the last few days ive had 4 ranch hands tell me they have seen a black panther, monday morning 2 hands driving on the south ranch saw a black panther standing in the middle of the road about 7:00 am, slide to a stop and it crossed the road going west. i went and looked at skide marks in the road and walked the road and found cat tracks, about 1/2 as big as mountian lion tracks but bigger than a bobcat track.then last night had another ranch hand call and said he and his wife were sitting on the back pourch after supper, and they had a black panther walk acrossed their back yard on the edge of the tall grass about 30 yrds away,now this morning one of the ranch hands was coming by my house to pick me up at 4:30 am, to take out some hunters and a black panther crossed the road in front of him about 100 yrds from my house. ive lived in s.tex. a long time and have killed several mountian lions here on the ranch over the years, but i have never seen a black panther, all my mexicain ranch hands think it a bad omen, that we have a devil cat on the ranch.when i get time thiink will go try to call it in. what do you'all think?? rio7

Well black panther would be a melanistic jaguar, or jaguarundi. No such thing as melanistic mountain lions. Do you have jaguarundi or ocelot where you live. You have something out there, now you have to figure out which it is. Most are endangered or considered extirpated from Texas. I wouldn't shoot it.

Kevinj, we do have ocelot, but rarley see one and have never shot one,or shot at one.i would just like to see this critter, dont need to kill it. rio7

You need to set some trail cams and get some pics. Would love to see it.

RIO7,it may have been a jaguarundi going by the size of the tracks you saw.Here is a good video of a couple in the wild.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi94gxt5pvQ

bald hunter, i think you may be right form what the guys told me.im going to have them come over and look at your viedo. thanks for your help.rio7

Wow what an odd critter. Moves like an otter on cat legs. Otter looking head. Weird straight back.

Mamma looking for babies or one looking for a mate? Never even heard of one.

i saw Jaguarundi once and from n distance they can appear almost black.

do coatimundi's wear jaguarundi's.......

I'm sorry, but black Mtn. Lions can exist. I saw one in 1958. My grandmother saw it the day before. Black mutants can occur in any mammal species. E

exactly my reaction. neat animal. as far as black cougars, I have seen two in my life. one just outside Yosemite park in 1955, and one in the marble mountains in northern California in 1973. of course that one might have been big foot.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/mlion/

http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/files/fw-Mountain_Lion_Information.pdf

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_panther

Jaguar or leopard maybe.

That's pretty amazing concidering very few people will ever see even one regularly colored Lion in a lifetime.

Even more amazing is the fact that all three of the links posted above say there has never been a documentated sighting of a black Lion.

You should buy a lottery ticket.

had my guys come over and look at the viedo posted they all swear that the cat they saw was bigger than the cat on the viedo,been busy with hunters, so this cat hunt will have to wait till another time,no has seen the cat for the last couple of days. rio7

Never been one in all the documented history of white settlement in North America. That is hundreds of years and millions of people and nearly shooting and trapping mountain lions extinct yet not one person has ever been able to document a single black mountain lion. Even with seemingly half the USA being covered by trail cameras in today's techno swamped world there isn't a single photograph of a black mountain lion. Yet every other bozo from swamp east anywhere has seen them multiple times and swears the truth by it. Amazing!

Not really..... it just proves they are more secretive than bigfeets......

I think Rio really has a Jaguarundi down there GC.
As far as the others go, I ain't from MO but you'd still have to "show me".

PS,, if you ever get a chance, pick up a copy of Waner Glenn's "Eyes Of Fire"
It's a little book documenting the treeing of a Juguar by his hounds down on the AZ/MEX border. Complete with some of the best photography you've ever seen.
I ordered my signed copy right from his daughter on their ranch down in So AZ.
You might try google if you're interested providing she's still having them printed.

Sorry ya'll, haven't been on a good rant in quite some time. Excuse me while I go check some trail cameras, I am expecting a big discovery! Charlie, I have heard of the book, I will check it out.

There are documented black jaguars in Mexico and a few have been spotted in AZ and New Mexico, the latest was this past summer. South West Texas is close enough.

aw yes the google experts. yes I will admit that its possible the black cougars I saw were not really there. maybe I wasn't really there. unless it's experienced on the tube or the internet it's not real. got a pretty good look at those cats,(if they were really there) and they looked black to me. maybe they had been rolling in charcoal. then again maybe it was a misplaced jag or two.

http://s1350.photobucket.com/user/deerstalkert/library/cougar





is what a cougar looks like? me, i'm not sure now that the experts say I don't know.

www.michigancougar.com/black.htm

LOL, people will convince themselves of anything.

Or at least try to convince others...

whatever turns your crank.

Perplexing,,,, you have to admit though, at least the other google experts link worked.

Now,,, about that lottery ticket. What numbers ya gonna pick?
I'd like to get in on that deal.

We went through this several years ago when a local highway patrol officer filmed a black cat behind his house. I saw stills of the video and it looked like a black panther to me. He got the local game warden involved as well as a biologist or two that all said the melanistic gene doesn't exist in a mountain lion. They finally discovered the black cat was a huge (for a cat) feral cat. Not nearly as big as a lion but the way it looked on film it looked far away and huge.

Optical illusion, wishful thinking and an imagination.

And no, I don't believe in Bigfoot either.

went to the store about 3:30 went out the east gate which we almost never use, about 1/4 mile south, this damn black or almost black cat crossed the road in front of me about 50 yrds down the road, it stopped just before it went under the fence,and gave me a pretty good look.im not sure if its a dark colored young mountian lion or something else??? its color is much darker than the mountian lions we have taken here on the ranch in the past. hell i dont know what it is, but its damn sure a cat. rio7

this critter is here looking for food thats for sure, im going to be looking for the birds, kara-kara and vultures to see if its made a kill on the south pasture.the birds dont lie if something is dead they will tell me what it is. rio7

Though I've never seen one (only seen one regular cougar), I was told a dark brown could be possible. But as many times as that cat has been spotted, something ain't right. Get a pic posted.

i put game cameras out on every water hole on the s.ranch, maybe i can get a picture of this cat. will see.rio7

Oklahoma has-m around every bush so I hear. We got a cross between ML and BP.

LOL, even my great grandma told stories of black panthers following her home down on the South Canadian river.

We had one that lurked on the hills by my house about 15 years ago. I didn't see it, but the neighbors watched it from their front window. They don't get any hunting pressure which may explain it.

i saw a coyote yesterday crossing the rd on the kingranch. it looked black as coal from about 4-5 hundred yards, when i drove up and gotta a closer look it was just a plain old coyote. lighting, distance and a lot of factors can cause someone to mistake something for something its not.

I think you just explained most of the black panther sightings.

I saw a jet black cougar approach me on a calling stand. Midday, 100 yards away on the snow slope opposite my side of a draw, overcast day. I'm sure if we'd killed it it would have turned out to be a normal color, but looked black in that setting.

There is no record of a photograph, hair sample, hide, or any other objective confirmation of a single black panther/cougar. If you have such proof, you have a gold mine.

As others have noted, jaguars do come in black, and some SW sightings are likely jaguars roaming outside of usual range.

I knew a guy who had a friend,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, pretty sure you just confirmed what I said.
"No verification just hearsay"

So many sightings of black cougars yet nary a dead critter or even a pic from one of the thousands of trail cams hanging around the country.

I contacted the local DNR person and we talked cougars in my area. He said that there was a farm about 60 miles away the had all kinds of exotic critters in fences/cages and that they have the proper permits to have them.
Granted, if I was wanting to proof, I better have the body or one hell of a good video or pic. But with animals that are in cages, there is a possibility that something could get loose. And wouldn't that be cool!
There was a big black cat seen by 2 people I personally know last year. I won't go any farther than that. But until there is a body��.

More hearsay,,,,, show me.

Only way to know without a doubt is find it and put lead into it.

Don't get me wrong. I am as skeptical as anyone. I just have never had people that I have known all my life making extraordinary claims about critters . As Carl Sagan stated: "Extraordinary Claims Need Extraordinary Evidence'.

last year one of my buddy's kept talking about a black panther he saw,i hunted in his blind a few days later and sure enough here came the black panther crossing the sendero. this place is right outside of San Diego TX, the panther was a big black house cat.

I have no doubt they "thought" they saw a Black ML.

Funny thing about the ol Black Paintr' lore.
Regardless of what science and history say about the subject, some people still want to believe they exist.

Kinda like those that honestly believe Obama knows what's best for the country.
FACTS be damned,,, I'm voting for him.

The above example, poor lighting with brief glimpses along with a big dose of "black cougar" excitement are what allows this old wives tale to continue even though there is not a shred of real evidence.

Here's two that I've mounted in the past two years.

Here is one of them alive.

Where are these from? General area. miles

havent seen hide nor hair of the blackcat, for 2 weeks now,but have been busy hunting. trail cams dont show anything but deer, pigs, and a couple of coyotes. now that things have slowed down for chirstmas maybe we will see it again.Full Cry, where did those black cats come from? sure dont look like s.tex. rio7

full cry, CTA booth? Bailey? I think I've met you......Don

Yes, Don. I'm actually in Pine. All pictures taken in CO. We showcased these lions at the Stockshow and also the NFR in Vegas last year. Most folks had no idea what they were looking at.

I knew you was up there somewhere. I remember you telling me that you used to run cats on that place my brother is on in Bailey. I don't work that booth at the Stock show anymore....

leapards

Fullcry...,
You are the first person in all of North American history to find a black mountain lion and you did it not just once, but twice? And in just two years? Amazing...

Full cry, your black cat pic's are amazing!in my youth back in the 1950s i hunted cats in n.w. colo. meeker,rangley maybell,craig and some around rifle and debuque,that was back when the colo wool growers paid a $50.00 bounty and moffat,rio blanco, and garfield countys also paid a $50.00 bounty, $100.00 per cat taken to their court house, bought my first pickup with my bounty money. but to this day i have never seen a black lion in person,4 of my long time ranch hands swear we have one here on the ranch, they all guide deer and exotic, hunters all season, and i trust their judgement, i would love to see this cat up close and personal. rio7

China, just like the rest of the stuff that's available online or maybe even at Cabelas. Nice mount.

OP, has this cat brought calamity since sighted? If not, it's no jinx or evil omen. Ask the Mexicans what they think what catastrophes will occur. Give them a week and ask again.

Anyway, shoot it on sight as a precaution.

and then send it to fullcry to get mounted.....grin