer and other wildlife abound and our herd of Arabians . She was hiking down to check the wild hog trap and see deer. Our 300 acres is a pie shape wedge that s bounded along the entire southern end by the Sabine in Hunt County . She was heading south along the eastern border ( another river borders it on the east , a creek ) and she heard an odd sound , thinking it was wild hogs, she turned around and saw a large black cat , larger than our Anatolian Shepherd dog with a long black tail. She said she froze and it was about 8 feet up the tree , climbing up . it stopped climbing and began to climb down and about half way down bounded the rest off the way off the tree , heading southeast to the river , about 60 yards away. My daughter is reliable , has excellent vision , calm and gives accurate honest reports. I went today and inspected the tree. there was, as she reported fresh bar off the tree about the distance one would expect between claws. I could only surmise it was looking for deer , in an area with lots, and also perhaps clawing on the tree , as cats shrapening their claws do , She said this is the sound she heard and it appeared to be doing this as she quietly turned around to look at the sound . she very first thought, seeing black , of a large size half way up a tree , that this might be one of the black bears occasionally sighted in the piney woods, but then she saw its tail and the entire cat as it climbed down and bounded off.
ReplyDelete1 15 or 16 years ago, My brother who is an archery hunter of moose , elk , hear and white tail here saw a big black cat . enormous , he said, cross our county road as he was driving around 11 pm at night. He is extremely reliable and is as close as a modern day Daniel Boone as one gets. A shame it was so fast ,as he is a remarkable wildlife photographer .
we are surrounded by 500 acre to 800 acre wild tracts of land along the Sabine in east Hunt County - replete with wild life 4 of us have sighted mountain lions in the past 5 years, all tawny on our land or the neighbors adjoining . this one was huge and black . Our Anatolian is about 3.3 feet at the shoulder and 4.5 foot head to rump 85 to 95 pounds slim . the cat she said seemed heavier built and maybe a bit longer when it jumped than Our dog, Lion .
wed love to set up a live trap and get some good pictures . Please reach out and bring your game camera ... maybe we can get a goat to use ( not kill just to be in the trap ) for photos
We were shooting hogs last year in Bay City, TX and saw a black cougar eating on a rabbit by a tree. There was a group of 5 of us - we all saw it and watched it for several minutes.
ReplyDeleteI live in Missouri City, Texas. In Sienna Plantation. The back of sienna backs up to the Brazos river, and between the river and our sports complex is nothing but trees with tons of hogs, Bobcats, coyote and a few mountain lions that come off the Brazos I imagine. (Mostly we have 4-13 ft alligators!)
ReplyDeletethere have been just a couple of sightings very early in the morning, right before the sun comes up, of a huge black cat on the far end of the golf course getting a rabbit.
Also, I worked for an emergency vet in SugarLand, and there was a man who brought in a young wolf that had been grabbed by "his" Panther! The pups head had open gashes on his head from some massive claw!! He said it grabbed it through some bars so couldn't get the wolf In. He apparently had other large cats that he had living in his house! He brought a mountain lion about 5 months old in to be spayed, and the vet did it! It was amazing to actually touch one so close.
They are beautiful animals!!!
But she had to turn him in so last I heard he moved all his big cats with him to somewhere near LaGrange! And my family lives in Lagrange and in the past year has caught a glimpse of a huge black cat crossing the railroad tracks behind the house.
And quite a few big cat footprints around the property. A few dogs have gone missing, possibly a result of the cat?
Shannon A.
I live in Missouri City, Texas. In Sienna Plantation. The back of sienna backs up to the Brazos river, and between the river and our sports complex is nothing but trees with tons of hogs, Bobcats, coyote and a few mountain lions that come off the Brazos I imagine. (Mostly we have 4-13 ft alligators!)
ReplyDeletethere have been just a couple of sightings very early in the morning, right before the sun comes up, of a huge black cat on the far end of the golf course getting a rabbit.
Also, I worked for an emergency vet in SugarLand, and there was a man who brought in a young wolf that had been grabbed by "his" Panther! The pups head had open gashes on his head from some massive claw!! He said it grabbed it through some bars so couldn't get the wolf In. He apparently had other large cats that he had living in his house! He brought a mountain lion about 5 months old in to be spayed, and the vet did it! It was amazing to actually touch one so close.
They are beautiful animals!!!
But she had to turn him in so last I heard he moved all his big cats with him to somewhere near LaGrange! And my family lives in Lagrange and in the past year has caught a glimpse of a huge black cat crossing the railroad tracks behind the house.
And quite a few big cat footprints around the property. A few dogs have gone missing, possibly a result of the cat?
I believe there are large cats everywhere through Texas. People think they actually have to see them to believe it. I work in a nature park and recently saw a jaguarandi maybe 20 ft in front of my truck. I actually had to stop to let it pass or would have hit it and people think I just made it up. We have large cats it's just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit late in this blog but last year during the summer at Inks Lake state park in Burnet county I saw a black or almost black panther or the like crossing Park Rd 4 and saunter behind their maintenance area. Looked to weigh 70 lbs, long tail that curled up and large paws.
ReplyDelete