Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Mountain Lions in Texas ... evidence ?

Ever see one? I read on the TPWD sight that" contrary to popular belief, their are no black mountain lions in Texas". So, the first time I made what must be a mistake was heading south a few years back between Hamilton and Lampassas. Big bloody mess road kill. Long black tail and round head with particular ears stood out to me sort of subconsciously. After several seconds both my wife and I sort of looked at each other and I asked her what she saw- she said looked like big cat and I said I thought same.

More recently on my lease near Moran, about 45 mile NE of Abilene. Driving slowly through the lease saw a big cat- remember the long flowing tail more than anything as it ran at modest speed angling right to left. I jumped out of the pickup with a 10/22 and ran where it went in time to hear a yelping howl of a dog or coyote getting nailed by it. Before that I showed a buddy paw prints the size of my outstretched hands. I followed those and saw them over print deer tracks. A son of a lease member came back panicked to camp one time years back saying it had walked under his bow stand. Another guy swears he hit it with a 22mag. The only other thing it could have been is a jaguarundi...which supposedly aren't that way - and arent' black either.

At my sisters place near Kerrville -a good bit south, there is an old sheep pen. I was hunting outside it early one day and smelled ...that death smell. Went in to the shed which is mostly open, and in a corner was a dead full grown deer. insides were removed. Doubting a dog did it and dragged it off. I saw where it had been killed outside the entry way. Did not see bot marks on nose or what was left of the ass - and we never hear coyotes out that way. There are foxes but.... told Dad a cat was the only thing that made sense to me.

So, I don't understand TPWD denying cats are in certain counties- and that there are no black ones. Anyone else? Jaguarundi interest me too.

there are lots of mountain lions in TX but there has never been a documented case of a black one in TX or anywhere else for that matter. jaguars have a black color phase but the last one killed here was back in the 50s i believe.

Mountain lions certainly do show up in practically every county west of I-35 at some time or other.The Trans Pecos is filled with them.

Black ones? I've not seen one. However..........

Bobcats can [whether intentional or not,I don't know ] fluff their hair in such a way as to leave only the tips of the hair showing,and they "turn black".I've seen it on two different occasions myself.

Possibly lions can do the same.One ran across the road in front of me just before sunrise thirty-some years ago in Young County and it looked black , or at least dark , under those light conditions.

I've seen a few over the years and a couple that I have to keep telling myself"There are no large black cats in Texas".
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/mlion/

baldhunter, my brother yrs ago was trapping rodents at the botanical gardens here in CC, for a research project when he was going to TX A&I. he saw a female with 2 cubs in the gardens.

Nearly fifty years ago I saw what I was sure was a black Panther in North Texas. Nobody would ever believe me. It wasn't until a few years ago that I learned there are some black cats in Texas. I don't recall what they are called and they are very rare.

I grew up in East Texas, where pretty much every "old timer" seemed to see "black panthers" under every bush. I was in the woods a lot more than most of these people, and never saw a cat bigger than a bobcat - and then only when dogs had one bayed. When I bought my property in Brazoria County I was told there was a "big black cat" in the area. I didn't think much of it, then was told that TPWD biologists had trapped a cougar in the area after getting reports of sightings, and that someone who lived on that road had a big black cat of some kind in a pen (I saw that one) that suspiciously "escaped" after the TPWD personnel visited and informed them they need a permit for it. Don't know what kind of cat it was, and it may still be around.

http://www.arkive.org/jaguarundi/puma-yagouaroundi/image-G43413.html

Cougar mortality to year 2005:

http://www.texashuntfish.com/app/wildlife-resources/20299/Mountain-Lions-in-Texas

Yes stxhunter,they are around.I saw one cross the end of Waldron Rd near Barney Davis,one cross Yorktown by the Navy airstrip and one cross Yorktown just east of the Mud Bridge.These sightings were in the mid 90's and around 2004.

Plenty lions. Our Assn. Pres. told me he trapped 63 last year in W. Tx. At the old locker plant in Leakey there was always 2-3 brought in during deer season. I've only seen 2 personally in Erath Co. No trappers I've talked to mentioned blacks. We have skulls and hides for sale at the rendevous regularly.

I've only seen one live one.

People put a lot of stake in the black coloration as if it makes the animals doubly ferocious. Heard a lot of the same stuff about seeing "black panthers" and "black wolves" from my friends that lived out east of OKC when I was a kid. I've seen bobcats in OK and I've seen pics of mountain lions in OK though I don't know whether they are native, released pets, or transient. I certainly never saw any "wolves".

Expat

used to have a deer lease south of Sanderson in the early 80s....rancher let a lion hunter stay in a line shack for free. had a pack of hounds and also ran trap lines.....his little house had a fence around an acre or so, and every one of those fence posts had a lion skull on it. he was just as creepy and weird as that sounds, too.

Heard reports of black cats firsthand from folks ranging from Texans to Nebraskans to Missourians to Wisconsins.

To my understanding, there has never been a black mountain EVER captured or killed in the history of the United States.

So... must be some kind of spirit lion.


Biologist in Wisconsin told me that fishers up there are often mistaken for black lions.

From the first explorers, trappers, Indian traders, hunters, and the settlement of this country by colonial farmers and stock producers, large predators have been killed and some nearly driven to extinction. Large predators have been hunted, trapped and hounded from much of what was once their territory by man in the Lower 48. Don't you find it curious that in 400 some odd years not one, NOT ONE, black pelt exists? Surely some scientific mention would have been made at some point in history of such a creature? Pretty much everything else on the continent has been documented. And that includes some pretty teeny tiny little organisms, even itsy bitsy micro stuff. How'd they miss a 150 pound black mountain lion in all this research and discovery? They seem to be thick as fleas given all the sightings some folks report on the Internet. Yet not one early drawing, not one mention in credible journals, no early photo's, no recent history trail cam video or photo's, no car/black lion collisions... nuttin', nada...

Jagurundi's can be fairly dark, but they are small and rare, and even more shy than lions.

I thought I saw a black one in northern AZ some years ago; just a glimpse of the body and a long tail. I was told by a big cat sanctuary owner, though, the same - no one has ever documented a black mountain lion. If they do exist, they must be as rare as white buffalo, even though jags and leopards do come in black. Heck, maybe they are escaped, captive black leopards?

Supposedly there are lions on the new deer lease. Guess I'll have to be careful...

Agreed, to an extint. Jaguars aka "Tiger cats" roamed all the way to Louisiana and Oklahoma prior to the turn of the 20th Century. Since the black phase is common in jaguars, it would be logical to assume that some were this color. To think that there are still "black panthers" behind every tree is ignorant.

IMHO its a lighting issue. We've all seen deer that appeared almost black in certain light, to have them move to a different area and realize its just a normal deer...

Plenty of big cats around though. I"ve yet to see one other than a drive home once around 1am in highschool when one crossed the road in a flash, but it may well have been simply a big bobcat, I can't say honestly as it was only a short glimpse.

OK, that's what I saw when I was a kid, I was under a tree, late afternoon and it was in full sunlight working along a fence line. I was upwind and the cat was upwind of some cattle in a pasture.
I clearly remember that long tail flicking back and forth as it moved along.
As soon as it was out of sight I ran like hell to get home. That was in the early fiftys,and I was around 10 or 11 years old